NORAD and Russian air force officials wrapped up Exercise Vigilant Eagle 12 at Peterson AFB, Colo. This year’s iteration of Vigilant Eagle was a computer-based command post exercise designed to practice the procedures for passing information and intercept control of a hijacked aircraft that traverses NORAD and Russian airspace. Unlike VE 11, this year’s exercise had no live-fly element. Brig. Gen. Richard Scobee, NORADSs deputy director of operations, said the command-post simulation allowed the participants to run a more complex scenario that they will exercise next year during the live-fly portion of VE 13. This year’s exercise introduced complexity by removing airborne warning and control aircraft from the scenario, forcing the simulated fighters to speak directly to each other. “We removed the command and control aircraft because we may not always have those available,” explained Scobee, in NORAD’s release. VE 12 ran from Aug. 27 to Aug. 29.
While U.S. defense officials have spent much of the past decade warning that China is the nation’s pacing threat and its People’s Liberation Army represents an urgent threat in the Indo-Pacific, several defense researchers are skeptical that the PLA has the human capital, the structural ability, or the political appetite…