Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The military has flown more than 13,000 fighter-jet patrols over American cities since Sept. 11 at a cost exceeding $324 million. Now it wants to cut back.
The round-the-clock patrols designed to deter terrorists may be straining planes and personnel, the Pentagon said Monday.
Part of the homeland defense efforts called Operation Noble Eagle, the flights began after terrorist hijackers crashed jetliners into the Pentagon and World Trade Center. U.S. fighters have been flying over New York and Washington since then.
Other patrols fly from time to time over other major metropolitan areas and key sites, and jets are on alert at 30 bases to scramble if called. The combat air patrols are the first of their kind over the United States since the Cuban missile crisis in 1962.
Officials have been looking to cut back on the program for some time, knowing from the outset that the high-tempo use of manpower and equipment couldn’t be kept up with the existing people and budget, one defense official said, commenting only on condition of anonymity.
The operation uses 11,000 people and 250 aircraft, another official said. Those figures include maintenance crews, pilots for 100 F-15 and F-16 fighter jets (mostly from Air National Guard units), crews for tankers needed for midair refueling and crews for AWACS — Airborne Warning and Control System — planes to provide radar information.
From Sept. 11 to Dec. 10, the operation flew 13,000 sorties. The cost was $324 million, Defense Department spokeswoman Susan Hansen said.
The North American Aerospace Defense Command says that through Dec. 10, its jets responded 207 times to problems such as unidentified aircraft, planes violating restricted air space and in-flight emergencies.
In 92 of the cases, jets on alert on the ground were scrambled to respond.
In the other 115 cases, NORAD diverted jets that already were in the air on patrol.
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