NORAD F-16s Test Homeland Defense Mission at Remote Alaskan Island

The Air Force in October carried out a homeland defense mission, with jets including F-16 Fighting Falcons, in Alaska’s remote Aleutian Islands to show a base there could safeguard the northern regions.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, said in an Oct. 30 statement that the F-16s first maintained an air defense alert during a deployment to Eareckson Air Station, Alaska, from Oct. 18 to 26, in a mission called Operation Noble Defender. 

Noble Defender transitioned to a new homeland defense operation, called Noble Eagle, which took place Oct. 25. Noble Eagle was a coordinated U.S.-Canadian operation, including two F-16s, F-35 Lightning IIs from Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, and Royal Canadian Air Force CF-18 Hornets from Cold Lake, Alberta.

It also included an E-3 Sentry—also known as an AWACS, for Airborne Warning and Control System—from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, several KC-135 Stratotankers and a CC-150 Polaris to conduct aerial refueling, and an HC-130 Combat King II in case search-and-rescue and personnel recovery missions needed to be launched.

“Defending North America demands speed, flexibility, and the ability to bring combat power together across vast distances,” Air Force Lt. Gen. Robert Davis, the commander of NORAD’s Alaskan region, said in the statement. “Operating from Eareckson Air Station proved we can deploy to an austere location, maintain alert, launch on short notice, and seamlessly integrate U.S. and Canadian forces to defend the northern approaches.”

Air National Guardsmen from Elmendorf’s 176th Wing, including communications and cyber systems experts, set up outdoor equipment to maintain rapid, resilient communications during Noble Defender, photographs released by the Air Force showed.

Noble Defender is a recurring air defense operation that NORAD said demonstrates its ability to defend the U.S. and Canada from threats, while strengthening the two nations’ partnerships and binational NORAD commands.

During the F-16s’ deployment to Eareckson, the air station’s arresting system was successfully certified, NORAD said. This underscored Eareckson could be a viable location to launch future fighter operations, despite it being an austere, remote airfield, the command said. 

Eareckson is located on Shemya Island, a tiny land mass of less than six square miles near the western tip of the Aleutians. Its primary mission is to serve as a remote missile defense and surveillance outpost. It is also the home of an important radar system called COBRA DANE, which can track ballistic missile launches from up to 2,000 miles away.

Eareckson is about 1,600 miles from Eielson, and 2,600 miles from Cold Lake, which NORAD said highlighted “the scale across which NORAD synchronized the force.”

It is also less than 300 miles away from Russia’s eastern coast, and a little more than 2,000 miles away from North Korea, making its location vital for the U.S. early warning mission.