US-Russian exercise focused on interdiction of an airplane hijacked by terrorists will be held in August

An international conference on planning exercise "Vigilant Eagle - 2013" was held in the city of Colorado Springs (USA). The main point was to work out a set of measures to be taken by the Air Force of Russian, the United States and Canada incase an aircraft is hijacked by the terrorists, said "Interfax-AVN" in the Office of Press and Information Defense Ministry this Wednesday.

An international conference on planning exercise "Vigilant Eagle - 2013" was held in the city of Colorado Springs (USA). The main point was to work out a set of measures to be taken by the Air Force of Russian, the United States and Canada incase an aircraft is hijacked by the terrorists, said "Interfax-AVN" in the Office of Press and Information Defense Ministry this Wednesday.

"The parties agreed on the provisional date for the exercises - in the period from 26 to 30 August 2013", - explained the representative of the Office.

"Representatives of the Defense Ministry and the Joint Command of the air-North American Aerospace Defense (NORAD) have developed the scenario of the exercise, approved the scope of the forces and means, the order of the navigator's software, the organization of communication, collaboration and security measures", - stated the Ministry of Defense.

Besides the fighter-interceptor aircraft and the aircrafts that are nominally hijacked by terrorists, the scope of the forces and means includes the aircraft of early radar warning and reconnaissance A-50 Russian Air Force E-3A AWACS with the US-Canadian side in order to ensure the security and exchange of information. For the exercise period major(in Khabarovsk and Colorado Springs) and minor (in Anadyr and Anchorage) command posts are organized.

The parties have paid great attention to the information security of the upcoming exercises. It was decided that the representatives of the media will be allowed at the practical stage for the first time, the journalists will be allowed to be on board of the aircraft nominally hijacked by the terrorists.

"Heads of the delegations of the Defense Ministry and NORAD have gladly noted the progress made at the high level of cooperation and professionalism of the working groups in the sphere of planning joint activities," - noted the Office.

Details of the exercise "Vigilant Eagle - 2013" will be specified at the final conference of its planning, that is to be held in Ottawa (Canada) in June 2013.