All language subtitles for B T W S02E02 1080p WEB h264-BAE_track3_[eng]

- Hey, I'm Matthew Burchette.

And this my friends
is behind the wings.

And I think we're in trouble.

- [Narrator] This
program was made possible

by Wings Over The Rockies.

Educating and inspiring
people of all ages

about aviation and
space endeavors

of the past, present and future.

(upbeat music)

This program made possible by...

- [Woman] Little learners
can read, write, talk, sing

and play at Arapahoe Libraries.

Make a playdate, join a story
time, build a masterpiece

and present a puppet
show all in one morning.

More at arapahoelibraries.org.

- [Narrator] This episode
made possible by...

- [Woman] Do Denver's
300 days of sunshine

make the smiles a little wider?

They definitely make
the energy here stronger

so your family can enjoy
every unexpected encounter

and outdoor adventure.

Denver. Soak it all in.

(upbeat music)

- [Matthew] Now I say this
a lot, but how cool is this?

(helicopter blades whirring)

This is Lieutenant Zach Farrell.

Lieutenant General
Christopher Coates.

The amazing Gene Kranz.

You've never seen
aerospace like this.

(plane whooshes by)

Hi, welcome back to
Wings Over The Rockies,

my favorite place in the world.

You are gonna totally
dig this episode

because it's on NORAD.

Now, what is NORAD?

Well, we're gonna get
to that in a minute.

But let's do a little bit
of a history lesson here.

At the end of World War II,

we had not been bombed by
any power except the Japanese

and shelled by the Japanese
and German submarines.

When you think about it, we
got really, really lucky.

We didn't have to go through any

of the horrendous bombing
campaigns that Germany,

Great Britain,
Italy went through.

We just kinda sat back here

sheltered from the rest
war by two gigantic oceans.

Well that started to
come to an end in 1945.

We quickly discovered
that the Germans

were leaps and bounds
ahead of us in technology.

The V-2 Rocket.

The Amerikabomber.

What was the best way to defend
yourself in the late 1940's?

Radar.

We got with Canada and
we started to develop

a system that they
called the DEW Line.

And it was actually
three sets of radar.

There was the DEW Line,

which was the Distant
Early Warning Line,

The Pinetree Line, and
then the Mid Canada Line.

Well that was all great
when we were worried

about Russian bombers,

but in 1957,

when the Russians
launched their first ICBM,

the inner continental
ballistic missile,

things got a little bit dicey.

So what do you do?

You come up with NORAD.

What does that mean?

Well that, my friends, is what
we're gonna discover today.

(upbeat music)

The North American
Aerospace Defense Command,

you know it as NORAD,

was first approved

by the United States Joint
Chiefs of Staff in 1957.

At the time it was called

the North American
Air Defense Command

and had it's headquarters
at ENT Air Force Base

in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Following construction of
an underground facility

at Cheyenne Mountain
in the 1960's,

NORAD's Command post
moved under the mountain

to monitor the air space over
Canada and the United States.

In 2008, NORAD moved it's
day to day operations

to Peterson Air Force
Base in Colorado Springs

and redesignated Cheyenne
Mountain as an Air Force Station

and the back up command center.

- [Man] Proceed and identify.

- [Pilot] Okay Control.

I have an identification.

You won't believe it,
it's you-know-who.

- [Matthew] Aside from assessing
daily aerospace threats,

NORAD is also responsible
for tracking Santa

with their NORAD
Track Santa program.

- And so we use NORAD standard
equipment to track Santa.

The stuff that we use to protect

and defend North America
every day of the year.

- [Matthew] To learn more
about NORAD's mission,

let's head over to
their headquarters

at Peterson Air Force Base

and talk with the
Deputy Commander,

Lt. Gen. Christopher Coates.

So what is the overarching
mission of NORAD?

- NORAD's mission
has always been

the defense of our nations,
Canada and the United States

or the defense of the homeland.

What we've seen over
the last year or two,

and it's reflected both in
the Canadian Defense Policy,

Strong, Secure, Engaged,

and the US National Defense
Strategy is that our nations,

our homeland is no
longer a sanctuary.

And we've noted that
our adversaries,

our potential adversaries,
China and Russia in particular,

have developed capabilities
to be able to hold us at risk

here in North America with
very advanced weapons systems

by combining their
capabilities so they operate,

as we would say, across
different domains,

both at sea holding our
space assets at risk,

operating in the cyber domain
and the information domain.

And then NORAD in our
classic air defense mission

is challenged, but in ways
that we haven't been before

as all of these threats
come together at once.

So we're in the midst of
a transformation of NORAD

refocusing on our ability
to defend the homeland.

Reduce that risk down
to an acceptable level.

Really to be able
to deter threats

before they manifest themselves.

- One of the things
that our sharp viewers,

of which they all are
sharp are gonna catch on

is that I said NORAD
is here at Peterson.

Most people think
Cheyenne Mountain.

They've seen Stargate SG-1,

and they've seen all
these Hollywood movies

and it's always
in the mountain.

Why have you guys taken
yourselves out of the mountain

and come down here?

- Well first what I'd
say is NORAD isn't just

either in the mountain
or here at Peterson,

NORAD is all the way from Alaska

down to Tyndall Air Force Base

and we even have
people in Greenland

at the Thule Air
Base in Greenland

so NORAD's bigger than just
where the headquarters--

- Just one location, yeah.
- happens to be,

but you're right.

For a long time,

NORAD headquarters and
our operations center

was inside Cheyenne Mountain.

After the events of 9/11,

the role of NORAD
expanded slightly

to include the air defense
of our internal air

at the same time.

It would seem to be more
effective at the time

to move the operation center
out of Cheyenne Mountain,

the principle operation center

into Peterson Air
Force Base here,

in the basement of the
building we're in right now.

So we've operated here
for about 15 years

with the operations
center but we maintain

the command center
in Cheyenne Mountain.

It's our alternate
command center.

We use it quite frequently

to make sure that it's
all up and ready to go.

Can do the job it has to do.

And there's some reasons why
Cheyenne Mountain was important

and remains important for NORAD.

- What's your favorite
part about the job?

There's sort of two aspects.

The first is the
problem solving.

At the level that I get
to see things interplayed

it's the strategic mixed
in with the tactical.

So, what are our
governments expecting of us,

what are the resources
we've been given

and how do we balance that
with what's happening globally?

And ensuring that we're at the
right place at the right time

providing the right information
to our decision makers.

Secondly, and perhaps
what matters the most is

we're here protecting our
nations, our homeland.

And so while military operations
everywhere are important,

the job we get up
for in the morning

is making sure that
our citizens are safe.

And that's super,
super rewarding.

- So one of the things if
you're in the military,

if you're a sports person

you know that constant training
is what keeps you sharp

and you guys are constantly
running training exercises here

in what you call N2C2,

which is kind of where
everything happens.

And we have been lucky
enough to be told

that we may be able
to go down there.

I am pretty excited because
that is not something

that almost anybody
gets to go to

so, as much as I have
enjoyed speaking with you,

I wanna see how far I can
get without being tackled.

So sir, thank you so much.

- Thank you.

- And if need be, can you
get me out of the brig?

- We'll try.

- Okay, thank you.

(upbeat music)

- What does N2C2
actually stand for?

- So N2C2 stands for the
NORAD and US Northcom

current operations center.

And what we do
here is essentially

All Domain Situational Awareness

and threat characterizations.

I can put it very
broadly like that.

We're watching for
Russian bombers,

for missile attacks
to North America

or for domestic
threats, so aircraft,

think of like 9/11.

Aircraft flying
around in the airspace

violating certain airspace rules

or doing anything that
could be a threat.

- That's what I'm assuming all
of these screens are doing.

So what are we
looking at up there?

- Unfortunately, we can only
show you the unclassified stuff

that we normally do--
- Makes sense.

- Normally we work at much
higher security level.

But what we have up there,
we're always monitoring the news

because we can find
out a lot of things

about what's happening
domestically on the news.

One of the screens there
with all the green dots on it

shows all the air traffic

within the continental
United States right now.

- [Matthew] Okay.

- We also post up weather
things or other information

that pertains to missile
warning and missile defense.

What we have here in
the command center

is the command domain,
which is run by a colonel.

So in this case
Colonel Brad Smith,

who is my U.S. Air
Force counterpart,

my U.S. Air Force brother.

Our Deputy Command
Center Director,

who happens to be
a Canadian today,

left-handed Colonel Jody Hanson.

We also have our
enlisted controllers

that help us deal with

conferencing, managing
the knowledge wall

and those types of things.

And then out on the floor we
have the rest of our domains.

We have a land and maritime
domain that looks for things,

for example, southwest border,
hurricanes, fires, floods,

domestic terrorist attacks,
any of those kind of things.

We've got our air domain

which is primarily there

for defense of North American
airspace like Russian bombers,

or Operation Noble Eagle,

and we'll talk a bit more
about that in a minute.

We've got meteorology.

We've got a Federal Aviation
Administration Representative.

We've got Cyber Watch Officer,
we've got missile defense

and missile and space warning.

So we're keeping an eye on,

pretty much what I
mentioned earlier,

All Domain
Situational Awareness.

We want to know what's going on.

Anything that could
be a security threat

to North America 24 hours
a day, 365 days a year.

- So speaking of
aircraft flying around,

on of the terms I've heard
a lot is Noble Eagle.

- Right.

- What exactly is that?

- Operation Nobel
Eagle is an operation

that's been in place since 9/11

where NORAD has a role of
defending North America

from any aerospace threat like,

so an aircraft that's hijacked,

people that are lost or
causing a potential disruption

to air traffic flows,
those types of things.

- So in reality, how
often does that happen?

- A lot more often than
you think, actually.

Most of them are general
aviation aircraft

that don't really pay
attention to the rules

or the notices
that are out there.

But on average, about
three to five times a week.

- Whoa, that's way more
than I would have expected.

So what happens when
something like that pops up?

- Then what will happen is
that region will give us a call

and say, hey, there's
something weird going on.

We may have a conversation
about it or they may just say,

hey, we're scrambling fighters,
we're reacting to this.

And then we'll do what we call

ringing out an Operation
Nobel Eagle Conference.

And what we do is we make sure
that we get the right people

with the right information.

If we can't talk to
them on the radio

then we'll try
and intercept them

with fighters or helicopters

depending on how fast
and how high they are.

- Nine times out of 10 what
does it turn out to be?

Just some guy not
reading the NOTAM's?

Just not paying attention,
not talking to the tower?

- I would probably say
99 1/2 times out of 10

that's usually what it is.

Particularly if the
president's traveling

or if it's a temporary
flight restricted area

that's not normally there.

So we have a
Superbowl in Atlanta.

People that normally fly around
Atlanta aren't necessarily

used to suddenly having
more airspace restrictions.

So if they're not
reading the NOTAM's,

they fly through the middle

of the temporary
flight restricted area,

then we'll take action to make
sure that we keep it secure.

- So we're lucky enough
to be here on a day

when you're gonna
run an exercise.

And we would love to be
a part of that and watch,

is that okay?

- Absolutely.

We run exercises all the time.

The crews are highly
proficient at it.

They do this stuff every
day, day in, day out.

And they're really good at it.

- All right, let's go.

(upbeat music)

This is actually
gonna be an exercise

where a small civilian
aircraft is unresponsive

and they're in
restricted airspace.

- So this scenario is
restricted airspace

in the area of Denver.

A Beechcraft Baron squawks
7500, which is a hijack code,

- Oh.
- and is unresponsive.

And we're going through
the steps right now, so.

- (radio traffic
covered by conversation)

- [Announcer] Based on track
location and heading,

we're going to request military
assistance at this time.

- So, if you look
up on the screen

they've highlighted the track.

It's flying, the red
circle is showing

the temporary flight
restricted area.

- All right, CONR's tracking.

EAC's please ring out and
exercise ONEC long pull.

- [Soldier] Copy that.

Exercise ONEC. Stand by.
Exercise ONEC!

- So an Operation
Nobel Eagle Conference

is the means that we
use to share information

between all the involved
security agents.

- So that's ONEC.

- Right, so that's
what ONEC stands for.

They'll ring out all of
the different stations.

So the Department of
Homeland Security,

it's the Transportation
Security Agency,

all of those types of FAA,
FBI whoever that are involved.

If anybody has the
information they can pass it

and it will help
with decision making.

What the CCD has done
as he just labeled it

as a target of interest.

Which now means that we've
officially kicked off

Operation Nobel Eagle.

Okay so the controllers
at the sectors

are controlling the fighters.

So they're talking to
the fighters saying,

Okay, so your mission is to
go intercept and inspect.

At this point we're assuming
that they're a threat

until we can confirm
that they're not.

And in the vast majority of
cases obviously they're not.

It's not just general
aviation aircraft.

Sometimes we have airliners

that miss a frequency change
over, those kind of things.

Those ones are tricky if
they're going into Washington

into Reagan National,
like right downtown.

They're on flight plan or
they're on a standard arrival,

they've got 150
passengers in the back

but they're not talking
to the right people.

We start to get a little bit--
- A little bit nervous

- Like, we're expecting
he's gonna probably,

he's gonna roll out
onto his frequency

expecting to talk to
tower and he's not,

realized he's on
the wrong frequency

and then everybody
kinda switches over

and then we breathe a
sigh of relief, right?

- (chuckles)

- But we're always
ready to react

because we never know, right?
- Yeah.

- 9/11 showed that.

We have to be ready
to react at any time.

- At any time.

- But what we'll do is,

depending on the
speed of the target,

if the F-16's,

they'll do an
identification say,

okay in this case,
it's a Beech Baron,

here's what I see
in the cockpit.

You know, the guy's
slumped over the controls,

or I see a bad looking
dude with a gun

or whatever the
scenario happens to be.

We're a minute away.

Now we're prepared to see

what the fighters
are gonna tell us

to help build
situational awareness.

Is this really a bad guy?

What's going on?

- [Man] TSOC for the exercise.

With the information that
was provided in the aircraft

originally planning
to squawk 7700

for an emergency with
smoke in the cockpit,

we would like him to
divert to Fort Morgan

Municipal Airport to the east.

So, the fighters intercepted,
got his attention.

He realized he squawked
the wrong code,

back talking to air
traffic control now

so he's in contact, compliant.

And we've kind of
done our part of it

and then the FAA
will deal with...

Making sure he gets
safely on the ground

and diverting him
and that kinda thing.

- So at this point
will the 16's break off

or will they actually
follow him to Fort Morgan?

- Typically if he's compliant

and in contact with
air traffic control,

then they'll carry on
with whatever mission

they were doing before.

(upbeat music)

- [Matthew] All right, the
training exercise is complete.

But you know what's cooler

than seeing an intercept
from inside N2C2?

Seeing it from the skies!

Get ready, because
I'm heading up

with pilot Allen Wimmer
to experience an intercept

by an F-16 from the cockpit

of this Cessna 182.

- [Matthew ] Yeah,
great day to fly.

- [Allen ] Oh, beautiful.

- So we're flying with
Allen Wimmer today

and Allen flew F-16's
for the Air Force

but tell us what
you're doing now?

- So I retired from the
Air Force three years ago

and I took a job
as a civil servant

so now I'm a civilian
employee of the Air Force.

I work at headquarters NORAD,

North American Aerospace
Defense Command,

that's what your
episode is about,

and one of the duties
that I perform there

is to be a part of the what
we call the Baron Team,

as in Red Baron.

- Oh yeah! Okay.

- We go out and play
the role of a bad guy,

- (laughing)

- to try and train
our air defense units,

as well as periodically
do evaluations of
their performance.

- [Matthew] So who
are we gonna be today?

- So today we are
simulating some civilians

who are out enjoying
a beautiful day.

We're out flying
to a destination,

or just flying in the local area

and we're unaware that a
temporary flight restriction

has been put up.

That is temporarily
restricted air space

that we're not
allowed to go into.

- [Matthew] Right.

- [Allen \} And for some reason,

that has been declared as such.

Typically that
will be associated

with a national
special security event.

- Okay.

- Those are assessed
and declared

by the Department of
Homeland Security.

And if they need air defense,
NORAD will provide that.

- Okay.

So, at this point I probably
should break in and say

it's always good to
read your NOTAM's.

- Absolutely.
- (laughing)

- Those temporary
flight restrictions
will always be posted

in the NOTAM's.

- Let's just ahead
and make the FAA happy

and say,
- Absolutely.

- pilots, please
read your NOTAM's.

- [Allen] Accidents happen.

Humans are what they are.
- [Matthew \} Yes.

- So our aerospace
warning mission

is to detect anybody
that's coming along.

And then our aerospace
control mission,

as it would apply in
this scenario today is,

that person stumbling
into the air space.

Now we need to figure
out what's going on.

Is this just an accident?

Is this someone who
might have mal intent?

Is it someone who's going to
comply with our instructions?

Yes or no.

And then the scenario
will play out from there.

- Do we have a medical
emergency, I mean,

- Right.
- who knows?

- And so we'll train
the pilots, at Buckley,

we'll train to all
sorts of those.

We'll train to an
incapacitated pilot

with someone who's not a pilot

who's now flying the airplane.

Yo... I need help.

- Yeah.

- And they're happy to have it.

We'll train to a student
pilot who's lost.

I don't know where I'm at
and I'm getting low on fuel.

Can you please help me find

a piece of runway to land on.

Then we'll train
to drug runners.

We'll train to folks
who are trying to do

something elicit or
illegal and not compliant.

Then we'll train to the person
who literally has mal intent.

- [Matthew] I think a
lot of people are aware

that intercepts happen but
I don't think they're aware

that they happen with
small aircraft like this.

- [Allen] I don't think
they're aware either.

But with the small aircraft,
it's just not something

that you see or hear
about very often.

- No.

So in general,

are they gonna be kind
of at our 10 or 11?

- Well you're not gonna
see 'em, by intent,

until they want you to.

So in general, they're
gonna approach from behind.

Most civilians are
cruising along looking out

the front or the side.

Most of them aren't
checking six.

- [Matthew] Doing the scan.
- [Allen] Right?

And so they're gonna
approach from our left side.

And the first time
they approach us

will most likely be
to take a look at us.

Read a tail number.

Verify who we are
and relay that down

into the command and
control authorities

and tell them, first
off, what they're seeing.

Who is this, what are they
doing, what do they look like?

Do they look like
they have a problem?

What's the tail number.

Immediately, DHS is
on that conference

as you saw the Operation
Nobel Eagle Conference

from the command center.

DHS will be on there.

As soon as someone
gets a tail number

the FAA and the DHS
are both running that.

They know who owns it.

They know where that
airplane's been,

what it's done, what
that pilot's done.

And so we'll begin to assess
what we think is going on here.

The command and control
authorities will begin

that assessment based
on all that data.

- [F-16 Pilot] Baron 261,
we are ready in the east

and we are weapons safe.

- Copy weapons safe.

Baron is ready in the west.

- That's what I wanna hear.

- Lights on.

Okay here we go.

We're playing out
the scenario now.

- Okay, here we go.

- [F-16 Pilot]
Attention on guard,

this is Peak six zero
armed air defense fighter.

- There's your call.

- [F-16 Pilot] Aircraft
southeast of La Junta,

9000 track zero four one,

20 nautical miles
south of La Junta.

You're approaching
restricted airspace.

You're ordered to turn
left or north immediately.

Contact ATC on one
two three dot one.

If you do not comply,
you may be fired upon.

- That is a blanket warning.

They're trying to contact us
on the emergency frequency.

So for the scenario today,
we're not listening.

- Yeah.

- Okay, so they're
gonna have to take

some additional
measures to number one,

let us know they're here

and number two,
gain our compliance.

- So we're either
not monitoring Guard,

we're ignoring,

we have a bad intent,

a medical emergency,

- Or we're simply
unable to comply.

- [Allen \} Here he
comes, up our left side.

Again normally I wouldn't
looking behind me

as a civilian.

- [Mathew] Yeah, he's rockin'.

- [Allen] He's rockin' his wings

and he's telling us he wants
us to follow him right now.

- Wow!

How cool is that?

I gotta say that I saw
him rockin' his wings

- You did.

- But I was more impressed
with the fact that

there was an F-16
that close. (laughing)

so I could kinda see
where somebody would go...

- [F-16 Pilot] 20
nautical miles southeast

- So now he just read our
tail number back to us.

- Oh.

- So he read the tail number

and now he's trying to make sure

we know who he's talking to.

- [Matthew] Like oh
by the way, hey buddy.

- So we're gonna let this
go a little further here.

I'm not up on that frequency yet

and I'm playing out the role
of the conversation we just had

where that's pretty cool.

I've never seen that but,
wish I had my camera out.

- (laughing)

- And lets see how
they handle it.

So this will be what
we call a head-butt,

which is an escalatory
maneuver which is,

at this point he's probably
attempted to guide us away.

- Right.

- We have not complied.

Now he's gonna go
across our nose,

which is generating
a traffic conflict

to make the point to us
there's a problem here.

You need to follow me right now.

- Yeah.

- Coming up the left side.

So he's rocking his wings saying
you need to follow me now.

- [Matthew] That is really cool.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!

- [Allen] He's going
across our nose,

- [Matthew] Uh oh!

- [Allen] he's
dispensing flares.

- [Matthew] He's popping
flares, we're in trouble now.

- [Allen] That is the signal
that we're in serious trouble.

We are gonna follow this guy
before he decides he needs

to escalate--

- [Matthew] Yeah,
that's not good.

While it's cool to see an
F-16, that probably means

we're doing something wrong.

- Means we have
done something wrong

to make him rejoin on us.

And so we're gonna comply

with whatever he needs
us to do at this point.

- Hey, this has
been an awesome day

and an awesome flight.

And we have seen some things
that not everybody gets to see

which is probably good
because if you saw what we did

you've done something wrong.

Again, read the NOTAM's people!

Allen, thank you so much!

- Our pleasure.

- That's have been a
great, great flight.

And thank you to the
men and women of NORAD

keeping us safe 24/7, 365.

Great job.

And Buckley and the 120th.

You guys did a great job today.

It was really fun
to see you close up.

Hopefully I'll never
have to see it again.

(upbeat music)

- [Matthew] If there
is an aerospace threat
to North America

they are prepared for it.

With headquarters in Colorado,

NORAD ensures the
air sovereignty

and coordinates the defense
of the entire continent.

From watching a
training scenario

from inside NORAD's
command center

to jumping into the
cockpit of a Cessna 182

to experience an F-16 intercept,

we've taken you behind the wings

of North American
Aerospace Defense Command.

(chuckles)
(beeping)

- Who was, (speaks gibberish).

(beeping)

- You're not the only
guy in this building

with hair that long by the way.

- Oh really.
(laughing)

(beeping)

You're also a natural on
camera, you wanna join the team?

(laughs)

- I'll do whatever
you need me to do.

(laughing)

(upbeat music)

- [Woman] Little learners
can read, write, talk, sing

and play at Arapahoe Libraries.

Make a playdate.

Join a story time.

Build a masterpiece and
present a puppet show

all in one morning.

More at arapahoelibraries.org.

- [Woman] Do Denver's
300 days of sunshine

make the smiles a little wider?

They definitely make the
energy here stronger,

so you can enjoy the blue skies

and mountain view sunsets.

Denver. Soak it all in.