NORAD to review air defenses

WASHINGTON, Nov. 20 (UPI) -- A review of joint U.S.-Canadian air defenses will determine whether measures put in place after the 2001 attacks are still needed, officials said Thursday.

The assessment, expected to be completed early next year, was ordered by Maj. Gen. Pierre Forgues, the Canadian head of the North American Aerospace Defense Command, The New York Times reported Friday. The newspaper said NORAD stopped keeping planes in the air over cities in 2007 but dozens of planes and their crews remain on alert.

"The fighter force is extremely expensive, so you always have to ask yourself the question 'How much is enough?'" Forgues said.

Before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center, NORAD kept 14 planes at seven bases on alert, with the system geared to look outward to a threat from Russia. In the immediate aftermath of the attacks, the cost of air defense was up to $50 million a week.

Forgues said the chance of a repeat of 2001 has been "greatly curtailed" by measures like increased airport security and armored cockpit doors. But he said the review will look at both risk of attack and vulnerability in the system and the outcome is not decided.