NATO and Russia hold joint counter-terror exercise ‘Vigilant Skies’

Fighter aircraft from Turkish, Polish and Russian air forces together with air traffic controllers successfully completed a live three-day joint NATO-Russia counter-terrorism exercise “Vigilant Skies 2013,” on Thursday (26 September).

The exercise was the second time that air traffic controllers from the NATO-Russia Council Cooperative Airspace Initiative (NRC CAI) have been tested on their real-time capacity to detect and direct the response to a civilian aircraft hijacked by terrorists in the skies over NATO and Russian territory.

The purpose of the exercise is to foster cooperation on airspace security, notably in the field of real-time surveillance and air traffic coordination.

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