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CNN Live Today

Air Patrols Modified

Aired April 16, 2002 - 14:42   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: The air patrols over Washington and New York that started September 11th are still going on, but with some modifications. Officials offered some new details at this morning's Pentagon briefing.

CNN senior Pentagon correspondent, Jamie McIntyre, was there. He joins us now. Jamie, I'm curious. Is this a financial issue or is there more confidence in our safety?

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN MILITARY AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's both, really, Kyra. The combat air patrols, which have been going on since September 11th, and over New York and Washington have been 24 hours a day, seven days a week, have been a big drain on the military's resources, both in training and in cost.

It costs more than a half a billion dollars to maintain those patrols. And it's not clear exactly how much of a measure of extra security that they've been providing. Nevertheless, the U.S. does want to have the option to protect its major cities with fighter jets when the threat warrants it.

And that's really been the big change, going from continuous air patrols now to a system where the commander in charge of the air defense of the United States will make a judgment call about when the -- when those patrols are necessary.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIG. GEN. JOHN ROSA, PENTAGON SPOKESMAN: The combat air patrols are threat-based. So to say that you have all of your airplanes up, or many of you airplanes up, regardless of the threat, same number of airplanes at the same places at the same time, I think American people would understand that's not the best way to use your force.

So we have a tiered approach. When the threat is high, we will have more airplanes and more forces up. When the threat is low, we will have fewer. And we will always have folks on ground alert.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCINTYRE: Ground alert is also called "strip alert" in the military. That means that planes are on the runway ready to go with pilots at the ready, that they can jump in the plane and take off in a matter of minutes. So they're still on a quick, hair-trigger response in case they need it.

But frankly, Pentagon officials concede that these kind of patrols don't offer a lot of protection. In fact, if they ever had to be used to shoot down an airliner, it would mean that every other security improvement and security measure had failed. Using these planes in that manner would be an absolute last resort.

The military is now trying to scale down and move to a system where they only put patrols up when there seems to be a good reason to do that -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Jamie, I have to ask this question. Another note, Operation Ptarmigan, with the British Marines coming in to Afghanistan. We're all very curious as to why this operation is named after a mountain bird.

MCINTYRE: This was the British name for their part of the operation. The U.S. is still referring to its Operation Mountain Lion. It's basically scour the area, search for pockets of al Qaeda and Taliban resistance. One can only surmise that the British, naming their version after a game bird that would presumably be flushed out of the brush, that they thought it was an appropriate name for a mission that was going to be searching a particular valley for any remnants of al Qaeda or Taliban resistance.

But the British have their own unique style when it comes to military operations. That applies to the names of military operations as well.

PHILLIPS: There you go. Very clever. Jamie McIntyre, thank you.

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