United States Northern Command
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
United States Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) is a Unified Combatant Command of the United States Military.
Created in 2002, its mission is to protect the United States homeland, and support local, state, and federal authorities.
The Command has approximately 1,200 uniformed and civilian members, and few permament forces. Forces from all branches of the U.S. military may be assigned to the Command as needed to complete its mission.
Commander, U.S. Northern Command is concurrently Commander of the US-Canadian North American Air Defense Command (NORAD). The two are co-located at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colorado. General Ralph Eberhart was the first CDRNORCOM, succeded by Admiral Timothy Keating.
NORTHCOM is responsible for much of North America, from the U.S.-Mexican border up to Canada's Arctic territories. Alaska, however, is shared jointly between NORTHCOM and the U.S. Pacific Command while Greenland is shared jointly between NORTHCOM and U.S. European Command. Hawaii is solely under the jurisdiction of USPACOM.
NORTHCOM will be holding a Nuclear Terror Drill sometime during August, according to an internal press release.
However, it should be noted that Canadians do not accept USNorthcom's claim of responsibility and security control over Canadian territory and the subsequent implied infringement of their national sovereignty by this U.S. Military organization. Mexico is also not a party to this new military organization.
