ADIZ-zy about Sarah

Wednesday, 1 October 2008 by bbbeard.

You will not be surprised to learn that the Associated Press is trying to paint the McCain-Palin campaign in a negative light. It brings to mind Heinlein’s Razor: “Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity… but don’t rule out malice.”

In an article yesterday (”Campaign tries to explain Palin’s Putin comment“), AP reporter Martha Mendoza reports on her investigations into Sarah Palin’s comment about Russian penetrations of U.S. airspace. The article has some serious defects.

Palin made this comment in her interview with Katie Couric:

Couric: Have you ever been involved in any negotiations, for example, with the Russians?

Palin: We have trade missions back and forth, we do. It’s very important when you consider even national security issues with Russia. As Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where do they go? It’s Alaska. It’s just right over the border. It is from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there, they are right next to our state.

Mendoza decided to put on her investigatrix hat and sniff this out. Her article packs confusion and innuendo shoulder-to-shoulder like sardines in a… sorry, I went off into Chandler-land for a moment.

The article says “The air defense identification zone, almost completely over water, extends 12-mile [sic] past the perimeter of the United States. Most nations have similar areas.” This is wrong. The ADIZ (not the “outer ADIZ”) extends hundreds of miles over international waters, outside the 12-nautical-mile territorial waters. The ADIZ boundaries are documented in the Code of Federal Regulations, Title 14, Part 99.

You may have to go to http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov and search manually.

The FAA provides a picture of the Alaska ADIZ, consistent with 14 CFR 99:

Look at this carefully and savor the stupidity (and malice?) of the AP.

FYI the FAA also describes procedures for flying through the ADIZ in

http://www.faa.gov/airports_airtraffic/air_traffic/publications/ATpubs/AIM/Chap5/aim0506.html

If you scroll to the end of that page, you will see the CONUS ADIZ figure:

There are also ADIZ zones set up over land, e.g. the Washington, D.C. ADIZ, which may be the source of Mendoza’s confusion.

The point of all this is that Russian bombers flying over international waters within the Alaskan ADIZ will most certainly cause U.S. interceptor aircraft to be scrambled. The interception is generally limited to identification (the “I” in ADIZ). However, in times of crisis (”increased states of readiness”), if the Russian aircraft refuses to identify or to cooperate with instructions over posted frequencies, they are subject to interdiction before they reach U.S. territory. I will leave it to the lawyers to figure out if that means the U.S. claims the ADIZ is part of U.S. airspace. Chapter 3 of the FAA AIM makes clear that “airspace” is a diverse and complicated concept. I would say the ADIZ is certainly covered by FAA regulations, so I have no problem if someone wants to call it “our airspace”. OTOH if someone wants to dispute our control over the ADIZ, I have two words: “Fox One“.

So: when Palin spokeman Maria Comella stated “Russian incursions near Alaskan airspace and inside the air defense identification zone have occurred … U.S. Air Force fighters have been scrambled repeatedly”, she is certainly correct. When Major Herritage said that the 12-nm zone has not been penetrated, he is also correct.

And when the incompetent AP author, Martha Mendoza, disputed the truth of Comella’s statement, based on the incorrect assumption that the ADIZ was the 12-nm zone, she mangled the simple facts of what was being clarified by both Comella and Herritage. And, in her incompetence, cast doubt on the competence of the McCain-Palin campaign. What Palin and Comella were referring to is the ADIZ, not the “buffer zone…. sometimes called the outer air defense identification zone by the military”. (Note Mendoza used the phrase “might have been referring to“, as if Palin were talking in some obscure dialect that smart people like journalists have to struggle to interpret.) And again, “ADIZ” is not an invention of the military, it is dictated in the CFR.

Mendoza follows with a quote from Maj. Herritage: “To be very clear, there has not been any incursion in U.S. airspace in recent years,” as though this were a flat contradiction of Palin’s comment. But Herritage is referring to the 12-nm zone, not the ADIZ. Once one understands the difference, it becomes clear how the stupidity of a journalist gets turned into the innuendo of “conservative lie”.

Mendoza then quotes Palin’s foreign policy adviser, Steve Biegun: “‘Governor Palin told me that when Russian aircraft buzz American airspace and U.S. aircraft are mobilized at Elmendorf Air Force Base, she is informed by her National Guard commander,’ said Biegun, who did not offer any additional explanation for the contradiction.” That might be because he didn’t feel obligated to penetrate this particular journalist’s RDZ (reality distortion zone). There is no contradiction, only confusion in the mind of Martha Mendoza.

And one has to laugh at the wrap: “Major General Craig E. Campbell, the adjutant general of the Alaska National Guard, did not immediately return calls and e-mails,” as though this were an ominous sign. Gee, ya think the General might be… busy?

[h/t Powerline]

UPDATE:

Some idiot bloggers — I won’t dignify them with a link — have questioned whether there is even an Air National Guard unit at Elmendorf. Yes, there is. The 176th Wing of the ANG is one of the largest and most active in the Guard. It is based out of Kulis ANGB near Anchorage, with units assigned to Elmendorf AFB, Eielson AFB, and Fort Richardson. The 176th Air Control Squadron, part of the 176th Wing, controls the airspace in the Alaskan Air Defense Sector, which includes the Alaskan ADIZ. And yes, this is a unique responsibility for a Guard unit. From the wiki article:

The 176th Air Control Squadron is unique amongst the other American sectors in that it controls the only sector within its region, while both the Northeast Air Defense Sector and Western Air Defense Sector both comprise the Continental NORAD Region (CONR). In addition to this distinction, it is the only sector that has regular reported intercepts of foreign military aircraft, with multiple intercepts of Russian Tu-95 “Bear” aircraft through its lifetime.

UPDATE 2:

Visit the Paul’s Thing blog for an exciting account of an F-15 intercept with a Bear-H over the skies of the Alaska Air Defense Zone, ca. Reagan era.

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