Photo: US and Canada hold joint Arctic military exercise

The United States and Canada are holding a joint Arctic military exercise from Oct. 17 to Oct. 21. U.S. F-15 Eagles from the 142nd fighter wing arrive Oct. 17 in Yellowknife for Exercise Vigilant Shield 2017, which involves aircraft, personnel and equipment from the Canadian Armed Forces and the U.S. Air National Guard. The NORAD exercise aims to deploy and conduct “air sovereignty operations in the far North and the High Arctic, thus demonstrating a combined ability to detect, identify and meet possible threats in some of the most remote regions in the world,” says an Oct. 19 NORAD news release. Some exercise aircraft and personnel were also headed to Alert on Nunavut’s Ellesmere Island. NORAD, which stands for North American Aerospace Defense Command, is a mutual defence alliance between Canada and the U.S that the two countries created in 1957. (U.S. AIR NATIONAL GUARD HANDOUT PHOTO)