Every year on Christmas, Santa Claus flies into North American airspace from the Arctic—a matter of concern for NORAD, which is accustomed to expecting missiles from the same direction.
The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) is a binational command, jointly run by both the United States and Canada, designed to detect, deter, and defeat threats coming from the air and from space. It is the bedrock of North American homeland defense and has run continuously ever since the outset of the Cold War.
Initially meant to defend the United States and Canada from the Soviet nuclear missile threat, today it endures, protecting North America from a variety of threats.
How NORAD Protects American Airspace
Today, NORAD is charged with tracking strategic bombers, ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, hypersonic weapons, space launches (and space objects), and unidentified airborne threats.
Founded in 1958 to fight the Cold War, during a time when the Americans feared a Soviet attack from over the Arctic, the main purpose of NORAD originally was to track Soviet long-range bombers, early ICBM movements, and to patch up the serious vulnerability of North America’s northern approaches. After all, the Arctic, not the Atlantic or Pacific, remains the shortest path of nuclear attack.
But there’s a complication: the Arctic is also home to Santa Claus.
NORAD Has Kept Tabs on Santa for Decades
Every year at Christmas, Santa and his reindeer take off from the North Pole for their trip around the world, delivering presents to children on his “Nice” list. But in the process, Santa and his sleigh enter North American airspace in the dead of night, at ballistic speeds and at a high altitude. Ordinarily, if an unknown projectile entered American airspace under these conditions, the US Air Force would quickly scramble fighter jets to chase after it!
Fortunately, NORAD’s all-seeing eye can maintain a significant track on Santa and his reindeer—ensuring that he can pass safely, but also making certain that his Christmas packages are the only things being dropped over American airspace.
For decades, NORAD has followed Santa’s movements closely. Now, the command has supposedly developed an entirely new way for tracking the world’s greatest gift-giver. Apparently, NORAD is adding web-based calling. In other words, kids will have the option to both call in via phone on Christmas Eve. But they will also have an app they can now download on their parents’ phone entitled “NORAD Tracks Santa.”
So advanced has the tracking of Santa Claus become that NORAD allegedly maintains cameras in orbit that take precise video of St. Nick as he traverses the orbital plane on his way to delivering Christmas cheer and plentiful gifts to the world’s children.
How to Contact Santa Claus via NORAD
NORAD is now bringing their advanced communications to bear and allowing children to call (877) 446 6723 to talk to Santa Claus directly. He will tell the children who call in his current location.
More than 1,000 Canadian and American uniformed personnel—Defense Department civilians and other local participants at Peterson Space Force Base—will volunteer on Christmas Eve to help in managing the hundreds of thousands of phone calls that come in from around the world. Interpreters, too, will be standing by for those international children who want to know Santa’s precise location.
The History of NORAD’s Santa Tracker
NORAD has tracked Santa Claus since the early days of the organization. Back in 1955, in the heady days of the Cold War, a department store in Colorado placed an advertisement in their local newspaper extolling children to call Santa Claus. Unfortunately, the store placed the wrong number in the ad. Rather than the number the store was managing, the newspaper placed the phone number for NORAD’s predecessor, Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD).
When the calls began flooding into his office, then-Colonel Harry Shoup played along and ordered his staff to share “live updates” on the location of Santa Claus with the curious children. When NORAD was officially formed in 1958, tracking Santa Claus was incorporated into their ethos.
So, NORAD keeps America safe from Russian and Chinese missiles, satellites falling out of the sky, and keeps us well-informed about Santa Claus’ rapid movements on the most important night of the year—the night before Christmas, when children everywhere await anxiously to see what gifts Santa and his elves have created for them.
About the Author: Brandon J. Weichert
Brandon J. Weichert is a senior national security editor at The National Interest. Recently, Weichert became the host of The National Security Hour on America Outloud News and iHeartRadio, where he discusses national security policy every Wednesday at 8pm Eastern. Weichert hosts a companion book talk series on Rumble entitled “National Security Talk.” He is also a contributor at Popular Mechanics and has consulted regularly with various government institutions and private organizations on geopolitical issues. Weichert’s writings have appeared in multiple publications, including The Washington Times, National Review, The American Spectator, MSN, and the Asia Times. His books include Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower, Biohacked: China’s Race to Control Life, and The Shadow War: Iran’s Quest for Supremacy. His newest book, A Disaster of Our Own Making: How the West Lost Ukraine is available for purchase wherever books are sold. He can be followed via Twitter @WeTheBrandon.
Image: Wikimedia Commons.
