Amid concerns of increased threats to the United States during the holidays, Adm. John Kirby recently assured the public that all domains (land, air, cyber, space, sea) have been secured by the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), and that Santa Claus should make all of his deliveries on time.
"Is the Pentagon at all concerned that NORAD's Santa radar may be in danger of being cyber-attacked or hacked? And are you taking any I.A. (ph) measures to prevent that?" a reporter asked.
"Our Santa radar? I didn't know we had one of those," Kirby said. "Well, it's funny you should ask, Tony, because I did get an update this morning from NORAD. So, just bear with me, and I'll -- and I'll -- this is coming right from NORAD."
Cyber-attacks have been of particular concern to most children, but Kirby reported NORAD’s "anti-Grinch firewall is up and monitoring for threats, and they are confident that the AGFW, anti-Grinch firewall, can defeat any malicious attacks."
"In the land domain, they tell me they verified load-bearing capacity for all rooftops that the reindeer will land on," Kirby said. "In the maritime domain, they say that Aegis radars are calibrated to track Santa and ships are standing by to conduct any lost gift rescue operations, if necessary."
"So in case he drops anything off his sleigh, they can go -- we've got destroyers out there will pick them up."
Kirby could not divulge the specific capabilities that will be deployed to aid Santa in his trip, saying that information was "classified" for security purposes.
"You know we don't talk about the specifics of force protection measures. We just don't. But I can tell you, it sounds to me like they are very ready for Santa," Kirby said.
Missile radars remain active to track Santa’s trip, and "infrared detecting satellites are calibrated to see Rudolph's nose," Kirby said.
The Department of Defense has been in close contact with Canadian authorities to clear a path for Santa as he travels across Canadian air space from the North Pole.
"Canadian NORAD Region and Continental NORAD Region are ready to escort Santa when he enters U.S. and Canadian airspace," Kirby said. "Through our coordination with the FAA and NAV-CANADA, we can confirm that North American airspace is safe for sleigh travel."
In other news, Kirby did not mention any new shipments of Baymax Big Hero 6 robotic flight suits for the Iraqi military.