U.S. intercepts Russian warplanes flying near Alaska

The U.S. scrambled fighter jets Wednesday to intercept four Russian military aircraft flying near Alaska, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, said in a statement.

The Russian aircraft stayed in international airspace but did enter the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone, which NORAD described as a “defined stretch of international airspace that requires the ready identification of all aircraft in the interest of national security.”

Russian aircraft regularly breach that zone. NORAD officials stressed that the presence of Russian warplanes there is not seen as a threat to the U.S. or Canada.

But the incident off the coast of Alaska comes on the heels of multiple instances recently in which Russian aircraft and drones are accused of violating sovereign NATO airspace over Europe. The most recent instance came late last week when Russian aircraft allegedly violated Estonian airspace.

In another incident earlier this month, NATO shot down Russian drones that violated Polish airspace, the first time in NATO’s history that it engaged enemy aircraft over Europe.

The U.S. and Canada are both NATO members. The intercept near Alaska on Wednesday came against the backdrop of those rising NATO-Russia tensions.

NORAD said it tracked two Russian Tu-95s and two Su-35s and scrambled its own fighter jets in response.

“NORAD responded with an E-3, four F-16s, and four KC-135 tankers to positively identify and intercept in the Alaskan ADIZ,” NORAD said in its statement. “The Russian military aircraft remained in international airspace and did not enter American or Canadian sovereign airspace. This Russian activity in the Alaskan ADIZ occurs regularly and is not seen as a threat.”

“NORAD employs a layered defense network of satellites, ground-based and airborne radars and fighter aircraft to detect and track aircraft and inform appropriate actions,” the statement said. “NORAD remains ready to employ a number of response options in defense of North America.”