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Russian Military Jets Intercepted Off Coast of Alaska

(Worthy News) – On Tuesday night, for the second time in one week, US fighter jets intercepted Russian military planes off the coast of Alaska, the Hill reports. Russian aircraft have been flying increasingly closer to US airspace: in March and April, Russian planes were intercepted 50 nautical miles off the Alaskan coast.

In a statement Wednesday the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) said the incident was the eighth time this year that Russian aircraft had penetrated “our Canadian or Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zones.”
In Tuesday’s incident, US F-22 Raptors, backed by KC-135 aerial refueling tankers and an E-3 early warning aircraft, intercepted two Russian bomber formations that had come within 32 nautical miles of the Alaskan coast, NORAD said. The formations did not enter US airspace.

The first Russian formation was made up of Tu-95 bombers, two Su-35 fighter jets and an A-50 airborne early warning and control aircraft; the second had two bombers and an A-50. These formations were exactly the same as two formations that came within 20 nautical miles of the coast of Alaska last week.

In its statement, NORAD affirmed: “Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, NORAD constantly monitors the northern approaches to our nations and our operations make it clear that we will conduct homeland defense efforts 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.”