U.S. warns of Russian fighters near Alaska airspace
The U.S. government has warned that four Russian fighter jets flew last Sunday near Alaskan state airspace.The company said that this activity is a regular occurrence and is not considered to be a threat.
This was reported Tuesday in a statement by the Aerospace Defense Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), which. detected, tracked, and identified four Russian aircraft. within Alaska’s Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ). The ADIZ is a country’s airspace plus an additional perimeter monitored by the Armed Forces.
“The Russian aircraft remained in international airspace and did not enter U.S. or Canadian sovereign airspace. This Russian activity in the North American ADIZ occurs on a regular basis. and is not considered a threat or provocation,” NORAD added in its missive.
The United States had already anticipated this Russian activity, since since 2007, when Russia resumed its long-range aviation activity, NORAD records an annual average of six to seven interceptions of Russian military aircraft.
The discovery of these fighters – which included TU-95 BEAR-H and SU-35 aircraft – comes shortly after the U.S. shot down a Chinese balloon allegedly spy and other unidentified objects over its airspace.
It also comes as the Russian presidency has urged the U.S. government to investigate the alleged presence of balloons and other unidentified flying objects in its airspace without “blaming” other countries, after Washington in recent days has put the spotlight on Beijing.
