Four Russian military aircraft were detected and tracked operating near U.S. airspace on Thursday, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) said.
The aircraft were observed in the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ), which is a buffer zone outside U.S. sovereign airspace. The U.S. tracks incoming aircraft in the area for reasons of national security, and aircraft that enter this zone are required to identify themselves.
“The Russian aircraft remained in international airspace and did not enter American or Canadian sovereign airspace,” NORAD said in a statement.
NORAD noted that Russian aircraft activity is regularly detected in this area and is not viewed as a direct threat.
A Tupolev Tu-160M strategic bomber takes off from Kazan, Russia, in February, 2024. Four Russian military aircraft were detected in the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone on Thursday. A Tupolev Tu-160M strategic bomber takes off from Kazan, Russia, in February, 2024. Four Russian military aircraft were detected in the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone on Thursday. DMITRY AZAROV/AFP/Getty Images
The organization said that it tracks aircraft in the area through a “layered defense network of satellites, ground-based and airborne radars and fighter aircraft.”
It added that it “remains ready to employ a number of response options in defense of North America.”
Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti, citing Russia’s Ministry of Defense, confirmed on Telegram that Tu-95MS “missile carriers” had flown a mission off the western coast of Alaska.
The outlet said that the mission had lasted more than 11 hours and that foreign countries had scrambled fighter jets in response.
Newsweek reached out to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and NORAD via email for comment on Friday.
Russian military aircraft were previously detected in the area on two separate occasions in February. Last year, multiple Russian aircraft were detected in the zone.
After one of the February incidents, Lieutenant General Sergei Kobylash, commander of Russian long–range aviation, noted that the Tu-95 bombers involved had carried out their mission in “strict accordance with international rules for the use of airspace.”
“Long-range aviation pilots regularly fly over the neutral waters of the Arctic, North Atlantic, Black and Baltic Seas, and the Pacific Ocean,” he said, according to ABC News.
Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2007 revived the Soviet-era practice of sending bomber aircraft on regular patrols beyond Russia’s borders.
Since then, NORAD has registered between six and seven intercepts of Russian military aircraft per year on average. These numbers have varied from as high as 15 to as low as zero, NORAD said.
The Arctic region has become a particular point of interest for global military activity, with both Western nations and Russia increasing their activity there.
Tensions between the U.S. and Russia have simmered since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The U.S. has emerged as one of Ukraine’s strongest allies and largest providers of military aid over the last two years.
