ALASKA –NORAD issued a statement saying that two Russian Tu-95 “Bear” bombers and two Su-35 “Flanker” fighter jets entered the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone on Tuesday.
This air defense zone, which is known as an ADIZ, was declared unilaterally by the U.S. after World War II. It is not binding under any international treaty. It extends more than 200 miles farther from Alaska’s westernmost island and 1,700 miles from Anchorage.
The Russian media reported that the American jets escorted its aircraft for around 40 minutes. It was mentioned that the bombers didn’t approach closer than 100 meters. Therefore, it seems as the though the Russians didn’t intend to cause alarm among Americans. Or maybe they knew that we would have concerns about these bombers no matter how close they came.
Not the First Sighting of Russian Bombers
However, it was not the first time such an incident has happened. In fact, this is actually the second similar interception that took place just this month. The previous intersect took place west of Alaska all the way back on September 1.
In the last decade, Russia received serious accuses for flying dangerously close to U.S. aircraft and ships in eastern Europe’s Black Sea. Many countries accused Russia for violating the airspace of U.S. NATO allies in the Baltics.
According to the U.S. law, any foreign aircraft is required to identify itself and report its flight plan when entering the air defense zone.
NORAD also mentioned that it is equipped with special radars and satellites to identify aircraft and take due measures. By doing so, it will have better preparations for any kind of similar future event. Hopefully, they won’t be too trigger happy and start a nuclear war with Russia; we wouldn’t want to jump the gun and attack, after all!
