On Friday, an unidentified object was shot down off the coast of Alaska; on Monday, there was even more activity in the air near the Last Frontier—this time, a group of Russian fighter jets and strategic bombers intercepted by the US military in international airspace, according to the North American Aerospace Defense Command. In a Tuesday statement, the US-Canadian defense group said that the aircraft were identified Monday, didn't enter either US or Canadian airspace, and weren't deemed a threat, per Reuters.
NORAD says it detected the four intercepted aircraft, which were said to include Tu-95 Bear-H bombers and Su-35 fighter aircraft, within the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone, or ADIZ, reports the Hill. Air & Space Forces magazine notes that the ADIZ, monitored by NORAD, serves as a "buffer" of sorts for any aircraft approaching North American airspace. In this instance, two US F-16 fighter jets, accompanied by five other support aircraft, were scrambled for the interception after NORAD "anticipated this Russian activity," it said in its statement.
"This Russian activity in the North American ADIZ occurs regularly and is not seen as a threat, nor is the activity seen as provocative," NORAD notes, per Air & Space Forces. The organization added that these flights bear no relation to the series of mysterious unidentified objects shot down from the sky over North America in recent days. (More NORAD stories.)
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