NORAD intercepts four Russian aircraft near Alaska, ninth this year

U.S. fighter jets scrambled Wednesday to identify and intercept four Russian military aircraft operating in the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone, the North American Aerospace Defense Command said Thursday, marking the third such encounter in about a month and the ninth this year near Alaska. NORAD identified the planes as two Tu-95 long-range bombers and two Su-35 fighter jets and said the Russian aircraft remained in international airspace and did not enter U.S. or Canadian sovereign territory.

NORAD said it dispatched nine U.S. aircraft to positively identify and intercept the formation: an E-3 Sentry command-and-control plane, four F-16 fighters and four KC-135 refueling tankers. The command emphasized that activity of this type near Alaska occurs regularly and is not viewed as a threat, and noted that the Alaskan ADIZ begins where U.S. and Canadian sovereign airspace ends.

The Alaska intercept comes amid heightened tensions between NATO and Moscow after a series of recent airspace incidents in Europe. Estonian officials accused Russian jets of violating their airspace last week, with NATO members reporting that three Russian fighters entered Estonian territory for...