U.S. military forces have once again intercepted Russian fighter jets near Alaska. In the latest incident, four Russian military aircraft were tracked by American F-35 jets, operating in the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone, on Monday, just two days after a similar encounter.
The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) announced the latest incident, which took place around 9:15 am local time, saying that the four Russian aircraft had “entered the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) from the west and were monitored by two F-22 and two F-35 fighter jets from the Alaska NORAD Region.”
“The Russian military aircraft remained in international airspace and at no time did the aircraft enter United States or Canadian sovereign airspace,” NORAD said in a statement.
NORAD said the Russian planes were identified as two Tu-142 maritime reconnaissance aircraft, an An-26 transport aircraft, and an Il-38 maritime patrol aircraft.
The incident marks the second in two days, after American F-22 fighter jets intercepted four Russian military aircraft, including two TU-95 bombers, on Sunday.
NORAD said these two incidents are part of an “ongoing trend of unsafe and unprofessional actions conducted by the Russian military in the vicinity of the United States and Canada.”
The U.S. and Russia have had increasingly tense military encounters in the air over the past few years, often involving fighter jets. According to Pentagon data, the U.S. has conducted more than 500 interactions with Russian aircraft in international airspace since 2016.