The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) was forced toscramble multiple fighter jetsand otheraircraftafter Russian military aircraft were detected near Alaska. TwoRussianTupolev TU-142 military aircraft were spotted in international airspace in the Alaskan and Canadian Air Defense Identification Zones (ADIZ), the command said in a statement.

In response, NORAD launched two US Air ForceF-35sand two F-22 fighter jets, as well as four KC-135 refuelling aircraft, one E-3 AWACS (airborne early warning and control), twoCanadianCF-18 fighter aircraft and one CC-150 refuelling tanker. While an exact location for the incident was not given, the command said the Russian aircraft did not enter American or Canadian sovereign airspace and that "this Russian activity in theAlaskanand Canadian ADIZ occurs regularly and is not seen as a threat".

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The Russian aircraft did, however, enter an ADIZ, an international airspace between the end of sovereign airspaces, which, according to NORAD, "requires the ready identification of all aircraft in the interest of national security".

Incidents in these airspaces have increased in recent months amid heightened tensions between Moscow andNATO. On February 19, NORAD deployed a similar contingent of aircraft tointercept Russian warplanes, comprising Tu-95s, Sukhoi Su-35s and an Antonov A-50 operating after they were detected near Alaska.

NORAD launched two F-16s, two F-35s and four KC-135s to complete the mission.

In September, the US also scrambled fighter jets to intercept Russian Tu-95s and Su-35s in the Alaskan ADIZ, while during the previous month, NORAD intercepted a Russian Ilyushin IL-20 COO reconnaissance aircraft four times in one week.

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This comes as one ofVladimir Putin's closest ally in the Russian Government has claimed the closest allies ofUkrainein the West arewaging a "direct, hot" war at Russia. Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, claimed thatUkraineis being prepared to become anti-Russia.

Source: Daily Express :: World Feed