The United States military scrambled fighter jets Sunday to intercept a Russian spy plane flying near Alaska, the North American Aerospace Defense Command said. It was the third time in less than a week that U.S. forces deployed planes after a Russian plane was spotted inside the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone, a section of international airspace just outside of U.S. and Canadian sovereign space that both countries monitor closely.
This kind of Russian activity is not considered a threat and happens regularly in the identification zone, which extends outward from U.S. territory off the coast of Alaska, said NORAD. Although the designated area does not belong to any individual country, aircraft that enter the zone are required to identify themselves to the U.S. and Canada for national security reasons.
NORAD detected and tracked one IL-20 COOT, a Cold War-era reconnaissance aircraft operated by the Russian military, in the Alaskan identification zone Sunday after surveilling the same type of plane flying over the region Wednesday and Thursday.
In each instance, NORAD responded by scrambling multiple fighter jets to monitor the spy plane, according to the military command. The Russian aircraft never entered U.S. or Canadian sovereign territory, remaining in the international zone off Alaska.
U.S. military officials have detected Russian warplanes inside the Alaskan identification zone on numerous occasions this year, including sightings within the bounds of the international space in April and July.
Earlier, in January, the U.S. and Canada scrambled fighter jets to track Russian warplanes over the Arctic in an incident that drew scrutiny as geopolitical tension increased in the region. At the time, the U.S. military said it had dispatched two fighter jets to Greenland to “forward posture NORAD presence in the Arctic.”
In September 2024, NORAD posted dramatic video of a Russian jet flying “within just a few feet” of NORAD aircraft off the coast of Alaska. At the time, a U.S. general said “the conduct of one Russian Su-35 was unsafe, unprofessional, and endangered all.”
“NORAD employs a layered defense network of satellites, ground-based and airborne radars and fighter aircraft to detect and track aircraft and inform appropriate actions,” the military command says, adding that it “remains ready to employ a number of response options in defense of North America.”
