Through an operation of the so-called North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), the United States government intercepted four Russian-origin planes very close to Alaska, in international airspace.
The movement of the planes was described as routine, and in a statement NORAD said that the Russian aircraft at no time entered the “sovereign airspace” of the United States or Canada and clarified that they are “in no way related” to the Chinese spy balloon or the three unidentified flying objects it has shot down in the last two weeks.
Specifically, the Russian planes were in Alaska’s “Air Defense Identification Zone,” which encompasses the country’s airspace plus a broader area where air traffic is monitored by the national military to prevent threats. .
He specified that two of the Russian aircraft were a Tupolev Tu-95 bomber and a Sukhoi Su-35 air defense fighter.
