WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. F-22 stealth fighter jet rushed on Saturday to intercept four Russian reconnaissance aircraft off Alaska, said NORAD, the American and Canadian defense organization.
The interception of Russian Tu-142s marks the 10th time this year that Russian military aircraft have been intercepted off Alaska, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, said in a statement.
The Russian plane did not enter the sovereign airspace of the United States or Canada, NORAD said.
The interceptor planes are based at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Alaska, said a NORAD spokesman, Captain Cameron Hillier.
The incident is one of a series of round-trip polls from Russia and the United States this year. On June 19, Russia scrambled fighter jets to intercept two American B-52 bombers flying over the Okhotsk Sea off Russia’s east coast, the Interfax news agency reported.
Report by Diane Bartz; editing by Jonathan Oatis
.
