The US military says Russian spy planes have penetrated Alaska's air defense identification zone twice in the past two days.
A US F-22 fighter intercepted his second aircraft as it entered the airspace, a defense official told his VOA. Both entries contained the same type of Russian reconnaissance aircraft, the official added.
An Air Defense Identification Zone includes areas beyond national airspace in which countries seek to identify, locate, and control aircraft for national security.
Russian aircraft remained in international airspace and did not enter sovereign US or Canadian airspace, according to a social media post by the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) on Wednesday.
"We stand ready to adopt many response options to defend our sovereignty in North America and the Arctic," the post added.
This is the first reported incident of a Russian military aircraft approaching Alaskan airspace in 2022, but sightings have become commonplace in recent years.
A Russian military aircraft tracked him 14 times in Alaska's air defense identification zone in 2020. This is the highest record in recent years, and in just one month he had six such incidents.
Russia launched a major invasion of Ukraine in February.
Earlier this year, Alaska Senator Dan Sullivan said the U.S. military had had to "scramble" more fighter jets in recent years to intercept Russian warplanes. told VOA. 1980s.
"They are aggressive here as well, the only thing that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin understands and [Chinese President] Xi Jinping is that this new era of authoritarian aggression The only thing I understand is power," Sullivan said.
