NORAD inter­cepts Russ­ian and Chi­nese air­craft oper­at­ing togeth­er near Alas­ka

NORAD intercepts Russian and Chinese aircraft operating together near Alaska

The North Amer­i­can Aero­space Defense Com­mand (NORAD) tracked and inter­cept­ed a com­bi­na­tion of Chi­nese and Russ­ian air­craft oper­at­ing near Alas­ka on Wednes­day.
U.S. and Cana­di­an air­craft inter­cept­ed the two Russ­ian TU-95 and two Chi­nese H‑6 mil­i­tary air­craft oper­at­ing in inter­na­tion­al air­space, NORAD said in a state­ment. The for­eign air­craft did not enter U.S. or Cana­di­an sov­er­eign air­space.

View from a Russ­ian Air Force Tu-95 in Alaska’s air defense iden­ti­fi­ca­tion zone yes­ter­day, after an inter­cept by US and Cana­di­an forces.Flying in for­ma­tion next to the Russ­ian Bear:2x USAF F‑16 Falcons1x USAF F‑352x RCAF CF-18 Hor­nets pic.twitter.com/5O03GQmd9D
— OSINT­tech­ni­cal (@Osinttechnical) July 25, 2024

NORAD also not­ed that it did not view the air­craft “as a threat,” though they will con­tin­ue to mon­i­tor for­eign activ­i­ty near North Amer­i­ca. It’s not uncom­mon for Russ­ian air­craft to fly into Alaska‘s Air Defense Iden­ti­fi­ca­tion Zone (AZID), which is where sov­er­eign air­space ends and is a defined stretch of inter­na­tion­al air­space that requires air­craft to read­i­ly iden­ti­fy itself in the inter­est of nation­al secu­ri­ty.
The Russ­ian Min­istry of Defense said on Telegram it and the People’s Lib­er­a­tion Army, the Chi­nese mil­i­tary, car­ried out …