American aircraft escorted Russian aircraft deemed too close to United States airspace, which was not penetrated.
Two American fighter jets intercepted four Russian planes near Alaska, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (Norad) announced on Tuesday.
This “routine” interception of Russian aircraft, including models of the Tu-95 heavy bomber and Su-35 fighter, took place on Monday, Norad said in a statement.
US airspace was not penetrated
“Russian aircraft remained in international airspace and did not enter US or Canadian sovereign airspace,” he added, noting that such Russian activity “occurred regularly and was not not considered a threat or a provocative activity”.
If this interception was a routine operation, the combat planes stationed in North America had the opportunity in February to carry out real and rare offensive aerial actions, by shooting down a Chinese balloon, described as a spy by Washington, in the off the east coast of the country and three other unidentified flying objects.