For the third time in a week, American fighter jets intercepted Russian military aircraft operating near Alaska. According to ABC News, these incidents occurred within the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ), an area monitored for national security purposes. The Russian planes did not enter U.S. sovereign airspace.
North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) officials confirmed that one of the recent encounters involved a Russian Ilyushin IL-20. In response, NORAD deployed two F-16s, two Boeing KC-135 refueling tankers, and an E-3 Sentry surveillance aircraft to assess any potential threat from the IL-20.
The first interception of the week happened on August 20 when a Russian IL-20 reconnaissance plane entered the ADIZ. This type of aircraft is often used by Russia for electronic surveillance and monitoring U.S. military activities in the Pacific region. NORAD scrambled F-16 fighters to shadow it until it left the identification zone.