Sept. 16 (UPI) — A Russian military aircraft was detected and tracked near U.S. airspace this past weekend in the fourth such incident in less than a week, according to NORAD.
On Sunday, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, revealed that it had intercepted two Russian IL-38 military aircrafts flying in international space near Alaska’s Air Defense Identification Zone, or ADIZ, in the fourth such reported incident in five days but was “not seen as a threat,” NORAD said Sunday.
NORAD, the U.S-Canadian military alliance tasked with defending North American airspace, say the airspace in which the Russian jets were flying begins “where sovereign airspace ends and is a defined stretch of international airspace that requires the ready identification of all aircraft in the interest of national security.”
The string of recent interceptions began Sept. 11 when NORAD spotted a pair of Russian military aircraft operating in international air near ADIZ but also did not enter Canadian or United States sovereign airspace, according to a release on Wednesday.
However, Russian flights occur “regularly” into the airspace known ADIZ with other recent interceptions in recent as July and May.
July’s incident arrived days after the Kremlin’s Defense Ministry claimed it had intercepted two U.S. B-52N bombers near the Russia’s borders just days prior.
On Thursday after the first release, Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, called for a greater military presence in the region.
Then on Friday, a pair of TU-142s were detected by NORAD. Those aircraft are Russian reconnaissance and anti-submarine planes. A day later came reports of two Russian IL-38 planes detected, followed by Sunday’s announcement.
“I agree with NORAD to the certain degree that it’s not a direct threat to our state right now,” Sullivan told Alaska’s News Source on Thursday. “But is this something that we need to try to prevent and show American military strength in Alaska to deter?”
Earlier in the summer, NORAD intercepted two Chinese and two Russian military jets flying near Alaska in what officials say was the first known time the two large nations had been recorded operating together.
Alaska’s junior senator claimed the recent displays are “also a demonstration” by Russia, as well as China, that he described as “two of the biggest dictators on the march,” adding his belief that the two communist-lead nations are “clearly working together more closely, and they are pressing us.”
At the time of their joint encounter, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said that Russia and China are “always testing us.”
On Friday, the U.S. Army deployed a large contingency of paratroopers, radar units and at least one M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System to Shemya Island, a small island off the coast of Alaska.
That deployment occurred concurrently with Russia’s own extensive naval exercises taking place across the Pacific Ocean, Mediterranean Sea and Arctic Ocean to assess Russian combat readiness, the EurAsian Times reported.
NORAD employs a multi-layered defense network consisting of satellites, radars and fighter jets to detect and track aircraft within the zone.
“NORAD executes a wide range of options when conducting the identification of foreign aircraft when they enter the U.S. and Canada’s respective air defense identification zones,” a spokesperson told Alaskan media.
But for “operational security reasons,” NORAD said, “we do not always publicly acknowledge our tactics, techniques or procedures when we conduct this aerospace warning mission.”