Fighter jets scrambled to intercept Russian spy plane off Alaska

Russian subject beingness successful the Arctic northbound

What's down Moscow's increasing involvement successful the Arctic north? 04:12

The United States subject scrambled combatant jets Sunday to intercept a Russian spy level flying adjacent Alaska, the North American Aerospace Defense Command said. It was the 3rd clip successful little than a week that U.S. forces deployed planes aft a Russian level was spotted wrong the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone, a conception of planetary airspace conscionable extracurricular of U.S. and Canadian sovereign abstraction that some countries show closely.

This benignant of Russian enactment is not considered a menace and happens regularly successful the recognition zone, which extends outward from U.S. territory disconnected the seashore of Alaska, said NORAD. Although the designated country does not beryllium to immoderate idiosyncratic country, craft that participate the portion are required to place themselves to the U.S. and Canada for nationalist information reasons. 

NORAD detected and tracked 1 IL-20 COOT, a Cold War-era reconnaissance craft operated by the Russian military, successful the Alaskan recognition portion Sunday aft surveilling the aforesaid benignant of level flying implicit the portion Wednesday and Thursday. 

In each instance, NORAD responded by scrambling aggregate combatant jets to show the spy plane, according to the subject command. The Russian craft ne'er entered U.S. oregon Canadian sovereign territory, remaining successful the planetary portion disconnected Alaska.

U.S. subject officials person detected Russian warplanes wrong the Alaskan recognition portion connected galore occasions this year, including sightings wrong the bounds of the planetary abstraction in April and July. 

📸 Striking imagery captured by our Alaskan NORAD portion from past night's ADIZ incursion by Russian subject aircraft#WeHaveTheWatch pic.twitter.com/7LfQn27X1l

— North American Aerospace Defense Command (@NORADCommand) July 23, 2025

Earlier, successful January, the U.S. and Canada scrambled combatant jets to way Russian warplanes implicit the Arctic successful an incidental that drew scrutiny arsenic geopolitical hostility accrued successful the region. At the time, the U.S. subject said it had dispatched 2 combatant jets to Greenland to "forward posture NORAD beingness successful the Arctic."

In September 2024, NORAD posted melodramatic video of a Russian pitchy flying "within conscionable a fewer feet" of NORAD craft disconnected the seashore of Alaska. At the time, a U.S. wide said "the behaviour of 1 Russian Su-35 was unsafe, unprofessional, and endangered all."

"NORAD employs a layered defence web of satellites, ground-based and airborne radars and combatant craft to observe and way craft and pass due actions," the subject bid says, adding that it "remains acceptable to employment a fig of effect options successful defence of North America."

• Russia
• NORAD
• Alaska
• Canada