The North American Aerospace Defense Command, NORAD, scrambled U.S. and Canadian fighter jets last week to accompany a formation of Russian aircraft flying through international airspace off the coasts of Alaska and Canada.
The fighters were part of two combat air patrols NORAD launched Tuesday to intercept several Russian aircraft flying through the Canadian and Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zones
In a news release issued Thursday, NORAD says the Canadian combat air patrol included two CF-18 fighters and one KC-135 air tanker.
The news release said U.S. aircraft intercepted the Russian formation as it approached the Alaska-Yukon Territory border. The five aircraft in that combat air patrol included two F-35 fighters, likely from Eielson Air Force Base, along with two KC-135 tankers and an E-3 electronic surveillance plane.
NORAD said the Russian aircraft remained in the air defense ID zone and did not enter sovereign Canadian or U.S. airspace. So they were not considered a threat.
Some media reports suggested the Russian aircraft may have been part of a large-scale Arctic training exercise that wrapped up last week.
Tuesday’s intercept occurred on the same day that an Eielson-based F-35 crashed after a malfunction forced the pilot to declare an in-flight emergency and then eject. The pilot was hospitalized and later released. The Air Force is investigating the cause of the crash.
A few hours after the Russian aircraft intercept, NORAD dispatched two Alaska-based F-16 fighters to Greenland. The news release says that sortie also was not related to any current threat.
