Twin F-22 Raptor fighters were scrambled out of Anchorage on Monday evening as two Russian TU-95 Bear bombers were detected approaching the area of Kodiak Island, the Pentagon is reporting.

The Raptors flew to an area approximately 100 miles off of the Kodiak Archipelago supported by an E-3 Sentry radar aircraft and a KC-135 tanker out of Elmendorf.

After intercepting the bombers, the F-22 Raptors stayed with the bombers for 12 minutes as the bombers turned away to the southwest and headed back towards the Asian mainland, skirting Alaska approximately 100 miles south of the Aleutian Chain arc. The bombers were tracked as they moved to the east out of the monitoring zone.

This is the first time in two years since any similar incursions have taken place near Alaska airspace.

[xyz-ihs snippet=”Adsense-responsive”]

  airspace, Alaska, alska, bear, bombers, elmendorf, f-22, fairbanks, gulf of alaska, intercept, kc-135, kodiak island, raptors, Russia, sentry, tanker, tu-95