Russian Strategic Bombers Skirt Alaska Coastline for Second Day in a Row

Russian TU-95 Strategic Bomber in flight. Image-DoD
Russian TU-95 Strategic Bomber in flight. Image-DoD

For the second day in a row, Russian bombers were detected off of the coast of Alaska.

Two Russian TU-95 Bear bombers entered the military’s Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ), which extends 200 miles from the nation’s coastline and skirted the Aleutian Chain on the Bering Sea side as close as 36 miles from shore, on a heading toward the mainland to the northeast.

The nuclear-capable airborne duo was detected at 5 pm on Tuesday evening.

Unlike Monday’s incursion, F-22 Raptors out of Elmendorf were not scrambled, instead, an Air Force E-3 AWAC was scrambled from the base to monitor and ascertain that there were no additional aircraft with the bombers.

While no Russian bombers have approached U.S. airspace on over two years, Russia has flown two missions near Alaska’s coast in as many days.

As Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was meeting in Russia, three strategic bombers flew near Japan’s coastline, prompting them to scramble 14 fighter jets to intercept.[xyz-ihs snippet=”Adsense-responsive”]