U.S. F-22 Fighter jets successfully intercepted four nuclear capable Russian Tu-95 bombers that were flying dangerously close to Alaskan airspace.
The bombers, which are capable of carrying nuclear weapons, were then safely escorted away from U.S. airspace.
As The Daily Star reports:
US fighter jets have intercepted and escorted four Russian nuclear-capable bombers flying near Alaska.
Russia claimed the 11-hour flight, carried out by its Tupolev Tu-95MS bombers, complied with international law and that US F-22 Raptor tactical fighters had accompanied its planes during some stages of their flight.
The Russian Defence Ministry said in a statement: “Four strategic Tu-95MS missile carriers of the Russian Aerospace Forces’ long-range aviation conducted a planned flight over the neutral waters of the Chukchi Sea, the Bering Sea, the Sea of Okhotsk, and the northern part of the Pacific Ocean.”
Although Finland and Sweden are not members of NATO, they took part in the escort mission.
We conduct similar missions as part of a mutual “game” countries play to see how the other will respond, collect intel, and then go back home. At least we aren’t as bad as when Curtis LeMay was in charge and the soviets were far behind us when he actually flew full bombing missions over soviet cities without full knowledge of the DOD or the the PRESIDENT at the times ( 50”s) Heck in WWII Germany even flew full missions until the saw NYC and returned in practice runs for bombing America with an A-bomb. yea I know but there is fair common knowledge that they were working on one – perhaps even exploded one in Poland as a test which is why defeating them was so critical. It’s been gaping on for decades PLUS they were allowed – as we were – with permission to fly full recon missions ov er each other’s countries to verify the nuclear arms treaty – so there were soviet bombers flying full
monitored mission across all of America and visa versa
who do you calling stupid you dumd bastard.
Maybe, just maybe, this was one time we should have let them through so they could have dropped a couple on Alaska Senator Murkowski’s head. Sometimes it takes a extra special event to change stupid.
The russian have been dolng this sort off game to many times and and somehow they get away with .and the reason is very simple, the pentagon is full of political correct generals that are a treat to our nation. The are more interested in their on stupid agenda than the safety of our country. they are traitors. the best way to deal with the russian and china is to stand up to them.
Used to have to do these intercepts a lot back then in the cold war days.
When I lived in Alaska, this happened weekly. This is not new…
You’re so right. My wing at Eielson AFB even once got into the act. A Tu-95 Bear actually overflew the Seward Peninsula while ADC was asleep at the switch and had no fighters on alert.
So they asked Eielson AFB if the had any aircraft that could respond. It just so happened we had an Boeing RC-135 on a training mission in the area. So it snuck up on the Bear.
In Russian it asked them if they were lost and needed help. After telling them where they came from and the name of their base controller they were speaking to, they escorted out of the area. While it surprised the Russians, as fellow airmen they were courteous. I guess they were used to getting intercepted by such a large heavily UNARMED aircraft.
Upon getting home the squadron painted a red star on the fuselage near the nose.