Provocative Moves From Russia: Bombers Spotted off Alaskan Coast Twice Within 24 Hours
[Washington DC] TU-95 Bear Russian bombers have been spotted flying as close as 36 nautical miles off the mainland Alaskan coast on Tuesday. Just hours prior, the U.S. Air Force sent two F-22 fighter jets to intercept the same type of Russian aircraft.
According to a US defense official, a Boeing E-3 Sentry, commonly known as AWACS, was scrambled in response to the second instance.
It is still unclear if the most recent TU-95 bombers were the same planes that were intercepted on Monday, but defense officials said it was a separate violation regardless.
US military officials told CNN this is "nothing out of the ordinary" and "not dissimilar from what we've seen in the past with respect to Russian long-range aviation."
During a Wolf Blitzer interview with Illinois Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger, he claimed, "[Russia is] trying to show their teeth by flying so close to the US coastline amid tensions between the two nations."
In the same interview, Kinzinger said, "This was a show of force by the Russians to show us that they are still here. It was an attempt to come up as close as they could to our international borders to see what our reaction would be."
View images from the U.S. Air Force Fleet below (Credit: CNN.com, Airforce.com)
