U.S. fighter jets were scrambled for a third time in less than a week on Aug. 24 to intercept Russian military planes flying near Alaska, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) said in a statement.
On Sunday evening, NORAD confirmed that it detected and tracked a Russian IL-20 COOT surveillance aircraft that was operating within the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ).
In response, NORAD scrambled an E-3, two F-16s, and two KC-135 tankers to intercept and identify the Russian plane in the Alaskan zone, the statement added. The statement did not provide other details on exactly where the encounter occurred….