Two Russian Military Aircraft Detected in Alaskan Airspace

Two Russian jets entered an air defense zone just outside of Alaskan airspace on Thursday—the second time this week that such an incident has occurred.

The military jets were tracked operating in the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) but remained in international airspace and did not enter American or Canadian sovereign airspace, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) said in a statement the same day.

The flights were observed after four Russian jets entered the ADIZ on Tuesday, sparking a similar statement from NORAD.

It follows suggestions from Moscow that it had a claim to sovereignty over Alaska, which the U.S. has brushed off. Alaska was bought by the U.S. in 1867 from Russia and became a state in 1959.

It remains unclear, though, for what reason the Russian military aircraft may have been flying in the Alaska ADIZ. Newsweek approached the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs via email for comment on Friday.

An ADIZ begins where sovereign airspace ends and is defined as a stretch of international airspace in which the identification of aircraft in the interest of national security is required.

"This Russian activity in the Alaska ADIZ occurs regularly and is not seen as a threat," NORAD said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree in late January allocating funding for the search, registration and legal protection of Russian property abroad—which included property in its former territories as the Russian Empire and later the Soviet Union.

While the Washington, D.C.-based Institute for the Study of War think tank noted that the "exact parameters of what constitutes current or historical Russian property are unclear," the new property management agency's remit could include Alaska, vast swathes of eastern and central Europe—including in countries that are now NATO allies—as well as parts of central Asia and Scandinavia.

After the U.S. State Department brushed off claims that the sale of Alaska had been illegitimate, Dmitry Medvedev, a former Russian president and Putin acolyte, said: "Now war is unavoidable."

In July last year, four Russian military aircraft were detected by NORAD in the Alaska ADIZ.

Prior to that, on May 15, the U.S. was forced to send fighter jets to intercept a Russian military aircraft after it entered the Alaska ADIZ during a large-scale American military training exercise in the region.

Days earlier, on May 11, the U.S. intercepted six Russian military jets, again during American training exercises. Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder said at the time: "It's not the first Russian flight. It probably won't be the last."

Update 2/9/24, 4:20 a.m. E.T: This article was updated to include further information.