(NEW YORK) — United States and Canadian fighter jets intercepted four Russian and Chinese bombers flying in international airspace near Alaska on Wednesday, officials said.
This marked the first time that Chinese military aircraft had been intercepted in that area, according to U.S. official, and the first time that Russian and Chinese bombers had flown together near Alaska. .
North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) said in a statement that it had “detected, tracked, and intercepted two Russian TU-95 and two PRC [Peoples Republic of China] H-6 military aircraft operating in the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) on July 24, 2024.”
NORAD said that American and Canadian fighter jets conducted the intercept and noted that the Russian and Chinese remained in international airspace and did not enter American or Canadian airspace.
“This is the first time we’ve seen these two countries fly together like that, they didn’t enter our airspace” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters Thursday at a Pentagon news conference.
“They’re testing us and that’s no surprise to any of us,” adding that the United States had “closely monitored these aircraft, tracked the aircraft, intercepted the aircraft, and which demonstrates that our you know, our forces are at the ready all the time, and we have very good surveillance capabilities.”
“We will see challenges from adversaries throughout and I don’t think that this particular point in time, is any different,” Austin said when asked why he thought Russia and China would undertake such a mission at this time.
“I think we’ll continue to see this going forward. It’s just a nature of who they are and what they do,” he added.
U.S. territorial airspace and waters extend at a distance of 12 nautical miles from the shoreline, but the ADIZ is a zone that stretches out 150 miles from the U.S. coastline, where the U.S. requires aircraft to identify themselves.
It is not unusual for Russian bombers flying through the ADIZ to be intercepted, as was the case in February and March.
But Wednesday’s joint Russian and Chinese flight was the first such occurrence in that zone and was notable for being the first intercept of Chinese military aircraft near Alaska.
NORAD stressed that the flight “is not seen as a threat” and that it will continue to monitor activity near North America “and meet presence with presence.”
“During the flight, Russian and Chinese crews cooperated in the new area of joint operations during all stages of the air patrol,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement describing the five hour joint operation it said had flown over the Chukchi Sea, Bering, Sea, and the north Pacific Ocean.
“At some stages of the route, the air group was accompanied by fighters from foreign countries,” said the Russian statement that was later accompanied by video showing the takeoff of the Russian and Chinese bombers from a base in eastern Russia.
American F-16 and F-35 aircraft as well as Canadian CF-18’s escorted the Russian and Chinese bombers for close to an hour until they left the area.
The joint Russian and Chinese flight mission reflects the growing military ties between the two nations.
Earlier this week, a top Defense Department official noted China’s growing military interest in the Arctic region and cooperation with Russia as the Pentagon unveiled its latest Arctic Strategy.
“Melting Arctic ice caps are opening new shipping lanes and attracting increased interest and activity from both the People’s Republic of China and Russia,” said Kathleen Hicks, the Deputy Secretary of Defense.
“More troubling, we’ve seen growing cooperation between the PRC and Russia in the Arctic, commercially with the PRC being a major funder of Russian energy exploitation in the Arctic and increasingly militarily with Russia and China conducting joint exercises off the coast of Alaska,” she said.
Another top official said that in recent years the U.S. has seen China’s military operating “more regularly” in the region noting the presence of several Chinese warships off the coast of Alaska a few weeks ago and in recent combined exercises with Russia in the same area.
“We’re keeping a watchful eye on how they’re developing their capacity for operating in the region,” Iris Ferguson, deputy assistant Secretary of Defense for Arctic and Global Resilience, told reporters Monday.
“As we say in the department, you know, they are our long-term pacing challenge. And I think that includes in the Arctic.”
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