NEW YORK, February 15. /TASS/. Fighter jets of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) were scrambled on Monday to intercept Russia’s Tu-95MS strategic bombers and Su-35 fighter jets, NORAD said on Tuesday.
"The Alaskan Region of North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) detected, tracked, positively identified and intercepted four Russian aircraft entering and operating within the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) on Feb. 13, 2023," NORAD said on Twitter.
"The Russian aircraft included TU-95 BEAR-H and SU-35 fighter aircraft," it said.
According to the NORAD statement, Russian planes "remained in international airspace and did not enter American or Canadian sovereign airspace."
"This Russian activity in the North American ADIZ occurs regularly and is not seen as a threat, nor is the activity seen as provocative," the press service said, adding that on average, around six or seven similar interceptions take place every year.
NORAD also assesses that this Russian flight activity "is in no way related to recent NORAD and US Northern Command operations associated with airborne objects over North
America during the last two weeks."
Earlier on Tuesday, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that two Tu-95MS turboprop strategic bombers (NATO reporting name: Bear) performed a flight above neutral waters of the Bering Sea. The mission continued for more than seven hours.
Russian long-range aviation crews regularly fly over international waters above the Arctic, the North Atlantic, the Black and Baltic seas, and the Pacific Ocean. All planes of the Russian Aerospace Forces perform their flights in strict compliance with international rules.
Tu-95 MC is a Soviet and Russian turboprop strategic bomber of the Long Range Aviation of the Russian Aerospace Forces. It is meant for destroying by a wide range of arms, including nuclear weapons, targets in remote military geographical districts and in the deep rear of continental theatres of military hostilities. The Tu-95MC modification was designed in the 1970s. It has a multi-positional ejection installation for the deployment of long-range cruise missiles.
The maximum takeoff weights is 185 tons; combat load is 25 tons; practical range is 10,500 km. The crew consists of seven members.