US Air Force stealth fighter jets intercept 2 Russian nuclear-capable bombers off Alaska coast

US Air Force stealth fighter jets on Friday intercepted two Russian nuclear-capable bombers off the coast of Alaska, a report in Fox News said. The US Northern Command reportedly said that Russian nuclear forces dispatched the two strategic bombers Tu-95 Bear bombers into the 200-mile Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) over the Bering Sea near the Alaska coast.

Northern Command chief was reported in Washington Free Beacon as saying that at approximately 10 a.m. eastern time, two Alaskan-based NORAD F-22 fighters intercepted and visually identified two Russian TU-95 ‘Bear' long-range bomber aircraft flying in the Air Defense Identification Zone off the western coast of Alaska, north of the Aleutian Islands.

The Russian bombers reportedly came within 55 miles of Alaska’s west coast, north of the Aleutian Islands, but remained in international airspace. At no time did the bombers enter North American sovereign airspace. 

The Russian aircraft were monitored by the F-22s until the bombers left the ADIZ along the Aleutian Islands. 

A Russian fighter jet buzzed a US Navy reconnaissance plane in the Baltic Sea earlier this month. The Russian Sukhoi Su-27 jet came within 20 feet of the American P-8 in international airspace.

No unusual activity related to the encounter was reported and there were no communications between the F-22s and bombers. The latest bomber incursion reportedly seems to be part of a pattern of Russian nuclear coercion aimed at the United States.