In a heart-stopping video released by U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, a Russian fighter jet recklessly came just a few feet away from an American Air Force jet patrolling Alaska’s coastal defense zone on Sept. 23.
“The reckless and unprofessional maneuvers of Russian fighter aircraft—within just a few feet of our Alaska-based fighters—in Alaska’s ADIZ on September 23 put the lives of our brave Airmen at risk and underscore the escalating aggression we’re witnessing from dictators like Vladimir Putin,” Sullivan noted on social media. The video demonstrates that the act was an intentional provocation.
“These tactics stand in stark contrast to the skill and discipline of our Alaska-based service members who are on the front lines at all hours in defense of our entire country. I want to commend our Airmen for consistently and professionally executing these complex intercept missions. We need to answer force with force and continue building up America’s military presence in Alaska and the Arctic with more infrastructure, like the strategic Arctic port at Nome and reopening the Adak Naval Base, and more military assets,” Sullivan said.
The video was also provided by NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defense Command.
“The conduct of one Russian Su-35 was unsafe, unprofessional, and endangered all – not what you’d see in a professional air force,” Gen. Gregory Guillot, commander of the United States Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command, said in a statement.
NORAD deployed jets to fly a “safe and disciplined intercept” of the Russian aircraft in the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone, an area beyond U.S. sovereign air space, but where pilots are expected to identify their aircraft.
The video was released a week after NORAD said four Russian military planes were detected and tracked off the coast of Alaska. About 130 U.S. soldiers and a mobile rocket launcher were deployed to Shemya, a remote Alaska island, as an increase in Russian military activity off the coast has caught the attention of the Pentagon.
Eight Russian military planes and four Russian Navy ships, including submarines, have spent the month patrolling close to Alaska during joint Russia-China military drills. None of the jets came into actual U.S. airspace but have been detected several times before this Sept. 23 incident — Sept. 11, 13, 14, and 15.
