Air Force intercepts two Russian bombers near Alaska

Oct. 19 (UPI) -- The United States sent two fighter jets to intercept two Russian bombers flying in international airspace off the coast of Alaska, U.S. military officials said.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command said that it had "detected, tracked, positively identified and intercepted" the aircraft as they were "entering and operating within the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone." NORAD added that the two Russian Tu-95 Bear-H bombers did not enter American sovereign airspace.

NBC News said that NORAD did not see the Russian activity as a threat or provocative, but the situation has grown more tense since Russia invaded Ukraine.

Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon's top spokesman, said the incident remained safe and professional and noted such interactions over international waters near Alaska occur regularly, Stars and Stripes reported.

Ryder did not say precisely how far from U.S. airspace the Tu-95s flew nor how long the incident lasted.

U.S. officially typically expect aircraft entering the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone - a stretch of mostly international airspace some 200 nautical miles off the Alaskan coast - to identify themselves in the interest of national security.