US scrambles fighter jets to track 4th Russian spy plane near Alaska in less than week

U S military fighter jets were scrambled on Tuesday to track a Russian spy plane detected flying near Alaska the North American Aerospace Defense Command NORAD It was the fourth time in less than a week that the military command has detected and tracked a Russian IL- COOT a Cold War-era reconnaissance aircraft in the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone ADIZ a stretch of international airspace that requires the ready identification of all aircraft in the interest of national precaution according to NORAD The same type of Russian aircraft flew over the region on Aug Aug and Aug the military command announced In each of the four instances NORAD responded with its own fighter jets to track the spy plane NATO SCRAMBLES WARPLANES AS RUSSIA HITS NEAR ROMANIAN MARGIN IN UKRAINEIn the latest detection on Tuesday NORAD scrambled an E- Sentry two F- s and one KC- tanker to track the spy plane NORAD noted the Russian military aircraft remained in international airspace and did not enter American or Canadian sovereign airspace adding that such Russian activity in the Alaskan ADIZ occurs regularly and is not seen as a threat NORAD employs a layered defense infrastructure of satellites ground-based and airborne radars and fighter aircraft to detect and track aircraft and inform appropriate actions the military command mentioned NORAD remains ready to employ a number of response options in defense of North America RUSSIA SAYS NATO THREATENS WWIII IN LATEST DETERRENCE PLAN THAT COULD TAKE DOWN KALININGRAD FASTER THAN EVER In July NORAD shared images of U S fighter jets intercepting Russian military aircraft inside the ADIZ Other detections of Russian military aircraft in the ADIZ this year happened in April and twice in February when NORAD noted an F- Lightning II fighter jet intercepted two Russian Tu- and Su- military aircraft in the ADIZ In all these previous instances NORAD declared the Russian aircraft remained in international airspace Earlier in January NORAD explained it sent a combat air patrol unit to monitor multiple Russian military aircraft activity in the Arctic Fox News' Liz Friden contributed to this summary