For the fourth time since the terrorist attacks on September 11 of this year, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) said it picked up signals of Russian military planes in U.S. airspace. NORAD reported the radar contact with the Russian planes on September 15 off the coast of Alaska.
The aircraft turned out to be two Russian IL-38s. These are four-engine turboprop bombers first developed in the mid-1960s. NORAD tracked them inside what is called the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ), according to a press release. The planes did not actually leave international airspace and invade U.S. airspace, nor did they cross over into Canadian airspace. NORAD said Russian planes are commonly found in this zone, and their mere presence does not constitute a threat.
NORAD took the same view of the earlier three radar contact incidents that took place last week on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. NORAD is a joint project of the U.S. and Canada, and NORAD planes intercepted two Russian craft for the first time on Wednesday, September 11. Then on Friday, September 13, NORAD picked up evidence of two Russian TU-142s within the zone. That plane is also a four-engine turboprop that operates as an anti-submarine weapon.
The ADIZ zone around Alaska marks a region of international airspace that begins where a nation’s own airspace ends. All aircraft within that zone are required to identify themselves.
NORAD uses a network of radar both on the ground and on planes, as well as a grid of satellites to track aircraft movement across the airspace around North America. If a genuine threat is detected, the agency will send up jet fighters to deal with the problem.
This past summer NORAD intercepted a pair of Chinese bombers and a pair from Russia that were flying together near Alaska.
NORAD was first created in 1947 as a defensive agency to protect North America from Soviet Union aggression at the beginning of the cold war. If it sounds familiar that is because it is the military agency that makes a special effort at Christmas to track Santa Claus as children prepare for bed on Christmas Eve.
