Russian spy plane in Alaska: US scrambles fighter jets third time in week to intercept Moscow's aircraft

Russia deployed a spy plane near Alaska, making it the third time in a week that the US had to launch its fighter jets to intercept it, the North American Aerospace Defense Command has said in a statement.

A Russian plane was spotted inside the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone, which lies just outside of US and Canadian sovereign space, on Sunday. Norad, however, stated that this type of Russian activity is not considered a threat and occurs frequently in the identification zone.

On Sunday, NORAD detected and tracked an IL-20 COOT, a Cold War-era reconnaissance aircraft used by the Russian military, in the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone. This followed sightings of the same type of aircraft over the region on Wednesday and Thursday.

The military command says that each instance was responded to by scrambling US jets to keep a close eye on the spy planes. The Russian aircraft, however, did not enter US or Canadian sovereign territory and remained in the international zone off the coast of Alaska.

The sightings come weeks after President Trump met his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in Alaska, making it the first time in several years that the Russian leader to step foot on US soil.

At the same time, Russian planes have also been found in the airspace near Alaska throughout the year. Back in January, the US and Canada scrambled fighter jets to intercept Russian warplanes over the Arctic, an incident that drew attention amid rising geopolitical tensions in the region. At the time, the US military reported deploying two fighter jets to Greenland to “forward posture NORAD presence in the Arctic.”