A rare joint flight of Russian and Chinese military aircraft has been intercepted off the coast of Alaska.
The combined US-Canadian North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) dispatched fighter aircraft on 24 July in response to a flight of four bombers, including two Russian Tupolev Tu-95 turboprops and two Chinese Xian H-6 jets.
Both aircraft types are long-range strategic bombers witht their origins in the cold war - the H-6 is based on the Tupolev Tu-16. NORAD did not name the specific variant of H-6, but the H-6N is understood to be nuclear capable.
Whilst the adversarial aircraft did penetrate the Alaska regional air defence interdiction zone (ADIZ), NORAD notes the four bombers did not enter the sovereign airspace of either the USA or Canada.
“This Russian and PRC activity in the Alaska ADIZ is not seen as a threat, and NORAD will continue to monitor competitor activity near North America and meet presence with presence,” the Colorado-based command says.
An ADIZ is a slice of international airspace that begins where sovereign territory ends, but is still monitored and patrolled by national military forces. Entry into a North American ADIZ requires the ready identification of any aircraft operating in the area, according to NORAD.
However, the practice has little regulation or oversight by international aviation authorities, with ADIZ boundaries and rules generally being declared unilaterally by national governments.
Beijing, for instance, declared an air defence zone over the East China Sea in 2013. Neighbouring Taiwan maintains an ADIZ that overlaps with China’s.
Senator Lisa Murkowski, who represents Alaska in US Congress, says she has received a briefing on the matter from NORAD..
In a 25 July post to the social media site X, Murkowski described the joint flight of Chinese and Russian aircraft as an “unprecedented provocation by our adversaries”, describing the incident as the first time military aircraft from the two countries have been intercepted operating together.
China routinely intercepts American and Canadian military aircraft operating over the South China Sea, which Beijing claims as its sovereign territory. That assertion is not backed up by international bodies and China’s claims are disputed by regional neighbours, including the Philippines.
