A Russian Ilyushin IL-20M surveillance plane flies near Japan on Feb. 12, 2025. (Japan Air Self-Defense Force)
For the third time in less than a week, a Russian intelligence-gathering plane was intercepted Sunday in the expansive Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone, according to a NORAD news release that day.
NORAD scrambled two fighters, an early warning and control aircraft and two aerial refuelers to intercept the Ilyushin IL-20 Coot, the release said.
NORAD responded to two other Coot electronic signals gatherers in the Alaskan zone, the first on Wednesday and a second on Thursday. In both cases, the command sent two F-16 Fighting Falcons, an E-3 Sentry and one KC-135 refueler.
On Sunday, the Russian plane flew inside the identification zone for approximately 55 minutes about 50 miles west of Point Hope, Alaska, according to email Monday from Canadian Armed Forces Capt. Rebecca Garand, a NORAD spokeswoman. Point Hope, a town of about 700 people, occupies a spit that juts into the Chukchi Sea in northwestern Alaska.
In all three cases, NORAD said Russian intrusions into the zone occur regularly and typically do not present a threat to U.S. or Canadian security. None of the Russian flights entered U.S. or Canadian airspace, according to NORAD.
Three incursions in a week represents an increase in Russian flights into the region but the number of flights varies, Garand said.
“Since Russia resumed Long-Range Aviation activities in 2007, the number of incursions fluctuates annually, but we have seen as many as 15 in one year to as low as zero,” she said.
An air defense identification zone, or ADIZ, extends into international airspace 12 miles from the coastline, where sovereign airspace ends.
The Alaskan zone covers a vast area that includes the Aleutian Islands and large portions of the Arctic Ocean, the Bering Sea and the northern Pacific.