Air Force intercepts Russian bombers off Alaska

Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage scrambled two F-15s Tuesday morning to escort two Russian Bear long-range bombers out of an air exclusion zone off the coast of Alaska, military officials told AlaskaReport.com.

U.S. radar picked up the Russian turbo-prop Tupolev-95 planes about 500 miles off the Alaska coast. The U.S. fighters were dispatched to meet the bombers and escorted them out of the area without incident, the officials said.

Accompanied by two Il-78 refueling tankers, the two Tu-95 "Bear" bombers flew for 15 hours over the Arctic and Pacific oceans, Interfax news agency quoted Russian Air Force spokesman Alexander Drobyshevsky as saying, reports Reuters.

The United States maintains the air exclusion zone off the coast of Alaska, barring unidentified aircraft or aircraft that don't file flight plans inside that area.

The last case of Russian aircraft approaching the U.S. coastline or ships in the Pacific was in February.

Then, four Bear bombers flew near the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz, with one of them flying about 2,000 feet from the Nimitz's deck.

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