The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) detected and tracked two Russian TU-142 military aircraft operating in the Alaskan and Canadian Air Defense Identification Zones (ADIZ) on March 4, 2026.
NORAD launched two U.S. Air Force F-35 fighter aircraft, two F-22 fighter aircraft, four KC-135 tankers, one E-3 AWACS, two Canadian CF-18 fighter aircraft, and one CC-150 tanker to positively identify, monitor, and intercept the Russian aircraft in the American and Canadian Air Defense Identification Zones.
The Russian aircraft remained in international airspace and did not enter American or Canadian sovereign airspace. This Russian activity in the Alaskan and Canadian ADIZ occurs regularly and is not seen as a threat.
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An ADIZ begins where sovereign airspace ends and is a defined stretch of international airspace that requires the ready identification of all aircraft in the interest of national security.
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Glad to see that in there because I was worried for a moment that my first reaction to seeing the headline being “this probably happens all the time and someone just decided that now is a good time to tell us all about it for some specific reason” was too cynical.
the only period when it stopped happening much was when the Russians were super-broke and in a friendly period. That went away very soon after the Yeltsin-Putin transition.
Russia has been restoring its military presence in the Arctic. In the past decade, it has revitalized Soviet-era bases, deployed missile defense systems, invested in domain awareness capabilities, increased aerial and maritime patrols, and stepped up its exercise schedule.
In response, NATO members and (the U.S., Canada, Sweden, Finland) increased their own regional military capabilities with a commensurate uptick in exercises, deployments, patrols, and capability investments.
You can see some information in the Arctic Military Activity Tracker.