NORAD F-16s Intercept Russian Spy Plane near Alaska

U.S. Air Force F-16s intercepted a Russian spy plane operating off the coast of Alaska, North American Aerospace Defense Command said in a statement late Aug. 20.

The flight comes less than a week after President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin met at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, for a summit to discuss how to end the war in Ukraine. The base houses F-22 Raptors are sometimes used to intercept Russian warplanes.

There was no discussion during that summit meeting of the two sides changing their own military postures. And the Russian flights and the U.S. intercept are hardly unusual.

The Russian Il-20, known in NATO parlance as the “COOT,” flew in the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone—international airspace that extends out from America’s sovereign territory and is used as a buffer for air defense. That prompted NORAD to send American F-16s, along with a KC-135 aerial refueling tanker for support, to “positively identify and monitor the aircraft,” according to a statement from the joint American-Canadian command that is in charge of protecting the countries’ airspace. 

While Russian Tu-95 bomber flights near Alaska are fairly common—and have been since the Cold War—the Il-20 is a rarer and more secretive plane outfitted with electronic intelligence-gathering equipment. The Russian Air Force is known to have deployed the plane to Syria when Russian forces were there supporting the now-ousted regime of Bashar al-Assad. Syrian forces mistakenly shot down an Il-20 in 2018 in an attempt to down Israeli warplanes that were conducting a bombing mission in the country. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Il-20s have been intercepted numerous times by European air forces while operating in the Baltics.

“The Il-20 flew inside the ADIZ for approximately 1 hour and 12 minutes; the location of the incursion was approximately 25 nautical miles from St. Lawrence Island,” a spokesperson for NORAD told Air & Space Forces Magazine. St. Lawrence Island, part of Alaska, is located south of the Bering Strait, less than 50 miles from the Russian Far East.

“The Russian military aircraft remained in international airspace and did not enter American or Canadian sovereign airspace,” NORAD said in a statement.

USAF has F-16s assigned to NORAD at Eielson Air Force Base near Fairbanks, Alaska—the likely launching point for the American aircraft.

While the Alaskan ADIZ has close proximity to Russia, NORAD stated that the airspace requires the “ready identification of all aircraft in the interest of national security,” which prompts multiple intercepts with Russian aircraft a year. 

Last month, NORAD intercepted two Russian Tu-95 Bear bombers and Su-35 Flanker fighter jets that were escorting them when they strayed into the ADIZ for some three hours.

In its statement, NORAD stressed the Il-20 flight Aug. 20 “is not seen as a threat.”

The flight does, however, come against a backdrop of strained peace efforts between the U.S., Ukraine, and Russia.

On Aug. 21, Trump appear to implicitly endorse Ukrainian strikes inside of Russia. “It is very hard, if not impossible, to win a war without attacking an invaders country,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. “It’s like a great team in sports that has a fantastic defense, but is not allowed to play offense. There is no chance of winning! It is like that with Ukraine and Russia.”

“Interesting times ahead!!!” Trump concluded.