Russians Testing Frontier Air Defenses

A Japanese F-15 fired a flare in its intercept of a Russian spy plane that Japan claims violated its airspace three times in a sortie off the north coast. The appearance of the IL-38, a Cold War-era long-range patrol aircraft, was part of an escalation of such confrontations on Russia's frontier in recent weeks. For at least the fourth time in two weeks, NORAD fighters scrambled to confront Russian aircraft off Alaska on Sunday.

NORAD said in a news release that since last Wednesday they've tracked TU-142 reconnaissance aircraft and IL-38s but they haven't crossed the air defense identification zone (IDIZ) line and entered Alaskan or Canadian airspace. NORAD said they were "not seen as a threat." Some news outlets drew the link between the uptick in aerial surveillance and the deployment of a quick-reaction Army ground force called the Arctic in the far reaches of the Alaska Archipelago on Shemya Island in response to Russian exercises in the region.