The U.S. military detected and tracked four Russian military planes off the coast of Alaska Monday amid a spike in such activity from Moscow off the U.S. coast.
The four Russian aircraft were operating in the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ), the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) said in a statement late Monday.
While the ADIZ is just outside U.S. sovereign airspace, the portion of international airspace does require all aircraft to readily identify themselves in the interest of national security.
“The Russian aircraft remained in international airspace and did not enter American or Canadian sovereign airspace,” according to the statement. “This Russian activity in the Alaska ADIZ occurs regularly and is not seen as a threat.”
Officials did not release further details as to what type of military planes they were.
The activity comes days after the U.S. military deployed about 130 troops to a remote location in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands armed with mobile rocket launchers.