
US F-22 fighter jets intercept Russian bombers near Alaska - LinuxBender
https://lite.cnn.io/en/article/h_1dfe084f2e9c151eb2f95326e210e03b
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josefresco
Is there more to this story because ...

"A US official previously told CNN that the military sees these flights as
routine and said they pose no concern."

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dguaraglia
That's pretty much all there is to it. You'll read this story about Russian
bombers being spotted near Alaska every few months. I'm not sure we scramble
fighter jets every time they do.

In other words: it's nothing to worry about. At least not in the short term.

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394549
> I'm not sure we scramble fighter jets every time they do.

I thought they did, since scrambling the jets demonstrates to the Russians
that the US's air defense network is tight. It also helps keep the pilots from
getting lax. The Russians do the same thing with the US files near their
airspace.

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josefresco
They expect to be intercepted. It's the _time of response_ that is being
tested.

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Turing_Machine
It's pretty much a given that they'll be intercepted before they reach legal
Alaskan airspace, and a dead certainty that they would never manage to reach
the contiguous United States.

However, I've been told by people in a position to know that the actual game
is to attempt to intercept the Russian planes before they get within cruise
missile range of Anchorage.

The USAF doesn't always manage to do that.

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josefresco
Neat! (and scary) thanks for sharing.

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m3kw9
They scrambled jets probably because they saw 2 Su-35's flanking the bombers
which is unusual.

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dingaling
FLANKERs flanking!

ASCC reporting names had occasional triumphs like that but often they were
blocked and had to pick more mundane names. The original Tu-22 was BEAUTY but
became BLINDER to sound less appreciative. MIG-15 went from FALCON to FAGOT
likewise.

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petermcneeley
"A US official previously told CNN that the military sees these flights as
routine and said they pose no concern."

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CodeTheInternet
Russian bomber runs near Alaska have been ongoing since the Cold War

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Turing_Machine
True enough. The number of incidents went way down during the period between
the fall of the Soviet Union and the rise of Putin, though.

Since Putin has been in power, the number of incidents has jumped back up to
near Cold War levels.

