Russian warplanes detected flying near Alaska for ninth time this year, US military says

U.S. fighter jets scrambled to identify and intercept four Russian warplanes flying near Alaska, the North American Aerospace Defense Command said Thursday. It's the third time in about a month and the ninth time this year that NORAD has reported such an incident involving Russian aircraft flying near Alaska. Nine U.S. aircraft — an E-3 Sentry command and control aircraft, four F-16s and four KC-135 tankers — scrambled to positively identify and intercept the Russian jets, NORAD said.