US, Canada fighter jets intercept Russian and Chinese bombers near Alaska

US, Canada fighter jets intercept Russian and Chinese bombers near Alaska  US, Canada fighter jets intercept Russian and Chinese bombers

Transcript

00:00The North American Aerospace Defense Command, also known as NORAD, says it intercepted two

00:07Russian and two Chinese bombers flying near Alaska.

00:11The intercept was carried out by U.S. and Canadian fighter jets.

00:15NORAD says the bombers remained in international airspace and were not seen as a threat.

00:21China and Russia have confirmed that they conducted a joint air patrol over the Bering

00:25Sea which divides Russia and Alaska.

00:28NORAD says it will continue to monitor competitor activity near North America and meet quote

00:34presence with presence.

00:37This was not a surprise to us.

00:38We closely monitored these aircraft, tracked the aircraft, intercepted the aircraft, which

00:47demonstrates that our forces are at the ready all the time and we have very good surveillance

00:55capabilities.

00:56It's the first time that we've seen these two countries fly together.

00:59They didn't enter our airspace.

01:03I think the closest point of approach was about 200 miles off of our coast.

01:11But this is a thing that we tracked very closely.

01:14We're able to intercept and if it happens again, if there's any kind of challenge from

01:21any direction, I have every confidence that NORTHCOM and NORAD will be at the ready and

01:28will be able to intercept.

01:29In terms of the relationship between Russia and China, this is a relationship that we

01:37have been concerned about throughout, mostly because we're concerned about China providing

01:45support to Russia's illegal and unnecessary war in Ukraine.

01:51We've seen evidence of that and we would hope that that would cease going forward.

01:58We'll see what happens and how this relationship continues to develop.

02:02We will remain focused on protecting the homeland here and again, I applaud the efforts of NORTHCOM

02:07and our great airmen who are always at the ready.

02:10As to whether or not our adversaries are testing us at this particular time, they're

02:16always testing us and that's no surprise to any of us.

02:22We see activity in the north on a number of occasions and we're always at the ready to

02:28test.