Bears Wandering Alaska
North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) set forth in a 13 February 2023 statement that United States Air Force F-16 fighter jets had intercepted a number of Russian military aircraft that penetrated and briefly operated within the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ). The intercepted Russian aircraft reportedly included a pair of Tu-95 “Bear” bombers, functionally obsolete 1950s-vintage, quad-turboprops; and a Su-35 “Flanker,” a formidable, single-seat, twin-engine, supermaneuverable aircraft designed and built by Russia’s Sukhoi Design Bureau.