I still pay attention to aviation news from the Top of the World: on Thursday, July 24th, two Russian Aerospace Forces Tu-95 Bears and two Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force Xian H-6 Badgers* took off from a Russian air base and flew a five-hour patrol over the Chukchi Sea, Bering Sea, and northern Pacific Ocean. Per the linked article, this was the eighth combined Russian/Chinese bomber patrol since they started flying them in 2019, with previous ones conducted over the Sea of Japan, East China Sea, and the western Pacific. Last week’s mission was the first to penetrate the Alaskan ADIZ, my old stomping grounds.
The Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone, which extends well into international waters north, west, and south of Alaska, encompasses most of the area transited by the Russian and Chinese bombers last week. As we routinely do, we met presence with presence by intercepting and escorting the bombers with American and Canadian fighters assigned to North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). In the only photo I can be certain** is from that intercept, you can see one of the Chinese Badgers being escorted by, from left to right, a USAF F-16, a USAF F-35, and an RCAF CF-18.
In my day, intercepting potential enemy aircraft in the Alaska ADIZ, the potential enemy was Russia. China was not a factor. They didn’t have much of an Air Force in the 1980s, nor many aircraft with the range to operate that far north — besides which, China was on the outs with the USSR.
Last week’s mission must have been quite an undertaking on Russia and China’s part. Not just bombers, crewmembers, and support personnel (plus pilots and support troops of the Russian fighters escorting the bombers during parts of the flight), but command and control personnel from both nations, on the ground and in the air. It must all have been planned well in advance, and whatever message it sent to the West was intentional.
On our side? Much the same — a sizeable cast of folks and equipment. From manned and unmanned radar sites, intelligence listening posts in Alaska and the Aleutians, plus satellites in orbit; American and Canadian personnel assigned to NORAD; fighter pilots and ground support personnel from two countries; crewmembers of air refueling tankers and Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out we must have learned the Chinese and Russians would be flying the mission sufficiently ahead of time to pull off this well-publicized intercept.
I’ve been there and know how this stuff works. You can read about my Alaska ADIZ interceptions here. Although my experiences date back to the 1980s, the details from last week were very familiar to me and involved much the same mix of command, control, equipment, and support.
A couple of things are different, of course. For one, as noted, Russia and China flying combined bomber patrols. For another, RCAF fighter participation. In my day, there were no Canadian interceptors based anywhere near Alaska, and the USAF conducted Alaska ADIZ intercepts on its own. Yes, the Alaska headquarters of NORAD, manned by American and Canadian personnel, ran those intercepts out of Elmendorf AFB near Anchorage, and radar controllers of both nations flew together on AWACS aircraft, but Canadian fighters were too far away to come play. These days the RCAF operates a forward operating base at Inuvik in the Northern Territories, but that too is pretty distant, and I wouldn’t be surprised to learn the two CF-18s participating in last week’s intercept had flown into one of our Alaska bases ahead of time. As for the mix of USAF fighters on this mission, F-16s and F-35s, both types are based at Eielson AFB near Fairbanks. Where were the F-22s from Elmendorf, and why weren’t they sharing the glory? I don’t know, and I’m trying to find out.
*If Russian and Chinese aircrews have nicknames for the aircraft they fly, I don’t know them. “Bear” is the NATO reporting name for the Russia’s Tupolev Tu-95 bomber. “Badger” is the reporting name for Russia’s Tupolev Tu-16 bomber and also for China’s Xian H-6, a license-built copy.
**Of the photos I’ve used here, the only one I’m certain was taken on July 24th is the second from the top, because it shows a Chinese Badger being escorted by each of the American and Canadian fighters reported to have participated in the interception. There won’t have been any other such photos, because those four aircraft types have never flown together before. The top photo, showing a Russian and Chinese bomber in formation, was taken by the Chinese and may have come from an earlier combined patrol. I mentioned the Russian fighters that accompanied the Russian and Chinese bombers on last week’s flight: I’ve seen photos purporting to show them, but I’m pretty sure they’re stock photos used by news organizations to spice up their reports. More to the point, I haven’t seen a single photo showing Russian and Chinese bombers together with Russian fighters and the American and Canadian interceptors. For a mission getting this much hype — on our side and theirs — if there was such a photo you can bet it would be plastered all over the news. If one turns up, I’ll update this post and include it.