Four Russian military aircraft were tracked operating in the Alaska air defense identification zone (ADIZ) on Monday, according to a release by the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) on the same day. Meanwhile, Japanese news agency Kyodo News on Monday reported that the commanding officer of a Japan Maritime Self Defense Force (JMSDF) destroyer was sacked for an incident in July in which the destroyer sailed into Chinese territorial waters.
“The Russian aircraft remained in international airspace and did not enter American or Canadian sovereign airspace. This Russian activity in the Alaska ADIZ occurs regularly and is not seen as a threat,” read the release. An ADIZ begins where sovereign airspace ends and is a defined stretch of international airspace that requires the ready identification of all aircraft in the interest of national security.
The release did not disclose the aircraft type detected. The Russian Ministry of Defense on Tuesday issued a release stating that two Tu-95MS bombers carried out a planned flight over the neutral waters of the Bering Sea near the western coast of Alaska, though it did not state when the flight occurred.
The flight lasted more than 11 hours with fighter escort provided by Su-35S and Su-30SM fighter aircraft, “All flights are carried out in strict accordance with the International Rules for the Use of Airspace,” stated the release.
Also on Monday, NORAD released on Pentagon media channel DVIDS three photographs of intercepts by U.S. Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcons of Russian aircraft. NORAD did not release exact dates of the intercepts, only stating they took place in September this year under Operation Noble Eagle, the name given to air sovereignty and air defense missions in North America.The first photo showed a single Tu-142 maritime patrol aircraft (MPA) being intercepted, while the second and third photos both showed two IL-38s MPA being intercepted individually.
Prior to Monday’s release, NORAD had issued four releases in September about Russian aircraft being detected operating in the Alaska ADIZ. The first release, issued on Sept. 11 only stated that two Russian military aircraft were detected and did not identify the aircraft type. The second release on Sept. 13 identified the Russian aircraft as two Tu-142s, while two separate releases on Sept. 15 were each about two IL-38s being detected.
While sailing and flights occurring outside the 12-nautical-mile limit of sovereign waters and airspace are legal, both ships and aircraft have occasionally, deliberately or accidentally, breached the limit as was the case with Russia’s violation of Japanese airspace on Monday.
In a Tuesday press conference Japanese Defense Minister Minoru Kihara stated that the Japanese Ministry of Defense (MOD) and Self Defense Force was concerned about the recent violations of its airspace by Russian and Chinese aircraft. “The Ministry of Defense and the Self-Defense Forces have a strong sense of crisis over these kinds of cases that have occurred successively in such a short period in waters and airspace surrounding our nation,” said Kihara, referring to Monday’s incident and an Aug. 26 violation of Japanese airspace by a Chinese Y-9 electronic intelligence aircraft.
Kihara also confirmed that the commanding officer of destroyer JS Suzutsuki (DD-117) had been reassigned in the same month following a Jul. 4 incident in which the destroyer sailed into Chinese waters within 12 nm off the coast of Zhejiang Province while conducting a surveillance mission on an ongoing People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) exercise. The Japanese defense chief declined to state whether the reassignment was because of the incident, stating that the Japanese military routinely changed its personnel but the MOD does not disclose the reason for changes in regards to individuals.
Kyodo News had earlier on Monday reported on the dismissal of the commanding officer of Suzutsuki and that the JMSDF was considering taking disciplinary actions on several of the destroyer’s crew for failing to fully check navigational equipment and inadequately informing the captain of the ship’s location.
The JMSDF in recent months has come under criticism for how it manages ship operations, with an investigation of the handling of classified information by the Japanese military finding the JMSDF being the service with the most violations – 45 cases out of 58. The majority of the JMSDF’s cases were in regard to the mishandling of classified information by personnel on board several Japanese destroyers. In these incidents, crew members who had not undergone background checks that would clear them for access to classified information, had been allowed to handle such information and also entered restricted areas. The then head of the JMSDF, Adm. Ryo Sakai, taking personal responsibility for the incidents, resigned on Jul. 19, following the investigation’s disclosure. Also in July, the results of a JMSDF investigation board on the Apr. 20 mid-air collision between two JMSDF SH-60 helicopters during an exercise found that a lack of coordination between the flotilla commander and the commanding officer of one of the destroyers, each controlling one of the helicopters, contributed to the accident.
