On August 11, North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) announced that they had tracked three Russian surveillance aircraft entering and operating within the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) over the past three days. The Russians stayed within international air space, and NORAD announced in their press release that they did not consider the Russians’ actions threatening or provocative, though they did deploy F-22s to identify conduct surveillance of the Russian aircraft.
- F-22s
Russian surveillance aircraft have entered the Alaskan ADIZ before. NORAD identified Russian aircraft in our airspace in both January and March 2021 . Russian military aircraft were tracked14 times in 2020. Since 2020, Russian activity near Alaska has been higher than at any point since the Cold War.
So, should we all start panicking because the Russians are coming?
No, but the situation merits our attention. Even though the Cold War ended 30 years ago, many Americans have never really trusted Russia. It would be foolish in the extreme to assume that Russians are any different. We monitor areas worldwide. Russia is another large country with an advanced military. It’s not unreasonable to assume that they like to know what’s going on around the world, as well.
Let’s think about the timing a little bit. Many people have noted that while Putin annexed Crimea during the Obama administration, and attacked Ukraine during the Biden administration, he was very quiet during the Trump years. In fact, during the Russiagate controversy, evidence emerged that Putin wanted Hillary to win because he believed she was more predictable. It seems reasonable that the Russians would be in “watch and wait” mode during the Trump years.
And I see a few reasons that surveillance would have heightened toward the end of Trump’s administration. One might be simply seeing if much had changed during the Trump administration, as far as increasing our own military presence near Russia.
Another, maybe more likely, could have been wanting to observe the effects of the pandemic on our defense structures. Covid hit Russia hard, but the U.S.’s dysfunction has been on display worldwide for more than two years now. Whether it was the scandal about Cuomo putting Covid patients in nursing homes, lawmakers such as Gavin Newsom and Lori Lightfoot disregarding their own orders, or the total lack of consistency between states, the U.S. has not presented itself as a strong, united country. We’ve looked like a scrambled, disorganized mess. At times, especially after the George Floyd protests, it’s felt like we’re about to rip each other apart. In 2020, if I were the Russians, I would have been watching us, too.
And let’s think about what has been going on worldwide just in the past six months.
Russia invaded Ukraine. Even Henry Kissinger admitted in a recent Wall Street Journal interview that this invasion was due, in part, to actions by the U.S. Putin has been concerned about security; it stands to reason that he would conduct surveillance near all his borders, not only the one with Ukraine keeping him so busy right now.
- Henry Kissinger
Is Putin just paranoid?
I don’t know. Again, in the interview referenced above, Henry Kissinger, who is not known for being a non-interventionist peacenik, stated, “We are at the edge of war with Russia and China on issues which we partly created, without any concept of how this is going to end or what it’s supposed to lead to.”
“Without any concept of how this is going to end.” That’s pretty damning, but I can’t argue. Russia, the U.S., and China all possess nuclear weapons. I don’t think we should necessarily cave in to pressure from other nuclear-armed countries, but we always have to bear in mind the possibility that we can destroy each other with a finality that wasn’t possible 100 years ago.
And yet what do our leaders do? Biden publicly calls Putin a “killer” who doesn’t have a human soul. Nancy Pelosi calls Xi a “scared bully.”
I mean, I’m sure that Putin is a killer and that Xi is a bully. But Russian and Chinese leadership could just as easily have referred to Biden as an adolescent hair-sniffer and Pelosi as a drunken socialite. However, they didn’t because most people at least try to be polite when the other party could, in theory, nuke them off the face of the earth.
I don’t think our leaders have any concept of how this might end, either.
Biden and Pelosi were both born in the 1940s. Their formative years were spent in the glow of America’s post-WWII constant self-congratulation. The collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 90s simply confirmed their collective belief that the U.S. was unstoppable.
I’ve met Boomers like this. They are convinced that the U.S. is invincible and that “American exceptionalism” can solve anything. Our disappearing middle class, our failing public schools, and our cities’ spiral into lawlessness don’t seem to affect people like this. They’ve been able to insulate themselves from the consequences of their own actions. And consequently, threats from other nations just don’t register.
(What do you do for food when the grid goes down due to an EMP? Read our free QUICKSTART Guide to find out.)
Russia and China do have their own sets of problems.
Russia and China both face severe demographic challenges. Both countries have rapidly aging populations, and, on top of that, China’s young adult population has approximately six boys for every five girls. And then the Russian military, particularly, has problems recruiting.
But so does the American military. I can’t speak to finer details of Russian culture. But I was born on an American base. My dad, his dad, my ex-husband, and many of my uncles served. My brother, closest in age to me, was killed in Afghanistan, and I can say without hesitation that Americans’ reliance on a small percentage of their families to provide most of their military service is about to collapse.
The small relative number of families serving in the military was probably never sustainable anyway. But now, the same generation that saw lives ruined and wasted in Afghanistan is no longer encouraging its children to enlist. Why would we? Our government leaders literally don’t care whether its soldiers live or die. They say a lot of nice things, but they have increasingly ignored diplomatic solutions in favor of grandstanding. The real, personal tragedies that play out in wartime do not register with the political class.
Losing my brother was horrible.
He could have done a lot more with his life. Others can get killed so shareholders in defense companies can watch their stock increase a quarter of a point. His death ruined my marriage and turned my adult life absolutely upside-down. The people responsible for the fiasco will never be held accountable.
There are a lot of people like me out there. The Joe Bidens and Nancy Pelosis of the world treat us as nothing more than cannon fodder, and the American public overwhelmingly doesn’t care. I would never forbid my teenage children from serving in the military. But I will not encourage it the way my parents did.
Now, of course, the Russians failed in Afghanistan, too, though at least they left in an orderly fashion and blew up most of their weapons rather than leaving them behind.
The world watched our humiliating departure from Afghanistan. I don’t think it’s possible to overstate how catastrophic that was. We threw away the lives of our finest young men and women; we betrayed allies who worked with us in good faith; we left behind billions of dollars of equipment. And our leaders still have the arrogance to mock other world leaders. If I were the Russians, I’d wonder what the hell we were thinking, too.
Unfortunately, most of us can’t control what they do in D.C.
We can only control what we do in our own daily lives. Situational awareness is vital to prepping. We need to be cognizant of the fact that when our nation bickers and fights with itself, the world watches. Rome fell, and one day we will fall too. It doesn’t surprise me at all that other nations are watching the U.S. more and more closely as time goes on.
All we can do, as individuals, is live our lives in such a way that makes us look like a difficult target. A nation of capable, industrious individuals willing to rough it a little bit will present itself as a much more difficult target than a nation of screen-addicted zombies. We need to ask ourselves how we appear to curious and possibly unfriendly eyes.
Why do you think that Russia’s purpose is in flying so near our airspace? Are you concerned about these near-incursions? Or is it just an ordinary reminder of force? Tell us your thoughts below.
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About Marie Hawthorne
A lover of novels and cultivator of superb apple pie recipes, Marie spends her free time writing about the world around her.
Not an aircraft expert but the trio of fighters with a F22 label are two different types. Two I’m pretty sure are F-35 flying turkeys and I am unsure of the last one.
Russians so easy to underestimate, so easy to overestimate. We simply don’t know their frame of thoughts. Not western.
Michael,
You observation is correct.
The bottom appears to be a T-38 or a variant there of.
SO what do you think they are now up to (if anything)? Are you in your opinion headed anytime soon to WWIII? Sound off, I’m waiting.
As I mentioned in a comment below, I do not believe we are in for a mainland invasion from either Russia or China.
Could the situation in the Ukraine spin out of control and into WWIII?
Sure.
But I think that would take an escalation by NATO and the West.
Looking at the energy issues the sanctions against Russia have backfired, escalation by NATO and the EU is unlikely as the EU is facing serious energy crunch as it is. War would only exacerbate it. Note: The EU has been on such a LNG buying spree, some third world countries are having black outs. The upside, they are used to it, so it is not as a big of a deal for them.
Some EU counties are already implementing energy controls. The other day Germany announced it would limit thermostats to 66F degrees in the fall. Spain is turning off lights in cities, government buildings at night. Raising or turning off the AC.
Energy prices have risen so high in the UK, at last count, 75k Brits said they would not pay their electric bill, essentially a strike, on Sept 1st. Will they go through with it, is to be seen. Some have noted such a strike will do the exact opposite and actually increase electric prices.
Several countries have halted their WEF go green programs and have delayed the shut down of nuclear or coal plants. I did find it interesting some redefined Natural Gas and nuclear as “green.”
The drought in the EU is also impacting energy production. The Rhine river has gotten so low, barges are having difficulty delivering coal shipments to coal plants. If the Rhine river falls another 9cm, the river will be impassable and all barge traffic will come to a halt.
Some nuclear power plants are having water issues with falling river water levels.
I think civil unrest, real economic recession and even depression, in the EU are more likely than WWIII.
I would not put the US far behind the EU.
As others have noted, Russia has been doing theses kind of flights for years. They did stop for awhile after the fall of the Soviet Union.
Russia has their hands full with the Ukraine war. And they are busy trying to manage the new multi-polar world paradigm that could benefit the BRICS with their own monetary system. Note, SA, Turkey, and Egypt all petitioned entry to the BRICS.
To sum up, unless someone does something spectacularly dumb (Biden admin), I do not see WWIII in the short term.
Additional notes:
I just read China is being impacted by their own drought. Hydroelectric plants in SW China are being forced to scale back and as a result China is shutting down factories to include Japan owned ones.
The US Interior Department’s Bureau of Reclamation announced on Tuesday reduction of water from the Colorado river. The states of AZ, and NE, and northern Mexico will see reductions of 21%, 8% 7% respectively.
AZ has already seen prior reductions impacting cotton crops and livestock. Of note, AZ produces 90% of the US lettuce from NOC-MAR. While some may say, “I can go without lettuce for a few months,” consider the bigger picture when applied to other crops and livestock. Then take into account the distances involved to get that head of lettuce, dozen eggs, or bacon to your local grocery store.
No water, no life.
Disruption of our JIT/BAU system, shortages.
It’s true that Russians don’t think like Westerners, but they are still a modern nation with all of the preferences of a modern nation. You can deduce a lot about Russia just by working out things about their basic self-interest.
One thing that Russia has in common with USA is that they are in the business of weapons manufacturing. And that’s a risky business, in the sense that weapons are more sellable if you can show they have been tested. That’s one reason why Russia keeps entering the airspace of other countries: to show they can. That would be the best-case-scenario about their intentions.
On the other hand, they are at war with Ukraine, and it’s a war that could escalate into a war with NATO, whether that’s something the Russians want or not. So it makes a lot of sense for them to prepare for that possibility. That would be the worst-case scenario.
The Russian aircraft is a Tu-95 as noted in the article.
The Tu-95 first entered service in 1956. Not exactly a modern air frame.
Note: The US Air Force has B-52 air frames still in service, since 1955. Some current Air Force maintenance crews are working on the same planes their grandfathers worked on and maintained. As of 2019 there are 58 in active service.
However, the sensor package on it could be of modern design.
The Russian arms manufacturing is significantly different than the US paradigm. The Russian government tells those companies, state owned, what they are going to produce.
And they do to the best of their ability with the monies they are given. The alternative is not good.
US, they have open competitions amongst companies with lobbying groups to influence Congress. How long was the trials to select the next hand gun for the US military? The SCAR program? The next gen rifle?
And, as Murphy’s Law states, your USGI weapon was produced at the lowest cost.
I would amend, at the highest over cost.
I am sorry for your loss Marie. I have THREE kids in the military right now. While we are immensely proud to be a military family, it is frightening the same especially with this idiot traitor in office. Two of them are intel with high sec clearance & reassure us that Russia is NOT our biggest threat. I don’t get the ‘wow, thank them for their service’ when I mention the kids in conversation like I used to when Trump was president. Which saddens me deeply. Serving is just not what it used to be…which is what the progressive goal was now wasn’t it?!
Tit for tat…it’s not like we aren’t doing it. And have been for decades. But with this weakling president, all bets are off.
Why moderation? Nothing untoward is typed or implied.
It wasn’t on purpose. It probably caught “tit for tat” and thought you were cussing. 🙂
That’s what I had thought.. but here’s the definition in case anyone has similar assumptions. Tit for tat is an English saying meaning “equivalent retaliation”. It developed from “tip for tap”, first recorded in 1558.[1]
It is also a highly effective strategy in game theory. An agent using this strategy will first cooperate, then subsequently replicate an opponent’s previous action. If the opponent previously was cooperative, the agent is cooperative. If not, the agent is not. Thanks daisy.
Should we monitor, and observe what Russia and China are doing?
Of course.
Am I concerned either are going to launch an all out invasion on the mainland USA?
Not really.
Is it possible? Sure. Is it likely? I dont think so.
I would say the premise could make for a good blockbuster Hollywood movie, which they did in the 80’s. The recent “remake” was an insult to the original.
Anyways, looking around at what is going on in America, I think we got more things to be concerned about here than what is going on abroad.
My guess…well I watched Dane Wiginton on Greg Hunter last night. He states that the Mega Droughts globally are a human creation. Military weather Weapons. They don’t even need chemtrails. Massive HAARP facility up there in Alaska, around 100 down here in the 48 states. My guess? Russia has an interest in our Alaska HAARP facility. After all, Russia & USA signed a UN agreement in 1997 not to manipulate the weather. USA rarely lives within it’s agreed upon commitments….
When NATO has a declared mission to destroy Russia and assassinate V. Putin–and we’re at proxy war with them, using Ukraine as a NATO military substitute–it isn’t hard to figure it out “why”.
In other words, the U.S. is telling Russia, “we’ll fight you…down to the last Ukrainian! Or, Pole. Or, Latvian. Or, Finn. Or…or…any nationality, except the champagne-drinking, corrupt socialist Western politician!”
Amen to dismantling the military complex. That doesn’t mean soldiers are to blame. They serve and do what they are directed to do. However, standing in service to your country should be in defense of, and protection of, the citizenry. Right now, under the current District of Criminals, this isn’t even on the radar. Sorry for the loss of your brother. That place at the table is always empty.
I read an article that stated; Self-Reliance + Sustainability=Freedom. I wish that every American took those words to heart. Those of us at Daisy’s site get it, but the number of folks I run into who do not understand…….It is weird to be in such denial.
Alaska is so amazing. I have visited twice and loved every minute there. As Americans, we need to make sure that it stays part of our country.
Russia flying Bear Bombers on the outskirts of the US is absolutely NOTHING new. What I find troubling is that our military isn’t up to task for ANY conflict right now. Then again, Russia isn’t in any position to push its boundaries outward either.
…Honestly; I spent 21 years in the military guarding my country, only to have the likes of Obama and Biden give it away to MILLIONS of foreigners… No, I would NOT and DID NOT recommend my sons join the military, and for that reason. Better we take the fight to our enemies from a grassroots level. …It worked for us in our FIRST revolution… Why tamper with success?…
…Keep your powder dry, my friends…
Tom MacGyver,
I would agree. Had I had children now, military age, I would also advise them to not join the service.
Politicians whom have never served are some of the first to send US troops into harms way. They have no understanding or I would even say, care, of what the military is. They would gladly waste lives in turn for a few poll points.
The Russians have been doing this for MANY years. I have lived in Alaska for 50 years and remember this happening during the cold war and every since then. This is nothing new people!
But everything would be perfect if we still had former president Lying McGriftermoron Treasonpants in charge, right?
Remind me again, where was he during Vietnam? Oh yeah, tending to his mysterious bonespurs in his feet (unlike, say, John Kerry or Al Gore, who could have gotten out of it but chose not to, or people like my dad and grandpa, who as mere ordinary men didn’t have doctors to write them phony excuses).
And when exactly did Don Jr. and Eric serve in the military? I seem to recall too that Biden’s son Beau did serve in the middle east and it may well have contributed to his ultimately lethal cancer from the burn pits.
And yes, this is the same loser president who didn’t want wounded veterans in “his” military parade. There are MULTIPLE sources on that and have been for years. Said it wasn’t a good look for him.
I say this as someone who was also born on an army base on foreign soil. Multiple members of my family are interred in Arlington National Cemetary, some with multiple purple hearts. I have every respect for the military and mostly its servicemen and women.
Our problems are deep and serious and go back generations at this point. So stop pretending like Biden and Obama are/were the entire problem.
FWIW, I think the strategy our country is playing in the Ukraine war is very smart. You’d better care about that conflict because things could get very bad here very fast. We should thank our lucky stars there is such a thing as NATO and at this point we are not hemorrhaging the blood of our own service members.
I’m so sick of hearing on this site about everything being Biden’s, Obama’s, and the Democrats’ faults. Be real, be honest. If you want to talk about chaos and the disarray on display here for the world, let’s talk about Trump suggesting people inject bleach, ripping infants and toddlers from their parents (yes I know Obama did that too, but the numbers are way disproportionate… and the cruelty, as they say, is the point with the whiny babyman loser ex president). If you’re going to talk about the BLM and George Floyd protests, which were based on legitimate concerns over the disproportionately harsh treatment young black men too often receive at the hands of police, you must talk about the January 6th insurrection, which is a MUCH greater threat to our democracy.
So yeah, the intellectual dishonesty I see here on blaming every problem in the world on one party is galling, and one of the reasons I don’t come here much anymore. This isn’t a site about prepping. It’s a site that riles people up, trades in demonstrably false and laughable conspiracy theories, and profits from it. Just like your fuhrer.
So why is Russia poking around at the edges of our airspace around Alaska? For the same reasons they’ve done it for decades, I imagine. Maybe Sarah Palin can stand on her deck and report if there are more incursions.
Our problems are deep, and this site, these articles, are untrue, intellectually dishonest, and ultimately unhelpful.
What a perfectly useless post.
Well Bless your heart!
Translation: REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE lol
Then leave the site!
Heres the underlying reality to this sortee. Putin and (more covertly China,) realize the strategic action on the Ukraine has launched a highly varied and extremely effective policy against the Western status quo in the realms of finance, reserve currency and general foreign policy with an aim to create a multipolar alternative to the WEF unipolar world order agenda.
Since its clear that a major focus for Putin is a BRICS SWIFT alternative transaction system (ala SDR) .. and this system will be driven by commodities the East already has plus those they can newly acquire, resources are the play!
With that being said Russia keeps no secrets about their desire to cultivate resources from the arctic caps.
And since that is the case with all the nuance behind it all, I believe Russia is resource surveying by testing the response of high interest natural resource areas such as Alaska.
They know the US is the new Rome playing with matches and as they have readily demonstrated in the past – should they continue to practice patience- they will be well rewarded when the west commits suicide.
Re Russian aircraft approaching U.S. air defence zone………Russia and The U.S. are only 2.4 miles apart at their closest. The U.S. ADIZ is probably 1/2 of that distance, with the Russian ADIZ meeting there. So the opposing countries could conceivably be within their own respectiveairspace and have a mid-air collision
The Russians are just trying to show that they’re still relevant. Still a world power.
“Look at us! We’re not intimidated! We’re still a world power!”
I’m surprised they could afford to maintain a plane capable of flying to Alaska, even if it is a 60-year-old B-29 knockoff!
The U.S, is a backwards, foul country built by people who cherish and perfected parasitic human behavior over time and space. You cowards can’t even tell the truth about yourselves in your silly schools and universities, let alone look at yourselves in the mirror or teach truth to your kids. You deserve to wallow in your confused misery, evil bastards.
Well now, if that were so true, why are there millions of people trying to get in?
The part about “silly schools and universities,” hard to argue against that one. There is a reason why homeschooling has seen number increases since COVID.
Thing is, not all of use are confused. More than a few of us can define what a woman is. More than a few of us can watch a sport, say, women’s swimming, and that one swimmer who is breaking women’s swimming records? Yeah, that is a dude.
So dont lump us all into the “confused misery,” group.
My fellow human: much appreciated re: your thoughtful response. Kindly brother, your response and subsequent ideas reflect artificial benchmarks and arguments that mean no importance. Man, woman or “it” competing in a sporting event is not only inconsequential to the betterment of humanity or your situation but focusing or even placing any energy of thought on such a subject is a distraction from truth and advancement of any country or community. The U.S. was and is built on the dregs of other countries arriving there with their torrid ideas of advancement (destruction of culture and mass killing of humans and erasing such cultures, enslaving people with massive contributions to the planet, and then using them as slaves to build your country) there’s more a lot more, and we both know it. Artificial or manufactured challenges are only realized as what they are when one has the ability to reflect on how ones thought are driving their actions. I kindly ask you to look further, your country needs it.
Be well brother
Through out history there has been exactly the same thing occurring you describe.
The Celts, the Visigoths, the Romans, the Mongols (if it was not for the fact Temujin/Chinggis Khaan/Genghis Khan died, we all might be speaking Mongolian right now), the Ottoman Empire. The Incas, Aztecs, Native Americans, all not of the warm and fuzzy kind when it comes to violence. South Africa, there are still tribal conflicts going on to this day.
The USA is as reflective of history and nation building as India, Spain, Great Briton, the Dutch, French or Nigeria.
And just as those empires eventually fell, so will the US. Will it be to a bang or a whimper, in my life time or far beyond, has yet to be seen.
IF we can return to seeking the TRUTH, even before that to agree there is a TRUTH that is transcendent and the guide to dealing with reality and fellow human beings in a way that promotes every one’s welfare, then we can hope to be successful civilizations. Without that reawakening, we will pass of the scene of history as have many other major civilizations before ours.
Hello Marie,
I’m sorry for the loss of your brother. He along with several of my friends are gone and missed. I spent many years in the meat grinders of Iraq and Afghanistan with the military. It was never about God and Country to me it was always about the men to my left and right. We shared in the suck and we all became brothers. Most of us made it home and some didn’t. Those that didn’t took a piece of us with them and those holes remain today and will never be filled til we are all on the high ground together again. As I write this I am in Baghdad still doing the bidding of our masters but now it’s with a bitter heart knowing the whole time it was nothing but a sham to exert control over the world at the cost of my brothers’ blood. I watch our country founder and I wonder what I am leaving my grandkids. I don’t want them to follow me in the military as I followed my WWII father just to be sacrificed for the military industrial complex’s profit.
Sadly we are all under the boot heel of monsters with not many courses of action to choose from. I have stood literally toe to toe with the Russian Wagner group while in Africa. I watched what the Russians and China were doing to African nations. They’re raping that continent for everything from gold, silver, oil, lumber, cobalt, uranium and anything else they take a fancy to. If any of us think that these so called sanctions are going to affect them you’re deadly wrong. I don’t know who the good guys or the bad guys are anymore. Americans like to think they’re morally superior to the rest of the world when in reality we are just as dirty and cutthroat as the rest. The war that’s coming is because there’s no other choices left that gives the powers that be the catbird seat they want. From my perspective it’s time for it to happen, it’s the only recourse left for us and hopefully from the ashes will rise the patriots who heard the warnings and dug deep and prepared. With any luck those who rise from those ashes will not have forgotten the Constitution and Bill of Rights and will rebuild America to it’s former glory. Good luck to all of you. Stay the Course.