A spokesperson for the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) confirmed that two long-range Russian bomberscame within 50 miles of the Northern California coastline Monday, but didn't creep into United States airspace.
The American military deployed a pair of F-22 Raptor jets after noticing the Russian aircraft had entered the outer Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) near Alaska, a 200-miles large plot that is international airspace.
The nuclear-capable planes, as Russia Today calls them, then split into two groups: two headed west toward Russia and the other two sped south toward California. Those two planes "were picked up visually" by the American pilots.
The Americans didn't communicate with the Russian planes. A U.S. Navy official told theWashington Free Beacon that the incident appeared to be part of a training exercise and said the Russians "acted professionally."
This is the first time in two years that Russian bombers came this close to clipping the California coast.
