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The Soviet Union is long gone, but Russia still has Soviet-designed aircraft on the frontline around the world
The Soviet Union is long gone, but Russia still has Soviet-designed aircraft on the frontline around the world
Benjamin BrimelowJan 27, 2021, 22:57 IST
Russian Tupolev Tu-95 strategic bombers over the Kremlin during a rehearsal for the Victory Day military parade in Moscow, May 4, 2018.YURI KADOBNOV/AFP via Getty Images
The
Soviet Union fielded one of the most fearsome militaries in history for decades before its collapse in the early 1990s.
Russia has been steadily rebuilding its military in the decades since then, and at the core of that modern and growing force are a few Soviet-era aircraft that are still flying missions all over the world.
The North American Aerospace Defense Command says it tracked two Russian reconnaissance aircraft Monday afternoon that flew near U.S. airspace.
A NORAD news release posted Monday night says the agency’s Alaska Region headquarters at Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson identified and tracked two Russian Tu-142 maritime patrol aircraft that entered the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone just before 3 p.m. Monday.
An F-22 from Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson, along with Canadian CF-18s and an E-3 Sentry AWACS aircraft intercepted two Russian Tu-142 maritime reconnaissance aircraft that had entered the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone on March 9, 2020.
Credit DVIDS/NORAD