Russian Bombers Approach Coastline

U.S. fighter jets were sent to confront a pair of Russian bombers caught on radar headed toward the Alaska coast, Air Force officials said. Both bombers turned before crossing into U.S. airspace and about 90 miles from the approaching fighters, according to officials at Alaska’s Elmendorf Air Force Base and the North American Aerospace Defense Command in Colorado Springs, Colo. The Soviet Union regularly tested U.S. air defenses by flying toward Alaska during the Cold War, but this was the first time the Air Force has documented it happening since March 1993.