U.S. fighter jets intercept Russian spy plane off of Alaska

The United States military reported it scrambled a response contingent over the weekend after a Russian spy plane flew close to American airspace.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, reported Sunday it detected an IL-20 COOT reconnaissance aircraft flying through the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone, or ADIZ.

NORAD responded by sending two F-16 fighter jets, an E-3 Sentry radar plane and two refueling tankers to intercept and make a visual confirmation.

The Russian aircraft stayed within the ADIZ and did not enter American or Canadian sovereign airspace.

The ADIZ is located within international airspace but lies close enough to American and Canadian sovereign airspace to require "the ready identification of all aircraft in the interest of national security,"