has experienced a clash between a Russian fighter and a US F-16

The video lasts only 15 seconds, but it makes your hair stand on end. A week ago, off the coast of Alaska, an Air Force F-16 fighter plane and a Russian Su-35 fighter were involved in an incident captured by the first ship’s camera that, although it was a shock, It could have turned into a real tragedy. The reason: the Kremlin pilot carried out a reckless maneuver just a few meters from the American ship. “He put everyone in danger,” they warn from Washington.

The incident could remain little more than that, a simple encounter reminiscent of ‘Top Gun’ in the North Pacific, if it were not for the context. It arrives in the midst of an increase in military activity in the area… and with the escalation of international tension due to the war in Ukraine and the Middle East as a backdrop.

A high-level meeting. The event occurred on Monday the 23rd, off the coast of Alaska. An Air Force F-16 aircraft assigned to NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, was flying on a routine mission after identifying Russian aircraft when it became the unexpected protagonist of a scene worthy of ‘Top Gun’. While following a Russian Tu-95 bomber, the American pilot saw a Su-35 fighter, also under orders from the Kremlin, quickly cross his path. In a matter of seconds the Su-35 passed in front of the nose of the F-16, at a short distance, in a maneuver known as headbutt.

You don’t need to imagine the sequence. The US ship had a camera on board that captured what happened in detail. The 15-second video ended up being posted on the official NORAD account in X along with several photos of the event. It is interesting because in addition to showing us the maneuver of the Su-35, the recording captured the cries of astonishment of the American pilot and the pitching of his plane on headbutt.

“He put everyone in danger”. More or less reckless maneuvers such as headbutt of the Russian fighter are not new. In military aviation they have been around for decades and were relatively common during the Cold War, as the specialized defense website The War Zone recalls. If the event involving the American F-16 and the Russian Su-35 has become news, capturing the interest of general media such as CBS News or the Associated Press agency, it is because the US has publicly complained about what happened. And forcefully.

On Monday, NORAD published a brief statement in “Their conduct was unsafe, unprofessional and endangered everyone, something not seen in a professional air force,” said General Gregory Guillot. And since a picture is worth a thousand words, the tweet is accompanied by a video.

Where did it happen? The incident occurred off the coast of Alaska, says Air & Space Forces Magazine, the newsletter of the Air & Space Forces Association. Of course, in a very specific region. The Russian planes operated in what is known as the Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) of Alaska, a guarded space. This has been recognized by NORAD itself, which on Monday, September 23, already reported that it had detected and tracked four Kremlin aircraft at that point.

The detail is not minor because the ADIZ, as its name indicates, is an “identification” area for defense. It covers the airspace surrounding the US and Canada, but NORAD admits that it is no longer their sovereign space.

“Quick identification”. “An ADIZ begins where sovereign airspace ends and is a defined stretch of international space that requires the rapid identification of all aircraft in the interest of national security,” explains NORAD. For its control it has a defense network, with satellites, radars and planes that allow it to track other ships, which is what happened on Monday the 23rd.

The organization assumes that the Russian plane remained in international airspace, without reaching the sovereign surface under the control of the United States and Canada.

What matters, where… and of course the when. Although NORAD’s first statement explains that “Russian activity” in Alaska’s ADIZ is relatively regular and “not considered a threat,” its tweet two days ago raises the tone and reproaches the Su-35 pilot for his attitude. His message and the reactions it has elicited—a U.S. senator on the Armed Services Committee has advocated for increasing the U.S. military presence in Alaska and the Arctic—are better understood when the context is taken into account.

And the context is marked by two major factors. The first is military activity in the region. Air & Space Forces assures that throughout September Russian planes accessed Alaska’s ADIZ on at least four occasions and on the 23rd four aircraft were tracked under the orders of the Kremlin. Furthermore, citing NORAD itself, CBS reveals that the frequency of incursions by Russian aircraft has increased. In 2023, 26 cases were recorded; so far in 2024, 25.

Is there more? Yes. The US military has also paid attention to the area recently. It recently deployed 130 soldiers with mobile rocket launchers to a remote island chain in the Aleutian Islands in western Alaska. Shortly before, eight Russian military aircraft and four warships, including a pair of submarines, had approached during a joint Kremlin-China military exercise.

The second key factor to understand the context is the escalation of international tension. First, due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has now been going on for more than two and a half years and has led to significant sanctions from the West against Russia. The second, much more recent, is the conflict in the Middle East, where the war in Gaza is now joined by Israel’s incursion into southern Lebanon and the movement of Iran, which has just launched almost 200 missiles at Israel. Netanyahu has already announced retaliation.

Images | NORAD (X)

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