Russia testing the waters – F-22 jets intercept Russian planes off the US coast

The ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine and the way the European leaders and the US are rallying behind Ukraine has got Russia worried and, apparently, due to that, Russia is sending its aircraft to test the waters and gauge the preparedness of other nations.
In the latest incident, two American F-22 fighter jets were scrambled after six Russian military planes approached the US coastline. The US fighters intercepted the aircraft about 55 miles from the Alaskan coast as revealed by the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) news.sky.com.
The Russian planes have been identified as two IL-78 refueling tankers, two Mig-31 fighter jets and two TU-95 Bear long-range bombers. After scrambling of the F-22s from Alaska, the Russian looped south and returned to their base in Russia. Earlier, two Canadian CF-18 fighter jets intercepted two Russian long-range bombers about 40 miles off the Canadian coastline in the Beaufort Sea.
In both cases, the Russian planes entered the Air Defense Identification Zone, which extends about 200 miles from the coastline but did not enter sovereign airspace of the United States or Canada.
It has been explained that the fighter jets had been scrambled to let those aircraft know that they have been sighted, and in case of a threat, to let them know that US can protect its sovereign airspace.
Moreover, in Britain Typhoon fighter jets had to be scrambled to intercept two Russia planes identified as military Bears that were flying through international airspace but, did not enter UK airspace.
This scrambling was the first time a Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) had been issued from RAF Lossiemouth since the Moray base took on the role of defending the UK's northern airspace.
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