Thank you for the question.
Obviously, NORAD is always in a state of vigilance. Our motto is “We have the watch”. We're watching 24 hours a day, seven days a week, all year long.
Intercepting Russian strategic aircraft is a common occurrence at NORAD. We regularly see these incursions into the identification zone, not into the airspace. Obviously, if they were to enter our airspace, that would be different. On average, we do about seven intercepts a year involving these types of aircraft, primarily in the Alaska area, sometimes in the Arctic, and more rarely on the Atlantic coast. Some years we've had as many as 15 intercepts and other years we've had none at all.
We are on high vigilance, especially at this time of crisis in Europe. We see these as routine sorties, training exercises for Russian strategic aviation.