NORAD conducted a planned air defense exercise off the coast of Washington State and British Columbia on Wednesday.
The air defense exercise comes after 4 objects were shot down by US fighter pilots – including a China spy balloon.
On Monday NORAD intercepted a Russian aircraft entering US airspace over Alaska.
Fox News reported:
The North American Aerospace Defense Command says it is carrying out a “live-fly air defense exercise” Wednesday off the coast of Washington state and British Columbia, just days after it intercepted Russian aircraft near Alaska and multiple airborne objects were shot down.
The four Russian planes were detected and intercepted over the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone on Monday in what NORAD called a “routine” incident.
As part of today’s exercise, a variety of American and Canadian planes, “including fighter aircraft, will operate at high altitude,” it said.
But NORAD added that the training is “in no way related to recent NORAD and U.S. Northern Command operations associated with airborne objects over North America during the last two weeks.”
“To test responses, systems and equipment, NORAD routinely conducts air defense exercises using a variety of scenarios, including airspace restriction violations, hijackings and responding to unknown aircraft,” it also said.
A U.S. defense official told Fox News on Wednesday that the exercise has been planned for months.