VIDEO: four Russian military aircraft inside the state of Alaska’s Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ)

According to a release from the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), they detected and tracked four Russian military aircraft inside the state of Alaska’s Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) yesterday. The Russian aircraft did not enter into the sovereign airspace of the U.S. or Canada. 
In a subsequent release from Russian state media outlet RT, it was clarified that the four aircraft included a TU-95MS and an Il-78 tanker that were escorted by an Su-35S and Su-30M. Aligning with the reports of NORAD, the release also gave some insight into exactly where the 15-hour flight took place, saying that the flight took place in the “airspace over the neutral waters of the Bering and Chukchi Seas, near the western coast of Alaska.” VIDEO:

 Background:
While Russian ADIZ incursions are nothing new, there has been a notable uptick in these incursions in the past year. More importantly, cooperation between Russia and China in the Pacific theater of competition has also significantly increased in the same period of time. Back in March of this year, the commander of U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) mentioned to the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) that the Chinese military would challenge the U.S. ADIZ in the next year. Since then, China has sent warships inside the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and conducted joint flights near or inside the U.S. Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) with Russian aircraft.