US fighter jets called to flight as precaution against Russian bombers near Hawaii

American fighter jets were twice in flight over Hawaii earlier this month as a precaution against Russian bombers training in the region, ABC News has learned.

American fighter jets were twice in flight over Hawaii earlier this month as a precaution against Russian bombers training in the region, ABC News has learned. A U.S. defense official told ABC News that F-22 Raptors were sent out on patrol from Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam near Honolulu on June 13 and 18 due to a large-scale Russian military exercise taking place off the coast of Hawaii. While several media reports have said that the American jets "scrambled" to respond to the threat of Russian warplanes as they flew close to U.S. territorial airspace, the reality appears to have been less urgent than the headlines suggested. The U.S. defense official told ABC News that the Russian aircraft came no closer than about 150 miles from Hawaii's coast. A second U.S. defense official told ABC News that the Russian bombers never even entered the air defense identification zone (ADIZ), an area in international airspace that serves as a buffer outside a country's territorial airspace to give it time to intercept and vet any aircraft before it might reach sovereign territory. Therefore, the F-22s never intercepted the Russian warplanes but rather were sent airborne mainly as a precaution in case they crossed into the ADIZ, which itself would have been a backstop against them entering U.S. territorial airspace.