This F-22 Pilot Says What It's Like To Get Up Close With Russian Aircraft Over The Arctic

Business Insider: What it's like to get up close with Russian aircraft over the Arctic, according to an F-22 pilot who's done it

* US aircraft have scrambled several times this year to intercept Russian planes flying around Alaska.
* Those aircraft, sometimes flying with Canadian fighters, get up close with Russian planes — sometimes for hours at a time.
* "We can see each other. They know that we're there," F-22 pilot 1st Lt. Brett Meyer told Insider, "and we know obviously that they are there."

Four times this year, North American Aerospace Defense Command has reported Russian aircraft flying into the Air Defense Identification Zone that extends about 200 miles from Alaska's coast.

Three of those flights prompted NORAD to send aircraft out to keep an eye on them — including US Air Force F-22 Raptor stealth fighters from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson near Anchorage, where pilots were waiting.

"We always have somebody who is ready to go in the event that we get the call," said 1st Lt. Brett Meyer, an F-22 pilot with the 90th Fighter Squadron, part of the 3rd Operations Group under the 3rd Wing.

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WNU Editor: The Northern Lights must be quite a sight to see when these intercepts are at night-time.