Russian Military Planes Intercepted in Sea of Japan

Japanese fighter jets were scrambled twice on Thursday against Russian military aircraft conducting suspected reconnaissance activities, Japan’s defense ministry said. A Newsweek map, built using available geospatial data, illustrates the separate paths said to have been flown by a Russian Air Force Il-20M intelligence-gathering plane in the morning and a Russian Navy Il-38M maritime patrol aircraft in the afternoon. Both were photographed by Japan Air Self-Defense Force pilots. The report by the Joint Staff of Japan’s Self-Defense Forces said the Il-20M flew a long-range sortie in a southwesterly direction, along the western coastline of the main Japanese islands of Hokkaido…