After Palin's interview, officials say there's no Russia threat

Gov. Sarah Palin cites vigilance against Russian warplanes coming into U.S. airspace over Alaska as one of her foreign-policy credentials. But the U.S. military command in charge says that hasn't happened in her 21 months in office.

"When you consider even national-security issues with Russia, as [Prime Minister Vladimir] Putin rears his head and comes into the airspace of the United States of America, where — where do they go? It's Alaska," the Republican vice-presidential nominee said in an interview last week with CBS News' Katie Couric.

The spokeswoman for the McCain-Palin campaign, Maria Comella, said in an e-mail trying to clarify Palin's comments that when "Russian incursions near Alaskan airspace and inside the air-defense identification zone have occurred ... U.S. Air Force fighters have been scrambled repeatedly."

The air-defense identification zone, almost completely over water, extends 12 miles past the perimeter of the United States. Most nations have similar areas.

However, no Russian military planes have been flying into that zone, said Maj. Allen Herritage, a spokesman for the Alaska region of the North American Aerospace Defense Command, at Elmendorf Air Force Base near Anchorage.

"To be very clear, there has not been any incursion in U.S. airspace in recent years," Herritage said.

What Palin might have been referring to was a buffer zone of airspace that extends beyond the 12-mile strip. Although not recognized internationally as the United States' to protect, the military watches it.

That zone is where there has been increased Russian bomber exercises, about 20 in the past two years. When Russian bombers enter that expanded area, sometimes called the outer air-defense identification zone by the military, U.S. or Canadian fighter jets are dispatched to check them, Herritage said.

Asked about Herritage's statement, Palin's foreign-policy adviser, Steve Biegun, insisted the candidate's position was correct. Russia's "old behaviors" of aggressively flying into U.S. airspace have been exhibited recently, he said.

"Governor Palin told me that when Russian aircraft buzz American airspace and U.S. aircraft are mobilized at Elmendorf Air Force Base, she is informed by her National Guard commander," said Biegun, who did not offer any additional explanation for the contradiction.

"The point she was making is that the geographical location of Alaska has unique attributes. This doesn't happen to many states in the union," Biegun said.

Herritage said Air Force officials discussed with Palin instances of Russian planes entering the buffer zone and the U.S. response during their annual briefing in February.

It could not be determined how many times Palin had been notified in real time of Russian planes having entered the buffer zone.