“I assure you, they had a CAP intercept them 150 miles+ out.”
Maybe not. The position described could literally have been as little as 12 or 13 miles off the Russian coast where it meets North Korea.
There’s a very good chance the Russian base the planes came from was less than 50 miles from the carrier. If the Reagan was just outside the Russian territorial waters, the interceptors couldn’t interact within the 12 mile limit. There might have a very small window.
In wartime the Reagan wouldn’t need to be that close though. This is a probe.
It is a probe on both sides. More or less routine. If a Russian carrier group appeared 20-30 miles offshore mainland USA, you can be sure we would have a reciprocal response.