Russian bombers getting closer to US: American commander
Pastor Dale Morgan
Russian bombers getting closer to US: American commander*
AFP - Wednesday, August 15
WASHINGTON (AFP) - - Long-range Russian bombers are flying more often
and closer to US territory, a top US commander said Tuesday, as Moscow
made its latest show of military might with exercises over the North Pole.
General Gene Renuart, Commander of North American Aerospace Defense
Command (NORAD) and US Northern Command, the agencies charged with
protecting US and Canadian airspace, said that US forces would continue
to monitor the activity.
"Over the last few months the Russian air force has been flying a little
bit more than we've seen in the past; certainly they're ranging farther
than they have in the more recent past," Renuart said in a statement.
"NORAD has intercepted them out over international waters, near Alaska,
and the command continues to monitor all of their long range bomber
flight activity, even today," he added.
His comments came as Moscow announced that its strategic bombers had
begun exercises over the North Pole and just a week after Russian planes
flew within a few hundred kilometers (miles) of a US military base on
the island of Guam.
The nuclear-capable bombers in the five days of exercises starting
Tuesday were to practice firing cruise missiles, navigation in the polar
region and aerial refueling maneuvers, the Russian air force said in a
statement.
One Russian air force officer, who asked not to be identified, told AFP
he expected US interceptors would make their presence felt during the
exercises.
"It is a traditional practice for military pilots to see foreign pilots
come up to meet them and say hello," he said. "The United States are
aware of our exercise," he added.
Last week, several Russian strategic bombers flew over the Pacific to
near Guam and, according to a Russian general, exchanged grins with US
fighter pilots.
The incident capped a summer in which President Vladimir Putin has
sought to project power far and wide, building on a rearmament programme
fueled by oil and gas revenues.
"At every opportunity Russia is showing its return to power, including
military. It's a demonstration for two audiences -- domestic and for the
rest of the world," Moscow-based analyst Alexander Goltz told AFP last week.
The long-distance flight by the strategic bombers, impossible for years
because of severe under-funding, also recalled an incident in July when
bombers deployed near Scotland and Norway during a diplomatic row with
Britain.
And it's not just in the skies that Russia wants the world to take notice.
On August 2 Russian explorers descended 4,261 meters (13,980 feet) under
the Arctic to plant a flag on the sea bed and demonstrate in a
theatrical fashion Moscow's contested claim to the mineral-rich
territory under the North Pole.
The following day, the navy's chief of staff suggested reestablishing a
full-time Russian naval presence in the Mediterranean for the first time
since the Soviet era.
Meanwhile the ground army, which was badly mauled in more than a decade
of fighting Chechen rebels, is getting new equipment and improved training.
"For the Kremlin it's very important to retain at least one area where
we equal the United States -- and we are adamant about showing this,"
Goltz said.
Russia's generals deny they are up to anything sinister and Russian
political commentator Yuliya Latynina said there was nothing to fear
from the recent muscle-flexing.
"Thank God. We are showing our strength with bombers, the North Pole
flag, et cetera, but we are not making war," she said.