More Russian bombers flying off Alaska

From Air Force Times

More Russian bombers flying off Alaska coast

16 intercepts by U.S., Canadian jets since July

By Erik Holmes - Staff writer

Posted : Monday Apr 7, 2008 7:29:40 EDT

More and more American and Canadian fighter jets are scrambling and intercepting Russian bombers flying off the Alaskan coast, exacerbating tensions between the former Cold War foes.

There have been 16 such intercepts since July, Pacific Air Forces Commander Gen. Howie Chandler told the Anchorage Daily News on March 27. That compares with just one in 2005, and none in the previous 10 years, Chandler said.

The Air Force and North American Aerospace Defense Command would not grant an interview and were unable to confirm those numbers by press time.

The most recent incident occurred March 25, when two F-15s from Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska, scrambled to intercept two Russian Tu-95 Bear heavy bombers.

None of the Russian bombers has entered American airspace, which extends 12 miles out from U.S. soil, said Maj. Allen Herritage, a spokesman for NORAD’s Alaska region. Rather, the bombers have been intercepted after entering the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone, a buffer that extends even further out.

The intercept sorties have most often been flown by F-15s, though on at least one occasion, in November, two F-22 Raptors greeted the Russians.

There also has been no indication that the bombers were carrying weapons or opened their bomb bay doors, Herritage said.

Russia experts interviewed by Air Force Times said the close encounters undoubtedly increase tensions between the two nations but do not indicate a return to the climate of the Cold War.

Ariel Cohen, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, said the bomber patrols are part of a broader pattern of Russia flexing its military muscle since February 2007, when President Vladimir Putin gave a speech in Munich, Germany, signaling a more aggressive posture toward the West.

Putin followed the speech by announcing in August that Russia would resume long-range bomber patrols that were suspended in 1992. The U.S. and Russia have also been engaged in high-profile disputes about issues such as the U.S. plan to place portions of its missile defense system in Eastern Europe and allowing the former Soviet states of Georgia and Ukraine to join NATO.

Since Putin’s speech, Cohen said, the Russian military has increased bomber patrols throughout the Pacific —including near Alaska and Guam — held naval exercises off the coast of France and refurbished its Mediterranean naval bases in Syria.

Such moves are intended to demonstrate that the Russians are rebounding from their problems of the 1990s, a decade that saw Russia’s military deteriorate and its international standing plummet, said Mark Conversino, who teaches courses on Russia and Ukraine at the Air War College at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala.

Russian military has problems

Russia has embarked on a long-term military modernization effort estimated at between $200 billion and $1 trillion, Cohen said, but its military still has serious problems. Its Bear bombers are prop-driven aircraft developed in the 1950s that are inferior to the American B-52, Cohen said, and Russia is believed to have lost the capability to manufacture spare parts for the Tu-160 Blackjack, a supersonic bomber comparable to the B-1. Russia’s military also faces significant problems with recruiting and training, he said.

Still, Conversino said, Russia’s vast nuclear arsenal — which the Center for Defense Information estimates at about 10,000 warheads — makes it the only nation capable of destroying the United States. And that makes its bomber patrols worth paying close attention to.

“Even if … this is just their way of poking a finger in our chest, for us not to react I think would be not in our best interest,” Conversino said. “If nothing else, I think it does heighten the fact that … continental defense and the NORAD mission is one that we can’t ignore.”

The bomber patrols also raise the possibility that a routine encounter between Russian bombers and American fighters could escalate beyond the intentions of either side, Conversino said. “Things like this run the risk of an accident or some other unintentional event,” he said. “There’s certainly a risk there.”

But the flip side is that the bomber patrols encourage the U.S. military to be more vigilant, Cohen said. “It puts us on a higher level of alert. It makes us less complacent. And whether we’re thinking about … speedboats in the Persian Gulf … or Bear [bombers] or Chinese activities, our Navy and the Air Force have to be … shipshape and [on] as great a state of alert as they can be.”