Russia reaffirms bomber power

Ironically fulfilling the mission for which it was originally designed, a pair of UK Royal Air Force Typhoon F.2 multirole fighters were scrambled to intercept a Russian Tu-95 'Bear H' bomber/maritime reconnaissance aircraft over the northern Atlantic Ocean on 17 August.

The resumption of long-range patrols by Russian reconnaissance aircraft had been announced that day by Russian President Vladimir Putin in a ratcheting up of Moscow's ongoing diplomatic spat with the West: a move reminiscent of the manoeuvrings of East and West through the 46 years of the Cold War.

"Fourteen Russian strategic missile-carrying aircraft, support aircraft and refuelling aircraft took to the air from seven airfields of the Russian Federation," Putin told the Russian press. "As of today, duty of this kind - combat duty - will be carried out on a regular basis."

The resumption of flights was intended as a finale to the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation's (SCO's) counterterrorism exercise 'Peace Mission 2007', which involved more than 6,000 troops. The deployment signalled to NATO that the SCO cannot be ignored as a military organisation, although the body's main focus, Putin said, is facilitating economic co-operation. NATO has refused to comment on the flights, stating only that "Russia has not communicated [this] through official channels to NATO".

However, Norwegian Armed Forces spokesman Lieutenant Colonel John Inge Oeglaend confirmed that Russian long-range patrols took place on 17 August. He told Jane's that the Royal Norwegian Air Force deployed eight F-16AM fighter aircraft to patrol close to the area for about 10 hours. "It was the exercise pattern we have seen before," he said, but "we would have to go a long way back in time... to find similar amounts of aircraft operating that far west".

The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) also confirmed the number of Quick Reaction Alert sorties to intercept unidentified aircraft has risen from zero to "a handful" in recent months. A spokesman said there had been no pattern to the Russian flights, which indicates the deployments are designed to demonstrate capability, rather than being for operational necessity. 342 of 1,043 words