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Putin: Russia will resume bomber patrols

MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that he ordered his military to resume regular long-range flights of strategic bombers, news agencies reported, returning to a practice that ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The announcement came on the heels of two recent incidents in which Russian bombers have skirted — or claimed to skirt — foreign airspace, including a massive U.S. war games exercise off Guam.

Speaking as Russian and Chinese forces held major war games exercises for the first time on Russian territory, Putin said a halt in long-range bombers’ flights after the Soviet collapse had affected Russia’s security as other nations had continued such missions — an oblique reference to the U.S.

“I have made a decision to resume regular flights of Russian strategic aviation,” Putin was quoted as saying by Russian agencies.

An AP report on Aug. 8 quoted a Russian air force general who said Russian bombers had flown so close to the Guam war games, dubbed Valiant Shield, that the pilots exchanged pleasantries with U.S. fighter pilots sent to intercept them. U.S. military officials responded the following day, saying the bombers hadn’t come within 300 miles of Guam, and that no interceptors were scrambled.

However, fighters were scrambled when a pair of Russian Tu-95 bombers came close to British air space in July. Norwegian and British jets tracked and intercepted the Russians as they performed a wide-reaching sortie.

In late September, the North American Aerospace Defense Command launched three pairs of fighters to intercept a Russian Tu-95 participating in an exercise near Alaska’s western coast. NORAD called it a “planned response” to the Russian exercise, and the Air Force even released a photo of an F-15C from the Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska, flying alongside the Russian Bear bomber.

“We proceed from the assumption that our partners will view the resumption of flights of Russia’s strategic aviation with understanding,” Putin was quoted as saying.

The Russian-Chinese war games, which took place near the Ural Mountains city of Chelyabinsk, came on the same day that the Russian air force said its strategic bombers flew several missions ranging far over the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic oceans.

Putin said that 20 Russian bombers were involved in the exercise.

“Starting today, such tours of duty would be regular,” Putin said. “Our pilots have been grounded for too long, they are happy to start a new life.”

Soviet bombers routinely flew such missions to areas from which nuclear-tipped cruise missiles could be launched at the U.S., but stopped in the post-Soviet economic meltdown.

Booming oil prices over recent years have allowed Russia to sharply increase its military spending.

“Starting in 1992, the Russian Federation unilaterally suspended strategic aviation flights to remote areas,” Putin said. “Regrettably, other nations haven’t followed our example. That has created certain problems for Russia’s security.”