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Russian Bombers Fly Over Atlantic
From Friday, February 29, 2008 issue.
Russia sent four strategic bombers over the Atlantic Ocean today as part of a training exercise, Reuters reported (see GSN, Feb. 13). “All the airplanes flew in accordance with international laws over neutral water and did not enter the territory of other states,” the Russian Defense Ministry said today in a statement. The U.S. Defense Department said the drill was reminiscent of Soviet bomber flights conducted during the Cold War. Russia’s continuing string of bomber flights is seen as a reassertion of the nation’s military prowess. Earlier in February, Russian strategic bombers buzzed a U.S. aircraft carrier stationed in the Pacific Ocean, provoking U.S. forces to dispatch fighter jets that intercepted the aircraft (Reuters/New York Times, Feb. 29). Meanwhile, the commander of Russia’s strategic missile forces on Wednesday announced plans to deploy 11 mobile and silo-launched Topol-M ICBMs in western Russia this year, RIA Novosti reported. “The [strategic missile forces] will receive 11 up-to-date Topol-M ICBMs in two versions (silo and mobile-launched),” said Gen. Nikolai Solovtsov, following an earlier statement that multi-independently targeted vehicles could be added to Russian Topol-M missiles over the next few years (see GSN, March 16, 2005). Topol-M missiles have a range of about 7,000 miles and are designed to elude missile defense interceptors using evasive maneuvers as well as various decoys and countermeasures. The ICBMs are also equipped with shielding to protect them against radiation, electromagnetic pulses, nuclear detonations and hits from a missile defense laser (RIA Novosti, Feb. 27).
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