Russian President Vladimir Putin (seen on the screen) has reminded the West that Russian strategic planes can shortly go back to the good old days.
Photo: Vasily Alexandrov
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Diving Bomber Chronicle
// Russia finds an adequate response to U.S. actions in the air
Russia has resumed long-range patrols by its bomber planes for the first time since the collapse of the USSR. President Vladimir Putin made the announcement at the end of military exercises conducted by the Central Asian alliance, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). The United States called Russia’s resumption of this Cold War-era practice “an internal decision.” Western experts viewed the move as a new sign that Moscow is flexing its military might and ready to react to the West’s actions in the Cold War vein.
Vladimir Putin announced the decision to bring back long-range strategic flights at the SCO’s Peace Mission 2005 drills at the Chebarkul testing range in Chelyabinsk Region. Starting from August 17, strategic bombers will be sent from seven airbases across the world, for the first time since 1992. 20 missile carriers will be on the strategic mission in cooperation with the Russian Navy.
Vladimir Putin said that the resumption of this Cold War-era practice was a forced decision. “The Russian Federation unilaterally ended the flights of its strategic aviation in faraway areas patrolled by the military. Unfortunately, not everyone followed our example,” the Russian leader said in a clear allusion to the United States and added that the move would “guaranteeing the safety” of Russia. “Therefore, I took the decision to restart flights by Russian strategic aviation on a permanent basis.” The Russian president expressed hope that “our partners will view the resumption of flights with understanding.”
The president’s statement also left an impression that the resurrection of bomber flights was quite long-awaited. “Our pilots have been grounded too long,” President Putin noted. “They performed flights from time to time, at strategic exercises, for example. “They are happy they are starting a new life.”
Air Force Major General and Long-Range Aviation Commander Pavel Androsov said on Saturday the decision had been prepared for some time. “We have performed some 50 flights with Tu-160, Tu-95MS, Tu-22MZ and Il-78 jets with 400 flying hours [since August 17].” Russia’s long-range aviation has in its arsenal 79 strategic bombers. 64 of them are Tu-95MS jets and 15 are Tu-160 planes. Major General Pavel Androsov said that Russian aircrafts were patrolling over the Atlantic, Pacific and Artic oceans supported by Su-27 fighter aircrafts and A-50 airborne warning and control systems planes. “Tu-160 and Tu-95 MS strategic aircrafts spent 13 hours in the air with the cruising speed of up to 900 kph,” Major General Androsov added. “We are planning to conduct these flights regularly as they are essentially the core of training for crews of strategic and long-range bombers,” the commander noted.
President Putin also mentioned “combat duty on a regular basis” in his Friday announcement. The duty implies not only permanent alertness of strategic aircrafts and crews on the ground but also regular flights of bomber groups across the world. This practice was common in the Soviet time. Permanent combat patrolling was introduced briefly in the 1980s. Soviet long-range jets went on a permanent duty in the air in four zones over neutral Arctic Ocean waters in response to an increasing number of flights of U.S. strategic bombers near the USSR’s northern borders. Strategic missile carriers were spending 18 hours in the air a day from January 1985 till April 1987. In the end, Russia decided to give up the presence of its strategic planes in the air for a variety of reasons including financial considerations.
Washington reacted to the Cold War-reminiscent resumption of Russian strategic flights with surprising calm. Asked whether the patrols posed a security threat to the United States, State Department spokesman Gordon Johndroe replied: “I don’t think that our military has those concerns about it.” Mr. Johndroe noted that that was “an internal decision” by the Russians and added that it was not entirely surprising for the United States. The White House spokesman preferred to downplay the issue’s importance saying that the United States has “very good working relations” with the Russian government and military.
However, Washington veiled its irritation very thinly. “If Russia feels as though they want to take some of these old aircrafts out of mothballs and get them flying again, that’s their decision,” said Sean McCormack, a State Department spokesman. The announcement came a few days after Russia sent its planes to fly within a few hundred kilometers on the island Guam which hosts Washington’s largest military base in the Pacific Ocean and may soon host parts of the U.S. missile shield. Mr. McCormack lashed out at Russia for the flights calling them “a Cold War-era practice.’
There seems to be more than one reason for Washington’s poised reaction to the developments. It is not only because Russian long-range jets have recently been making more and more flights over the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, which evidently was not entirely surprising for the United States. More importantly, teasing the United States and NATO, Moscow does not violate any international treaties. Secondly, these flights do not tip military and strategic balance but rather represent a new step in the ongoing “war of postures” between Moscow and Washington.
Meanwhile, Western experts and media tend to view Moscow’s recent statement as an attempt to highlight its growing military might and show willingness to look for “adequate steps” should Moscow and Washington fail to agree on the U.S. missile shield and other disarmament issues. James Collins, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia and now director at the Russian and Eurasian program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, noted that upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections could be an underlying reason for Moscow’s move. “Vladimir Putin is trying to make sure that nobody thinks that he’s soft on national security in an election season,” Mr. Collins said. On one hand, the official said, President Putin talks about cooperating with the West, but on the other, he shows that Moscow could respond militarily if it chose.
Several experts note that such moves ricochet the U.S. administration which has concentrated too heavily on al-Qaida and Iran and overlooked “the Russian threat.” This is an opinion of an unnamed former White House staffer, who served Ronald Reagan and George Bush Snr. “My great fear is that I wake up one day soon to discover that we lost the Cold War, or rather that like everything else, we won the war and then lost the peace,” he said in an interview with The Sunday Telegraph.
Alexander Reutov and Sergey Strokan
All the Article in Russian as of Aug. 20, 2007
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