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Moscow resumes global bomber patrols

— PHOTO: AP

SHOW OF FORCE: A Russian plane refuels two MiG fighter jets on patrol west of Norway on Friday after Moscow resumed global reconnaissance by strategic bombers in the biggest show of the country’s air power since 1992.

MOSCOW: Russia has resumed global patrols by its long-range bombers to deal with threats to it national security.

President Vladimir Putin announced that 14 bombers and six supporting airplanes took off at midnight on Friday for 20-hour missions across the world.

“We have decided to restart flights by Russian strategic aviation on a permanent basis,” Mr. Putin told reporters after watching the largest yet military exercises with China and four central Asian states in Russia’s Ural Mountains.

The Russian leader made it clear the resumption of long-range bomber missions was in response to threats posed by the United States and NATO.

“In 1992, the Russian Federation unilaterally stopped strategic aviation patrols in faraway areas,” Mr. Putin said.

“Regretfully, not everyone followed our example, and strategic aviation flights by other states have continued. This has created security problems for Russia.”

Mr. Putin said the bombers would fly primarily “in the regions of our busy sea routes and economic zones.”

The U.S. reacted with thinly veiled irritation.

“If Russia feels as though they want to take some of these old aircraft out of mothballs and get them flying again, that’s their decision,” said Sean McCormack, a spokesman for the U.S. State Department.

Meanwhile, the restart of global patrolling by long-range bombers marks a major shift in Russia’s strategic posturing. For the first time since the end of the Cold War Russian bombers will fly missions over the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans from where their nuclear-capable cruise missiles will be able to strike targets deep inside the U.S. at a moment’s notice. The Russian move appeared to be part of Moscow’s response to the relocation of NATO forces closer to Russia’s borders and U.S. plans to deploy anti-ballistic missile defences in Eastern Europe.

Earlier this year, Mr. Putin said Russian missiles could once again be aimed at targets in Europe if the U.S. builds a missile shield on the continent, and last month Moscow suspended its compliance with the conventional arms forces in Europe treaty.

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