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Russian bombers spotted over North Sea; UK, Norwegian fighter jets scramble
07.20.07, 9:01 AM ET
OSLO (Thomson Financial) - British and Norwegian fighter jets scrambled over the North Sea after Russian bombers were spotted flying at 'unusual' latitudes overnight, the Norwegian military said today.
The repeated sightings of Russian jets -- the most numerous off Norway's coast since the end of the Cold War according to Norwegian public radio NRK -- came amid an escalating diplomatic crisis between Russia and Britain.
In the third incident of its kind this week, Norwegian jets were again called out early this morning as another two Russian bombers were spotted close to Norwegian airspace, the military said.
Two Russian TU95 Bear bombers were first detected overnight Thursday in international airspace between Stavanger, southeastern Norway, and the Scottish town Aberdeen, Norwegian army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jon Inge Oegland told Agence France-Presse.
'It is a little unusual. It's been a long time since we saw Russian aircraft this far south,' he said.
Norway sent two F-16 fighters 'to identify the aircraft and to mark the Norwegian airspace,' he said, adding that Britain also dispatched aircraft to the scene.
The Russian bombers then turned back.
Hours later, two Russian TU160 Blackjack bombers were observed flying westwards, west of the Barents Sea, early this morning, again prompting the Norwegian military to dispatch F-16s, Oegland said.
'Both times the Russian bombers stayed within international airspace the entire time. They didn't do anything wrong,' Oegland stressed.
'It would be pure speculation to guess why they did what they did.'
Two Russian TU95 Bear bombers were detected in the Norwegian Sea off northwestern Norway on Tuesday. Oslo and London scrambled fighters but the Russian planes turned back on their own, the Norwegian military said.
http://www.forbes.com/business/feeds/afx/2007/07/20/afx3935202.html
Also:
"July 20, 2007: In an unusual surge of activity, there were three groups of long range Tu-95 or Tu-160 aircraft in the air off the north Russian coast this weel. It was only last year that the air force resumed long range flights over the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic oceans. About a hundred of these flights were carried out last year, mainly by Tu-95MS and Tu-160 heavy bombers. Russia has also increased the number of heavy bomber crews it is training, with 42 new crews entering service in 2006. Russia has about 50 operational Tu-95s and about sixteen Tu-160s. Both bombers can, with in-flight refueling, reach any place on the planet. The Norwegian air force keeps two armed F-16 fighters on constant alert to go escort Russian aircraft that fly just outside Norwegian airspace. Britain also keeps fighters on alert to meet the Russian aircraft when they near British air space."http://www.strategypage.com/qnd/russia/articles/20070722.aspx
The Russians are back
MICHAEL HOWIE
HOME AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT
20-Jul-07 00:04 BST
RUSSIAN bombers were yesterday intercepted off Scotland by RAF Tornado aircraft after encroaching into UK airspace in an incident reminiscent of the Cold War.
The Ministry of Defence said that two Tu-95 "Bear" bombers briefly entered British airspace at about 2am, but turned back after British F-3s, part of the RAF's Quick Reaction Alert, intercepted them.
A spokesman did not specify where the interception took place, but reports said they were over oilfields close to the morth-east coast.
About three hours later, two Russian Tu-160 strategic bombers reached the fringes of British airspace and returned to base after Tornados were once again scrambled from RAF Leeming in Yorkshire.
The incidents took place two days after RAF planes were forced to approach Russian bombers as they headed toward British airspace.
Colonel Alexander Drobyshevsky, a Russian Air Force spokesman, said British planes approaching bombers on training flights was "normal".
But such a spate of incidents, which were commonplace during the Cold War as military aircraft carried out reconnaissance on enemy installations, has been described as "highly unusual" by aviation experts, and occurred amid heightened diplomatic tensions between Russia and Britain over Moscow's refusal to extradite a murder suspect.
A spokesman for the MoD said that "to have three launches in one week is unusual... but to connect these with anything happening in London would be speculation".
However, Jim Ferguson, an aviation writer, said it was possible the incidents were linked to the ongoing diplomatic row, adding: "The only people who will know whether the Russians are flexing their muscles as a result of the diplomatic spat will be those in the Kremlin."
He said the Tu-160 approach was "unusual", but there was "nothing new" in Bear reconnaissance flights
Meanwhile, Andrei Lugovoy, the suspect in the radiation poisoning death of the Kremlin foe and former KGB officer, Alexander Litvinenko, yesterday claimed London provoked the current confrontation to hide a lack of evidence.
In a radio interview, Mr Lugovoy said he was prepared to face British prosecutors in Russia but will not leave his country for fear that he could be arrested at the behest of Britain.
The interview, in which he called British accusations of a lack of co-operation "a cynical and impudent lie", came a day after Russia's decision to expel diplomats, stop issuing visas for British officials and halt counter-terrorism co-operation.
The moves followed Britain's announcement on Monday that it was expelling four Russian diplomats, restricting visas issued to Russian government officials and reviewing interaction on a range of issues, in what it said was a necessary response to Moscow's refusal to co-operate.
This article: http://news.scotsman.com/uk.cfm?id=1138812007
http://news.scotsman.com/uk.cfm?id=1138812007
Increased Russian military activity in the North
Norwegian jet fighters were three times this week scrambled to meet Russian bombers which flew close to the Norwegian coast. The flights are seen as part of a Russian military exercise.
/ np
21.07.2007 07:59
On Tuesday the Russian Tupolev (Bear) bombers flew down to Troendelag before turning back north.
In the early hours of Friday morning they were escorted by Norwegian jet fighters as far down as the waters between Stavanger and Aberdeen, before returning to Russia.
On Friday morning another two bombers approached the coast of Finnmark, when they were met by Norwegian jet fighters, and turned back out to sea.
The Norwegian Defence has seen an increased activity by Russian military aircraft along the Norwegian coast over the last couple of years.
- There has been a gradual increase in the activity since the down-period of the Russian Defence in the middle of the 1990's, says Defence spokesman John Inge Oeglaend.
- We must go back to the Soviet era to find such high (military) activity on land, sea and in the air, says Deputy leader of the Barents Secretariat, Thomas Nilsen.
Defence experts see this as a sign that the Russian military forces now have more money to spend on preparedness. This week the Russians ended their annual summer exercise in the northern region.
As part of the NATO preparedness agreement, Norway always has two fully armed jet fighters on full alert at the Bodoe Air Base, ready for take-off.http://www.norwaypost.no/cgi-bin/norwaypost/imaker?id=91770