Tuesday, October 2, 2007

What Comes Before Alarm?

A few weeks ago, British and Norwegian fighter jets scrambled to escort Russian bombers that had breached NATO airspace. Now, NORAD is reporting that American and Candian jets scrambled seven times this summer due to increased Russian air activity near its Alasaka region. The training exercises, which were announced ahead of time in the Russian press and involved heavy bombers, never came closer than 12 miles of American airspace and, according to a NORAD spokesman, are no cause for alarm. But they just might be cause for wondering what the hell is going on in Vladimir Putin's cranium these days.

Update: I'm beginning to think that the very act of clicking the "Publish" button on a post automatically generates a related news item somewhere else on the tubes, but I just came across this alternative take on the Russian training flights. According to the commander in charge of NORAD, the Russian bombers are a major pain in the ass and big-time waste of money because NORAD is forced to scramble jets to investigate every time an unidentified blip shows up on the radar. All of that could be reduced, if not eliminated, if the Russians would file flight plans for their training runs. But despite repeated requests to current and former Russian air commanders, they've yet to comply.

Posted by Judah in:  Russia   

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