Share this story!            

Norwegian, British jets intercept Russian fighters again

OSLO: Norwegian and British fighter jets scrambled to intercept Russian bombers over the north Atlantic, Norway’s military command said on Thursday.
Eight Russian Tupolev-95s were detected in international air space over the Barents Sea early on Thursday, said Wing Commander Jon Inge Oegland, a spokesman for Norway’s General Staff in Stavanger. “Following the established routines, we sent up two F-16s to mark out Norwegian air space. The Russian planes were close to Norwegian air space but they did not enter,” he said. According to information obtained by AFP, British interceptors were also sent to the zone to shadow the Russian aircraft. “Russia had announced an aerial military exercise in the coming days,” said Oegland. “These latest flights are certainly linked to that.”
Russia’s air force announced on October 13 that 12 of its strategic bombers would be taking part in strategic exercises in the region, but they were meant to run on October 13 and 14. The encounter was just the latest in a series of such incidents in recent weeks. Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the resumption of long-range flights in international air space while he attended military exercises on August 17. Even in the weeks before his statement, Britain and Norway had to scramble jets to intercept Russian planes near their airspace. Russian bombers had also been making increasingly frequent flights near US territory. Such flights were standard during the Cold War standoff with the United States and its western European allies, but were abandoned in 1992 amid financial difficulties that followed the Soviet collapse. afp

Home | National

Share this story!