Russia will resume strategic bomber patrols: Putin

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said he has ordered strategic bombers to resume regular long-range patrols. He made the announcement on the final day of the military exercises involving Russia, China, and four Central Asian countries at the Cherbakul Testing Range in the south Urals, a display of armed might that also sends a blunt message to the United States.

Analysts say the bombing patrols — suspended since 1992 after the collapse of the Soviet Union — mean a significant change in Russia’s military policy, which comes amid deteriorating US-Russia ties.

Washington has pilloried Russia's slipping democratic rights record, while Moscow has strongly objected to US missile defence plans in Europe. The two countries have publicly aired differences over global crises.

Drills involved about 6,000 servicemen from Russia and China, with around 1,500 from the other four member states, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan.

One of the drills involved 11 Russian aircraft, and NATO member Norway scrambled F-16 fighter jets to observe and photograph the Russian planes as they flew over the Norwegian Sea.

Leaders of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), including Chinese leader Hu Jintao, were in Russia's Chelyabinsk region for the final day of Peace Mission 2007, when Putin made the announcement: "I have made a decision to restore flights of Russian strategic bombers on a permanent basis. At 00:00 today, 17 August, 14 strategic bombers, support aircraft and aerial tankers were deployed." The counter-terrorism exercises had begun on 9 August.

He said that on the first day of patrols, bombers would spend about 20 hours in the air, with midair refuelling, and would coordinate with the navy. Air patrol areas would include commercial shipping lanes and areas of economic activity.

The Russian president said that the country had stopped strategic flights to remote regions in 1992 but, "Unfortunately, not everyone followed our example." Continuing long-distance strategic patrol flights by other states have created problems for national security, and Russia was moving on the assumption that "our partners will treat with understanding the resumption of strategic air flights".

The brief summit concluded with a communiqué that sounded like a thinly veiled warning to the United States to stay away from the strategically placed, resource-rich region.

"Stability and security in Central Asia are best ensured primarily through efforts taken by the nations of the region on the basis of the existing regional associations," the communiqué said.

A former Russian Air Force chief said the resumption of patrols would strengthen Russia's defense capability. He highlighted the new potential security threats Russia faces, saying NATO fighters were based in the Baltic States — formerly part of the Soviet Union but now EU members — while radar stations are being built around Russia's borders.

In the early 1980s, in response to the US deployment of cruise missiles in Europe, Soviet strategic aviation started patrolling areas as far as the US coast. Patrols were discontinued following the collapse of the USSR due to severe economic difficulties, including an acute fuel shortage.

But Washington has played down the significance of Russian strategic bomber flights. "That's a decision for them to take," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. "We certainly aren’t in the Soviet Union era," he told reporters. "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."

The United States, Russia and China are locked in an intense rivalry for influence in Central Asia, where vast hydrocarbon riches are buried. Washington wants pipelines that would carry oil and gas to the West, bypassing Russia, while Moscow has been manoeuvring to control exports.

China also has a massive appetite for energy to power its booming economy. SCO wants to show that Central Asia is its exclusive sphere of responsibility, say analysts. But Russia’s deputy foreign minister Alexander Losyukov said the exercise was not aimed against the United States.

SCO was created 11 years ago to address religious extremism and border security issues in Central Asia. In recent years, the group has been trying to shape itself into a bloc aimed at thwarting US inroads into the region.

In 2005, SCO called for a timetable for the withdrawal of US troops from Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. Uzbekistan evicted US forces later that year, but Kyrgyzstan still has a US base, which supports operations in neighbouring Afghanistan. Russia also has a military base in Kyrgyzstan. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose country has SCO observer status, attended the summit for the second consecutive year.

Russia has a fleet of 80 long-range aircraft capable of carrying nuclear weapons, most of them from the Soviet era. The 37th Strategic Air Army consists of 64 Tupolev-95 Bear aircraft and 16 Tupolev-160 Blackjack planes.

However, defence publication Jane's says Russia's strategic aerial capacity has "declined significantly" since the mid-1990s, as the emphasis has shifted towards conventional bombing missions in low-intensity conflicts that can provide better support for combat troops in asymmetrical warfare:

• The Blackjack and the Bear can each carry eight 200 kilotonne Kh-55 nuclear missiles, which have a range of 3,000km (1,864 miles).

• The Bear, which first entered service in 1955, is a four-engined turbo-prop with a range of more than 10,000km.

• The Bear-H, which carries nuclear weapons, made its first flight in September 1979. It is expected to remain operational until 2010 to 2015.

• The Tupolev 160 Blackjack is the Russian equivalent of the US strategic bomber the B-1B. It can travel up to 14,000km depending on what weapons it is carrying. Its first flight was in 1981.

• Russian strategic bombers are based in Engels, near Saratov, south of Moscow, and Ukrainka, near Svobodny, in Siberia.

• The country's strategic air force also consists of about 60 Tu-22 Backfire bombers, which have a nuclear capacity but are mostly used on conventional missions.