PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE – Frequent flying by Russian strategic bombers near American airspace – drawing U.S. fighter jets – has military officials at this base near Colorado Springs on guard and angling for greater openness and cooperation.
While odds are low that these increasing Russian forays will cause a catastrophe, “there’s more of a risk of something accidental happening,” Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen said Monday after meeting here with homeland defense commanders.
“We will clearly watch this evolution,” Mullen said of Russia’s flights – not detected in such numbers since the Cold War.
“We’ve got good military-to-military relations with the Russians. My sense is there’s no strategic intent to threaten the United States.”
To prevent problems, the Colorado-based North American Aerospace Defense and Northern commands this month initiated joint exercises with Russian counterparts here and in Alaska – a return to Cold War-era efforts to manage tensions.
Uniformed Russian officers participated in a table-top drill testing how each side would respond to a simulated hijacking of a passenger airliner.
Russian “Bear” bombers led NORAD crews to scramble U.S. fighter jets 46 times last year, according to records provided by military officials. This represents a sharp escalation after a handful of incidents in previous years. After the Cold War, the frequency of bomber and fighter jet confrontations decreased as U.S. and Russian governments focused on reducing their nuclear arsenals.
In one incident last month, a Russian Tu-142 bomber buzzed about 2,000 feet over the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier off Japan. U.S. fighters intercepted it south of the battleship. In another, U.S. F-22s tracked two Russian Bear-H bombers lumbering over Alaska’s Aleutian Islands on Nov. 22.
Russian officials have linked the flights to U.S. plans to install a missile defense system with bases in Poland and the Czech Republic.
The Russian bombers “are not on any flight plan. They are not complying with the internationally-accepted rules of operation. In the post-9/11 environment, it is difficult to have unidentified aircraft flying toward your airspace if you don’t know who they are or what their plans are,” Air Force Gen. Victor Renuart, commander of NORAD and Northern Command, said in an interview.
“There’s a need to identify any unidentified aircraft approaching U.S. airspace.”
NORAD leaders said Russia’s bombers are not visibly armed, but that they could be carrying weapons, including nuclear bombs.
The best bet to avoid miscalculations, U.S. officials said, would be for the Russians to file flight plans notifying Americans of training flights.
But Russian military officials have rejected this, Renuart said.”The Russian approach today is that these are military training flights in un-monitored airspace and that they are within their rights to fly without an international flight plan. While that is at basic level correct, the potential risk to commercial aviation makes it tougher” to accept, Renuart said.
U.S. commanders in 2006 persuaded Russian commanders to announce bomber flights in advance via “press releases” submitted in Russian to a Russian news service. Homeland defense officials here who monitor the news service say they’ve been able to pick up and translate these notices and anticipate some flights.
Russia experts link the increased flights to internal Russian politics – President Vladimir Putin’s effort to win support by appearing strong and military leaders angling for increased spending to upgrade weaponry.
Russia’s new president Medvedev is considered more liberal but expected to continue the course set by Putin, who retains a leadership role.
“We have to be concerned about it, because Russia has embarked on a course of action: confrontation with the United States,” said John Pike, director of the Global Security think tank in Washington D.C. that tracks strategic developments.
Russia’s leaders “have this internal dynamic that is propelling their annoyance with us. If they don’t spend a lot of money re-equipping their military, their military is going to be a laughing stock. And that’s just contrary to their image of who they are,” Pike said.
“The Bear is back.”
On Monday, Joint Chiefs chairman Mullen also visited Army soldiers and families at Fort Carson to thank them for their efforts in Iraq.
Mullen said in a press conference that military leaders have plans for withdrawing U.S. forces from Iraq. “We plan all the time.” If a new U.S. president orders a quick withdrawal, he would be ready, he said.
Just back from Iraq, Mullen said security progress since December “was palpable.” It “creates the kind of head-room,” he said, “where political reconciliation can continue.”
(Bruce Finley: 303.954.1700 or bfinley@denverpost.com)
