Russian Bombers in War Games Intercepted by U.S.

A pair of Russian long-range bombers on maneuvers were intercepted within striking range of the United States late last week, in what was apparently the first such incident since the end of the Soviet era, U.S. officials said Wednesday.

The flights off the coast of Iceland were part of well-publicized military exercises in northern Russia. Although they raised eyebrows in Washington, NATO leaders insisted they did not pose a threat.

As part of the six-day war games, two TU-95 Bear bombers early Friday flew within 60 miles of Iceland, where they were intercepted by four U.S. F-15 fighters and a P-3 training aircraft, U.S. officials said.

A senior defense official sought to play down the approach, saying the Russian aircraft “were testing our defenses and found our defenses were strong.”

U.S. officials, he said, “don’t see it as part of a threat. . . . We don’t see it as a particularly big deal.”

The overflights were part of an extensive series of Russian war games that took place outside St. Petersburg last week called West 99 that simulated a massive, NATO-like attack from the west.

The exercises were covered extensively by Russian media, which described the flight of the turboprops over the North Pole as a test of Russia’s abilities to operate in an Arctic theater.

Military experts in Moscow suggested that the war games were planned as a response to NATO’s eastward expansion, which infuriated Russia and put U.S.-Russian relations on a skid that hit bottom when the North Atlantic Treaty Organization began its air war against Yugoslavia in March.

Russian officials insisted that the exercises were not a response to the Kosovo conflict, which it strongly opposed, but had been planned long in advance.

NATO was jolted at the end of the Kosovo war when a convoy of several hundred Russian troops in armored vehicles that had been involved in a peacekeeping mission in neighboring Bosnia-Herzegovina raced to take up positions at the airfield in Pristina, the provincial capital of Kosovo.

The U.S. defense official said it is difficult to draw conclusions about the Russians’ motive in the bomber flight, given the information available.

During the Cold War era, Soviet aircraft and naval vessels would intermittently move near U.S. space to test reaction times and gauge the nature of the military responses. Such challenges have not occurred since the Soviet Union was dissolved at the beginning of the decade.

In this case, the TU-95 bombers apparently took off from Engels Air Base east of Moscow and flew north toward the North Pole, then southwest toward Iceland, a NATO member. They were intercepted by F-15s stationed with the NATO Iceland Defense Force, and followed in a clockwise path around the edge of the island, first by one pair of F-15s, then by another.

About the same time, two other Russian aircraft involved in the exercises, both Blackjack bombers, flew down the coastline of Norway, also a NATO member. The move set Norwegian fighter planes scrambling. But the Blackjacks headed east before they could be intercepted.

It was not immediately known whether the Russians had notified NATO about the bomber flight in advance.

The senior defense official said there had been no protest or other communication between U.S. and Russian military officials, and he knew of no U.S. plans to initiate one.

Another U.S. official said it was unclear what action the State Department or White House would take in response.

The Russian Defense Ministry was not immediately available for comment early today.

Russian officials said Monday that long-range Russian bombers had flown over the North Pole and test-fired unarmed strategic missiles in six days of military exercises last week.

The planes made 15-hour flights that took them over the Atlantic before heading to the Arctic and across the North Pole, said Col. Alexander Drobyshevsky, a Russian Air Force spokesman. Long-range missiles were test-fired and hit targets in southern Russia, he said.

The exercise apparently involved 50,000 Russian troops, three naval fleets and planes from the Russian navy and air force.

*

Richter reported from Washington and Reynolds from Moscow.