BendGovernment

This military muscle flexing rings familiar. During times of stress like the Cuban Missle Crisis, we used to track Russian bombers in exactly the same routine way. In those days SAC intercept jets used to take off from points I will not mention and the bombers would never have a remote chance of getting to target.

The Russian exercise seemed pointless and a waste of money unless there is some military advantage to making icebergs radioactive.
===================== CTV ===

NORAD scrambles jets to intercept Russian bombers
Updated Fri. Sep. 29 2006 11:06 PM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

NORAD launched Canadian and American fighter jets to intercept two Russian bombers near U.S. airspace, officials said Friday.

Russian military officials had warned the United States the bombers would be conducting an exercise in the region. But as the planes crossed a 20-kilometre buffer zone around U.S. airspace, the NORAD planes moved in.

At about 6 p.m. ET Thursday, NORAD scrambled three pairs of fighter jets -- including two CF-18 jets from Cold Lake, Alta.

The American aircraft included four F-15s from Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage, Alaska.

*It was the Americans who found the bombers first. They came to within metres of the bombers,* reported CTV's David Akin. *There was no radio contact. After a period of time, the Russians turned and went home.*

The bombers never crossed over into Canadian or U.S. airspace. And according to Major Jason Proulx, such incidents are not rare.

*It's not just something we do with foreign aircraft,* he told CTV Newsnet. *NORAD is responsible for monitoring suspicious aircraft within our own domestic airspace as well.*

Even though NORAD knew the Russian planes would be flying in the area, he said the incident was still "exciting" for the Canadian military.



*It's always exciting to be involved in this line of work,* Proulx said.

*We have pilots and support people that train to do this; people that monitor the skies 24/7. And it's interesting when ... their training is put to the test. An example such as this was perfect: they're trained to do it, they responded, they intercepted and everything worked out great.*
=================== CTV ==

The Russians are bright boys. I suspect they do this to discover our regular approach patterns and to determine how many lines or groups of intercepts usually rise to the bait.

I hope our approach always varies so that their target attitudes can never be preset. = TG