"An Old Challenge Has Returned"

Like a persistent toddler, Russia is apparently testing its limits again. "Why" is still the question.

CH-18 Hornets were scrambled to intercept several Tupolev-95 Bear bombers flying over the arctic a bit too close to Canadian airspace Friday, Lt.-Gen. Angus Watt told The Chronicle Herald. "It's not exactly a new challenge; it's an old challenge that has returned," Watt said.

The area buzzed by the bombers is located inside what the Canadian military calls its air defense identification zone near Inuvik, N.W.T.

"It's where we pay attention to people coming in," Watt said. "They were never in our airspace. They were never in our sovereign territory."

Even though the military is adopting an official "wait and see" attitude, a change in activity has been noted recently compared to previous occurrences during Canada's 50-year history with the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, according to the Chronicle Herald.

"We've been doing intercepts of the bombers for almost the whole time," Watt said. "It's just a recent increase in the frequency."

"We need a bigger sample size," he added. "A couple of missions doesn't make a trend. And over the course of the next few years, we'll see what their posture is. But on the basis of a few missions, we just react as we always have."

This time, the Russian bombers actually came within visual range of the Canadian fighters.

"We have responded in the traditional way to Russian incursions of our airspace by meeting them as they enter our airspace with our fighters to escort them through to show them that we're paying attention," he said.

It's not like the country is being "inundated" by the Russian long-range bomber flights, Watt said. "It's just the odd probe."

"You sometimes get other airplanes, but they need a lot of aerial refueling, and we haven't seen that since the Cold War era," he said.

Russia continues to test Britain as well. In the largest show of strength since President Vladimir Putin ordered strategic air patrols to resume in August, British jets intercepted eight Russian nuclear-capable bombers as they headed toward British airspace.

Russian air force spokesperson Col. Alexander Drobyshevsky reportedly confirmed 14 long-range bombers were engaged in missions over the Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic oceans Wednesday night.

As ANN reported, two Royal Air Force jets were scrambled in August to intercept another bomber after it came a little too close to entering United Kingdom airspace over the north Atlantic. UK Sky News reported two Eurofighter Typhoon interceptors shadowed the Cold War-era reconnaissance aircraft when it appeared unannounced and brushed UK airspace. The surveillance aircraft turned back just prior to actually entering UK airspace.

Watt says no one should expect a return to Cold War attitudes and behaviors that once amplified frigid relations between Russia and North Atlantic Treaty Organization member countries, despite its recent actions.

"It's a different world. We're not going back to the Cold War," he said.

"But in the end, it does, I think, prove the point that we can't take anything for granted."

FMI: www.airforce.forces.gc.ca, www.nato.int