Originally posted on Consortium of Defense Analysts:
Tu-95 Bear nuclear bomber
Bill Gertz reports for the Washington Free Beacon that four Russian strategic bombers triggered U.S. air defense systems while conducting practice bombing runs near Alaska this week, with two of the (Tupolev) Tu-95 Bear H aircraft coming within 50 miles of the California coast, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (Norad) confirmed yesterday, June 11, 2014.
“The last time we saw anything similar was two years ago on the Fourth of July,”
Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Norad spokesman, said the Bear H incursions began Monday around 4:30 p.m. Pacific time when radar detected the four turbo-prop powered bombers approaching the U.S. air defense zone near the far western Aleutian Islands.
Two U.S. Air Force F-22 jets were scrambled and intercepted the bombers over the Aleutians.
After tracking the bombers as they flew eastward, two of the four Bears turned around and headed west toward the Russian Far…
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