Norway, Britain Scramble Jets on Russ Bombers

On Tuesday and Thursday of this week, two Russian Tupolev 95 "Bear" bombers approached Norwegian airspace and flew south along the coast toward the oil fields of the North Sea.

Two Norwegian F-16 fighter jets were scrambled to escort and monitor the bombers.

The Russian bombers first flew south along the coast of northern Norway on Tuesday, off Finnmark County. They made two more lengthy sorties late Thursday night, prompting Norwegian jets to fly out to meet them once again.

"We followed them for a while to the coast of Nord-Trondelag, where they turned around," said military spokesman John Inge Oglaend of the Tuesday incident. Last night's flights went farther south into the North Sea, to the region between Stavanger and Aberdeen, the heart of the British and Norwegian oil industry.

The British Defense Ministry confirmed that two of its Tornado fighter jets were also dispatched to monitor the Russian bombers since they flew closer to British airspace than usual.

Military officials said the bombers never entered Norwegian or British airspace but came close and flew an unusually long flight for a training mission. Officials said it's been many years since Russian bombers had been so close to Norway and Great Britain leading to speculation that the flights might be related to diplomatic stress between Russia and Britain. Russia refused to extradite a key suspect in the murder of a Russian dissident, Alexander Litivenko, residing in London.

Russian authorities claim the bombers were simply on a training mission. Frankly, I think it's more believable that the bombers were sent to test air defense systems of NATO. Russian President Putin has adopted a rather unfriendly posture toward the West and he's capable of virtually anything.