Russia Tracks 100 Foreign Spy Planes a Month

Russia Tracks 100 Foreign Spy Planes a Month

Reuters Russia`s air force spots and tracks more than 100 foreign spy planes
around its borders every month, the air force chief was quoted as saying
Thursday.

General Anatoly Kornukov told Interfax that air defence forces had sent up
interceptors 30 times in the past year to chase off planes trying to violate
Russian airspace. There were 10 cases when foreign planes breached air defences.


Each month up to 70 foreign military reconnaissance planes were tracked in
Russia's Far East, up to 20 over the Arctic Barents Sea and up to 15 over the
Baltic Sea, he said.

During the Cold War, aircraft from both sides regularly flew missions to test
defences. That practice tailed off after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 but
still continues.

Last month, the Pentagon said Russian Tu-95 bombers had been moved to the Far
North with a view to testing U.S. air defences. But Kornukov later denied this,
saying the crews were taking advantage of fresh fuel supplies to train in Arctic
conditions.
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