Russian Strategic Missile Carriers Perform Planned Flights – Air Force Official

Text of report by Russian news agency RIA Novosti

Moscow, 19 July: The strategic missile carriers of the Russian Air Force performed 15 flights in northern latitudes over the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans on Tuesday [19 July], Col Aleksandr Drobyshevskiy, media aide to the Air Force commander-in-chief, has said.

“In the course of tactical training the crews of the Tu-95MS, Tu- 160 and Il-78 aircraft practised the peculiarities of flights and refuelling in northern latitudes,” Drobyshevskiy said. The aircraft were in the air for over nine hours. Some 20 per cent of pilots took part in long-range flights for the first time, he added.

The combat training of the long-range aviation is going strictly according to the plan. “The long-range aviation has already carried out several exercises with launching cruise missiles and bombing. The strategic missile carriers Tu-160 and Tu-95MS performed flights to the North Pole, Drobyshevskiy said.

The British media reported on Wednesday [18 July] that fighter aircraft of the British Air Force were allegedly put on alert to intercept Russian bombers Tu-95 that took off from an air base on the Kola Peninsula towards the British air space.

The reports in the British media are untrue, Drobyshevskiy said. The long-range aviation aircraft performed planned flights over international waters. Such flights are being performed in line with the training schedule of the long-range aviation crews, he added.

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