In Russia, the strategic nuclear and aviation forces are sending their own messages by exercising their strategic and conventional forces. Yars mobile ICBM units are on the move as part of the annual summer training exercises of the Strategic Missile Forces in the Sverdlovsk Region in the Urals and in the Altai Region in Siberia, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported on Wednesday, reported TASS. “As part of the tactical drills, Yars road-mobile missile systems of the Barnaul and Tagil formations of the Strategic Missile Force embarked on combat patrol routes,” the ministry said in a statement. In addition, Tu-95 and Tu-160 bombers took off from an airfield in the Saratov region and practiced firing cruise missiles at targets in the Arctic, the Defense Ministry reported this morning.
Exercises also continue over the Black Sea. Yesterday, a pair of Russian Tu-22M3 long-range supersonic bombers escorted by Su-30M2 fighters flew a mission over the Black Sea that lasted about five hours. TASS notes that the bombers performed their patrol flight as NATO’s Sea Breeze maneuvers were progressing in the Black Sea. At about the same time, Russian Su-30 fighter jets intercepted and escorted a US Navy P-8 patrol aircraft over the same waters. US and British reconnaissance aircraft fly missions over the Black Sea on a near daily basis, collecting signals intelligence and probing Russian responses to their presence.
