MOSCOW, January 7 (Itar-Tass) — Russia’s strategic turboprop bombers will make no less than 50 skies patrol flights in remote regions of the world in 2012, Air Force spokesman Vladimir Drik told Itar-Tass on Saturday.
“The flights will be carried out over the Arctic, Atlantic and Pacific Oceans as well as over the Black Sea,” he said.
The spokesman reiterated that the task of patrolling skies by long-range aviation crews was set by the Russian president back in 2007 and has been successfully fulfilled since.
In particular, in 2011 long-range aviation planes made over 50 patrolling missions. Moreover, the crew of a Tu-95MS turboprop bomber set a flight time record staying in skies for 40 hours with multiple aerial refueling.
“Such flights gave the crews precious experience of fulfilling tasks beyond Russia’s borders over the areas with a few landmarks and reference points and in difficult weather conditions,” Drik said.
Moreover, all flights are carried out in an off-line mode for a long time. The crews fulfill different tasks – air refueling, air reconnaissance and interaction with other Air Force units.
“Practically always at different stages of patrolling our planes are escorted by air defense fighters of Norway, Britain, the United States, Japan and some other countries,” Drik said.