Bombers carrying Kh-101 missiles flew off Northern Norway

The strategic Tu-95MS bombers were escorted by Su-33 fighter jets and intercepted by a pair of Norwegian F-35s scrambled from Evenes Air Base to monitor the Russian aircraft.

The flight, which took place over the Barents and Norwegian Seas early on Tuesday morning, 15 September, lasted five hours, according to a statement from the Ministry of Defence. “All flights by Russian Aerospace Forces aircraft comply with international regulations governing the use of neutral airspace,” the ministry said. The Russian bombers were armed with a Kh-101 cruise missile, the same weapon these aircraft have been used to launch against targets in Ukraine. Russia’s flexing of military muscles off northern Norway came on the same day that NATO deployed two signals-intelligence aircraft north and south of the Kola Peninsula. A Swedish Korpen circled over Finnish Lapland, while a US Rivet Joint conducted a mission over the eastern Barents Sea.

A Norwegian P-8 Poseidon maritime surveillance aircraft also flew over the Barents Sea north of the Kola Peninsula on Tuesday, according to tracking data from Flightradar24. Russia is currently in its peak season for testing new weapons, including naval cruise missiles launched from submarines and surface warships. Testing of the nuclear-powered Burevestnik missile from the Pankovo site on Novaya Zemlya is also in full swing. However, no information has yet been made public about any successful or failed launches.