Russias recent Cold War-styled probing of North Atlantic defense zones along a path that could potentially offer its cruise missile-carrying Tu-95 bombers firing solutions in an actual nuclear war, is more political theatre than military threat, says a prominent national security expert.

Tom Nichols, a professor of national security affairs at the U.S. Naval War College told Forbes that an early September incident in which two Russian Tu-95 Bear bombers were tracked across the North Atlantic near Iceland, Greenland, and northeastern Canada was a training exercise deliberately designed to test West European and U.S. defenses.

They think theyre communicating messages of strength and resolve by conducting nuclear war exercises, said Nichols. If youre going to train to fly 6000 miles to drop a cruise missile you need to fly 6000 miles to practice, especially if you want to familiarize yourself with the various countries reactions along the route.

A Soviet Tu-95 Bear H aircraft being escorted by a Canadian Air Force McDonnell Douglas CF-18 Hornet fighter in 1987. (Credit: Wikipedia)

Is Russian President Vladimir Putin ordering these flights or is it the Russian military?

Theres no way that these flights would get anywhere near the U.S. without [Putin] knowing about it, said Nichols.

This follows an account in the Washington Free Beacon that detailed similar Russian bomber flights this spring in which four Tu-95s and two IL-78 aerial refueling tankers, made incursions into the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) and were met by two F-22 fighters before the Russians appeared to turn back.

A few hours later, however, the two Russian bombers reappeared 50 miles off the northern California coast and NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) again scrambled aircraft, this time two F-15s to make visual contact.

The [bombers] were in the ADIZ, but at no time did they enter our sovereign airspace, Maj. Beth Smith, spokesperson for NORAD and the U.S. Northern Command told Forbes. We do consider this as a spike in activity, but we do assess the [Russian flights] as exercise related.

Nichols is quick to point out however that in the event of an all out Russian nuclear attack, submarine launched missiles would get here in minutes and Russian land-based missiles in half an hour. By the time their bombers got here, Nichols says World War III would already be over.

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Russian Bombers Continue Probing U.S. Defenses