Why's that radar screen not blinking over there?

Two days ago, the Russian News & Information Agency - Novosti, reported on how "Russian bombers flew undetected across Arctic" more from the article :



"Russian military planes flew undetected through the U.S. zone of the Arctic Ocean to Canada during recent military exercises, a senior Air Force commander said Saturday. The commander of the country's long-range strategic bombers, Lieutenant General Igor Khvorov, said the U.S. Air Force is now investigating why its military was unable to detect the Russian bombers. They were unable to detect the planes either with radars or visually," he said."



SpaceWar.com, and several other sites/agencies also picked up the story, still its truthfulness, excluding the lack of coverage, can always be questioned, as "by the end of the year, two more Tu-160s will be commissioned for the long-range strategic bomber fleet, Khorov said." So, while I agree with him on the visual confirmation issue, such an achievement is hell of an incentive for commissioning more planes, isn't it? Moreover, should the what used to be, the world's largest radar - The Over-The-Horizon Backscatter Radar have been scrapped given Iran's (and not only) nuclear ambitions, or the ongoing space warfare doctrine would be the logical successor in here?



Let's for instance assume it actually happened, and take the reverse approach -- it actually happened in Russia too, back in 1987, and it wasn't a senior air force commander that did it, if he did, but 19 years old Mathias Rust who landed on the Red Square itself.



More details will follow for sure, so stay tuned, meanwhile take a look at Google Earth's Community spot link on Mathias's landing.



UPDATE
Nice article on the topic, and a great quote as well "Scanning containers full of sneakers for a 'nuke in a box' is not a really thoughtful thing."



Technorati tags:
Military, Radar, Bomber