Russia's Enemies from Outer Space

At an international conference in May, Defense Ministry officials tried to frighten their Western colleagues with what they claimed were new weapons that could counter the U.S. missile defense system. No sooner had the conference ended than the Defense Ministry conducted unannounced exercises of the recently created Aerospace Defense Forces, or ADF, a unit of long range military transport aviation, as well as Air Force and air defense units of the Western Military District. In the maneuvers, four ADF regiments deployed to the Ashuluk test range in the Astrakhan region repelled attacks by multiple aircraft and cruise missiles simulating aircraft of the Western Strategic Command. The war-games scenario apparently represented a limited nuclear conflict in which Russian nuclear aircraft had to respond to an attack by its enemy. The media also reported that as part of the computer-based maneuvers, Western district air defenses repelled a direct air attack against Moscow. In a conference call, the Defense Minister and other top brass reported that all of the targets in the exercises were destroyed without problem, and the snap exercises perfectly illustrated that the creation of the ADF was justified.