Bill Gertz on the Washington Free Beacon website has a really interesting article dated July 6 for Milcom monitors to digest titled: Putin’s July 4th Message -- Russian nuclear-capable bombers intercepted near West Coast in second U.S. air defense zone intrusion in two weeks.
According to Gertz, "Two Russian strategic nuclear bombers entered the U.S. air defense zone near the Pacific coast on Wednesday and were met by U.S. interceptor jets, defense officials told the Free Beacon.
"It was the second time Moscow dispatched nuclear-capable bombers into the 200-mile zone surrounding U.S. territory in the past two weeks.
"An earlier intrusion by two Tu-95 Bear H bombers took place near Alaska as part of arctic war games that a Russian military spokesman said included simulated attacks on “enemy” air defenses and strategic facilities.
"A defense official said the Pacific coast intrusion came close to the U.S. coast but did not enter the 12-mile area that the U.S. military considers sovereign airspace.
"The bomber flights near the Pacific and earlier flights near Alaska appear to be signs Moscow is practicing the targeting of its long-range air-launched cruise missiles on two strategic missile defense sites, one at Fort Greely, Alaska and a second site at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif."
You can read the entire Gertz article online at http://freebeacon.com/putins-july-4th-message/.
If you are new to Milcom monitoring and want to monitor DoD Air Defense action, program the following nationwide frequencies in your scanner: 228.900 232.500 (Canada) 234.600 234.700 (Canada) 235.900 238.400 241.200 252.000 254.200 254.475 260.900 265.400 270.200 271.000 274.400 277.600 278.000 281.600 282.600 288.400 293.600 316.300 320.600 324.000 327.900 328.000 349.550 355.200 360.150 364.200 369.000 386.000 MHz (AM mode)
HF monitors should keep an eye on 4727 5705 6736 9022 13206 15046 18027 kHz USB.
These HF freqs are all tertiary backup freqs at best between the AWACS and the Air Def Sectors. They are also shared with other DoD users and are "NOT" dedicated Northcom/USAF/NORAD freqs. Don't expect to hear a lot of air def comms on these HF freqs these days. Most of the old HF stuff we use to hear has now moved on a secure UHF milsatcom channel that we have heard them refer to many times on their UHF aero freqs listed above.