MOSCOW. Sept 19 (Interfax-AVN) - Russian air force and air defense units have been put on red alert about 4,000 times in 2002.
"The combat duty of air defense units remains tense. Ten cases of trespassing of the state border and over 30 violations of the rules of using Russia's skies have been exposed since the year began," a spokesman for the Air Force Staff told Interfax-Military News Agency on Thursday.
More than 100,000 air targets, among them over 80,000 foreign planes, including more than 1,500 warplanes and more than 500 reconnaissance planes, have been spotted and watched in January- September, the spokesman said.
"The most potentially dangerous zones for the Russian Federation are the areas of the Baltic and Barents Seas where air scouts of the United States, Great Britain, Germany, Norway, Poland, Sweden and France are barraging, as well as areas of the Seas of Japan and Okhotsk and the Karagin Bay where U.S. and Japanese planes are flying," the spokesman said.
According to data available to Interfax-AVN, the Defense Ministry allots RUB4.5bn to 5bn (USD142.18m to 157.98m) a year to the Air Force for maintenance of air defense duty.