Australian troops at RAAF Base Darwin were ordered into a state of “increased readiness” when the two Russian Tu-95MS bombers carried out military drills in the region.
More than 100 Russian personnel took part in exercises alongside the bombers, nicknamed “Bears”, in neutral waters off Indonesia.
In a fight lasting around eight hours, the bombers took part in Russia’s first ever “air alert mission” in the South Pacific.
Leading Australian national security experts believe the four-engine turboprop-powered planes may have been gathering intelligence on the region.
Russian Army has been flexing its muscles by staging massive military exercises
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Peter Jennings, defence analyst for think tank the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said the mission shows Russia is attempting to expand its military influence.
“For the Russians to send a couple of aircraft this far down south I think is really proving it's got the capacity for that long-range reach,” he said.
“It doesn't surprise me in the least that our own military forces raised their alert levels in response.
“I'm sure there would have been concerns about Russian intelligence gathering because they wouldn't have come this far south without wanting to look at the one significant [the US] allied presence in this part of the world, which operates out of Darwin and RAAF Base Tindall a little further south.”
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“It doesn't surprise me in the least that our own military forces raised their alert levels in response.”
Peter Jennings of Australian Strategic Policy Institute
The Russian aircraft took off from Biak Airbase in Indonesia's eastern Papua province in early December.
In a statement, the Russian Ministry of Defence said: “Flights over neutral waters in Arctic, northern Arctic, Black and Caspian seas, and Pacific Fleet are conducted regularly by long-range aircraft.
“All the missions of the Russian Aerospace Forces are carried out in strict accordance with the international air law.”
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Nevertheless Australia’s Defence Department said “the ADF maintains appropriate levels of readiness and posture to respond to evolving circumstances” in the wake of the flight.
A spokesperson told ABC that RAAF Base Darwin was in “a brief period of increased readiness" due to the military exercise.
However the spokesperson added: “There were no instances of unalerted or unscheduled foreign aircraft operating in Australian airspace during this period.”
In October, two F/A-18 fighter jets scrambled to escort two Russian TU-95 bombers away from a US warship near North Korea.
Putin’s nuclear-capable “Bears” were stopped just 80 miles away from the vessel, the USS Ronald Reagan, in the Sea of Japan.