MOSCOW: Russia’s strategic bombers have resumed their Cold War practice of flying long-haul missions to areas patrolled by NATO and the United States, top generals said on Thursday.

A Russian bomber flew over a US military base on the Pacific island of Guam on Wednesday and `exchanged smiles’ with US pilots who had scrambled to track it, said Major-General Pavel Androsov, head of long-range aviation in the Russian air force.

“It has always been the tradition of our long-range aviation to fly far into the ocean, to meet (US) aircraft carriers and greet (US pilots) visually,” Androsov told a news conference.

“Yesterday we revived this tradition, and two of our young crews paid a visit to the area of the (US Pacific Naval Activities) base of Guam,” he said.

President Vladimir Putin has sought to make Russia more assertive in the world.

Mr Putin has boosted defence spending and sought to raise morale in the armed forces, which were starved of funding in the chaos that followed the fall of the Soviet Union. Mr Androsov said the sortie by the two turboprop Tu-95MS bombers, from a base near Blagoveshchensk in the Far East, had lasted for 13 hours. The Tu-95, codenamed “Bear” by NATO, is Russia's Cold War icon and may stay in service until 2040.

“I think the result was good. We met our colleagues — fighter jet pilots from (US) aircraft carriers. We exchanged smiles and returned home,” Androsov said.

The bombers give Russia the capability of launching a devastating nuclear strike even if the nuclear arsenals on its own territory are wiped out.—Reuters