and they never called off the cold cold war either... obviously

[click image]

Russian subs move toward Canadian East Coast
Thu | Aug 13 | 10:15 AM

OTTAWA (AFP) - Canadian aircraft that hunted Soviet submarines during the Cold War are now monitoring two Russian attack subs that have migrated north after being spotted last week off the US coast, an official said Wednesday.

It was not clear, however, when the submarines moved north.

"The submarines have not done anything threatening," Dan Dugas, spokesman for Canadian Defense Minister Peter MacKay, told AFP.

"They're in international waters" in the North Atlantic, he said. "They're allowed to be there. But our job is to ensure that our coastal perimeter and waters are respected."

"And so, an Aurora (aircraft) is on watch as we enforce our sovereignty and ensure that we know what is happening along our coastlines."

The Pentagon last week said one of the two Russian nuclear-powered Akula class vessels had been parked in international waters some 200 miles (320 kilometers) off the US coast. The exact location of the other was unclear.

US officials said their presence was not cause for concern and they posed no threat to the United States.

The episode, however, echoed the cat-and-mouse maneuvers of the Soviet and US militaries during the Cold War, when Moscow and Washington routinely sent submarines towards one another's coasts to gather intelligence and track fleet movements.

"As Minister MacKay and other observers have noted, it is part of a pattern of Russia flexing its muscles in a way that has not been seen in many years," Dugas commented.

"No one can deny that the Russian military is upping its profile," he said.

Defense Minister Peter MacKay recently criticized Moscow for preparing to drop paratroopers at the North Pole for military exercises, and last February after one of its bombers skirted Canada's northern frontier on the eve of a US presidential visit to Ottawa.

The CP-140 Aurora was deployed in the 1980s to hunt submarines in the northwest Atlantic sector as part of Canada's NATO obligations.

Since the end of the Cold War, these long range aircraft have been used mostly for coastal surveillance and sovereignty patrols.

Obummer's diplomacy at work....

[But their missing ship has been found, at least.]