Russia's Su-35 and Su-34 Nuclear Bombers Just Practiced a War with NATO

Nicholas J. Myers

Security, Europe

The big event the media missed—until now.

Just when it seemed that Zapad-2017 was finally moving into the rear-view mirror, it came back to life. Unlike in September 2017, when the whole world was watching (and counter-exercising), this time it passed by virtually unnoticed. Russia has a long history of breaking up its strategic-operational exercises to give its commanders the opportunity to practice General Staff plans in real time and so it is no surprise that more Zapad activities were added later; however, controlling the amount of interest in the West has been much easier this time around.

From March 26 to 29, Russia held the exercise Ladoga-2018. Officially, this was a relatively small affair by Russian military exercise standards: a little more than fifty pilots practiced detecting a conventional enemy and launching a variety of missiles in the northwest of Russia (Ladoga is the largest lake in Europe, northeast of St. Petersburg and famous for being crossed while frozen to relieve Leningrad during World War II).

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