DEFENSE: U.S. Planes Over Russia?

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The Strategic Air Command's 2,000-odd B-47 medium-jet bombers and hundreds of heavy 6-52 intercontinental jet bombers hold an overwhelming power margin over the U.S.S.R., reported the monthly Missiles and Rockets magazine last week. The proof, said M. and R., is that SAC aircraft are conducting "numerous and continuing" reconnaissance missions over the U.S.S.R., and the Russians have not been able to stop them. "It is true that modern Russian fighters attack our bombers with major advantages of altitude, speed and maneuverability. It is also true that they score hits. But so far no attacks have been made by the Russians with missiles, either because they don't have antiaircraft missiles that are operational or because the Reds don't want to tip their hand. In any case, U.S. radar and photographic mapping missions over the Russian land mass continue with a fair degree of success and immunity. This indicates that in the event of an all-out situation, SAC bombers would get through in high enough proportion to result in a major catastrophe to the Soviet Union. The Kremlin knows this."

M. and R.'s report, reprinted by such European newspapers as Rome's La Stampa, and in the U.S. by the Christian Science Monitor, brought a denial from the Air Force.