Air Force General Vladimir Mikhailov said that training time for pilots has doubled over the past year and that Russian strategic bombers have recently staged exercises in the Arctic, Indian and Pacific Oceans.

The Moscow-based military attaches in response quizzed him closely on Russia's future air ambitions.

Mikhailov confirmed that strategic bombers shot cruise missiles over the Arctic as part of broad military exercises staged earlier this month -- billed as the most wide-ranging war games in some 20 years.

He said Russia's bombers never launched their missiles over the Atlantic in a move that would have likely prompted protest from NATO and the United States.

But he cautioned that Russia was ready at any moment to do so.

"We are ready to go there today if necessary," Mikhailov announced in an address in the defense ministry's imposing central Moscow headquarters opposite the Kremlin.

The Russian air force -- along with the other branches of Russia's military -- has suffered from poor financing since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.

Training has been limited because the air force lacked cash for fuel and spare parts to update rundown equipment.

But Mikhailov said this has all changed.

"The average pilot training time has doubled since 2002," he said.

"I would not want to name the exact average number of hours -- this is not a state secret but that figure is measured differently by different countries. Some measure the time spent in the air and others from the engine's ignition."

He was peppered by questions from diplomats keen to figure out the course of Russia's military under President Vladimir Putin -- who has announced reforms as one of his top government priorities.

Mikhailov said that his agency has now changed track by agreeing that some of its plane and chopper models were outdated or not wanted by foreign customers.

"We are now only upgrading a small range of planes," he said. "This makes more sense."

His comments came amid displeasure in the Russian military that NATO this week flew AWACS reconnaissance planes over Baltic states that will soon join the US-led alliance.

Russia has feared NATO expansion and issued protests over the AWACSs flights since the sensitive radars can see deep into Russia's own territory.

Mikhailov said Russia has staged several reconnaissance missions in the same area in recent days but said those flights were made over neutral international waters.

"This should not be seen as an act of revenge," Mikhailov said with a grin.

And he stressed that Russia was ready to cooperate with NATO in "anti-terror" operations in Afghanistan and share its new Kant base in the Central Asia republic of Kyrgyzstan in case of emergency.

"But we would need two commanders in that case -- one who speaks Russian and one who speaks English," he said. "And, of course, an interpreter."

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