north america against russian air, maritime and cruise missile threats. russia already doubled its long-ranger bomber patrols around u.s. coastlines in the last year. now ten a year more than 100 around europe the most flights since the cold war. in the last month, several u.s. officials publicly sounding warnings. russia s provocations are only more worrisome in light of vladimir putin s intense focus on building up and modernizing russia s military forces. reporter: the top u.s. commander ins u.s. even raising nuclear weapons concerns. there are those dual use weapon systems that could very easily be nuclear or non-nuclear and our ability to tell the difference between one and the other is very tough and this is very worrisome. reporter: those patrols, one of the thoughts is that moscow may be thumbing its nose at the united states but nored a