Russian Tu-160 strategic bomber planes flew over the Barents and Norwegian seas as part of a major naval exercise, the state-run RIA news agency quoted the defense ministry as saying on Wednesday.

It said the flights were part of the “Ocean-2024” drills that Russia launched a day earlier.

The exercises, the biggest since the Soviet era, will involve more than 90,000 servicemen, over 400 vessels, and 125 aircraft and will run until Sept. 16 across a vast area including parts of the Pacific and Arctic Oceans and the Mediterranean, Baltic, and Caspian seas.