From Baltic to Asia, East-West aerial confrontations heat up

Belarussian MiG-29 jet fighters take part in a rehearsal for a military parade in Minsk June 26, 2014. REUTERS/Vasily Fedosenko

NEW YORK (Reuters) - From the skies of the Baltic to the South China Sea, a new era of confrontation with Russia and China is pitting U.S. and allied pilots against their counterparts on a scale not seen since the Cold War era.

It is, current and former officials say, a major shift for air crews who by and large have spent more than a decade flying largely uncontested missions over Afghanistan and Iraq.