If I may, I wouldn't out of hand dismiss the armed bit of the problem as well. When the Russians send their bombers up to Tiksi and Anadyr, their northern bases, we send our CF-18s up to our northern bases, and they're armed. If we are speaking at some point in the future of more robotics and fewer humans, you can't discount the fact that at the end of the day they can't just look, in some cases.
On December 2nd, 2014. See this statement in context.