...probably not long. :-)
Posted on 08/17/2007 7:10:02 PM PDT by fishhound
Tu-95 Tupolev long-range bomber aircraft (file picture) Russia is currently rebuilding its armed forces Russia is resuming a Soviet-era practice of sending its bomber aircraft on long-range flights, President Vladimir Putin has said.
Mr Putin said the move to resume the flights permanently after a 15-year suspension was in response to security threats posed by other military powers.
He said 14 bombers had taken off from Russian airfields early on Friday.
The move came a week after Russian bombers flew within a few hundred miles of the US Pacific island of Guam.
A few days ago Moscow said its strategic bombers had begun exercises over the North Pole.
Flexing muscles
"We have decided to restore flights by Russian strategic aviation on a permanent basis," Mr Putin told reporters at joint military exercises with China and four Central Asian states in Russia's Ural mountains.
"In 1992, Russia unilaterally ended flights by its strategic aircraft to distant military patrol areas. Unfortunately, our example was not followed by everyone," Mr Putin said, in an apparent reference to the US.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
This is a picture essay that goes with it.
With the way we grovel for the Chinese to take our money so they can stay communist, I’m surprised it’s taken this long.
What if we just ignore them?
The old Bear D, piece of crap back in the late sixties and seventies when I was in the service. Unless the Russians have something better today, we have nothing to worry about.
I feel sorry for ol’ Vlad Putin. It’s gotta be tough to be an old line Commie, just pining away for the nostalgia of days, and Kremlins and KGB’s gone by....
Ahhhh, those Good Ol’ days, or gulags, and secret police, and other things that rap at your door in those cold, Moscow nights....
Vlad is just a sentimental old softie at heart.....
They have a lot more money than they used to have and they have made a lot of powerplays with thier fuel reserves. They are getting rich so they must now want to get powerful...how’s that sound?
I think they still have a pretty short to non existent shelf-life in any theatre.
Bears? They sent Bears? Ooh, I’m shaking.
I don't. He should have four heart attacks before morning.
The last B-52 built rolled off the Boeing Wichita line on 26 October 1962. The Tu-95H began production in 1981. Those who dismiss the capabilities of the Bear and the possible threat they could pose are simply ignorant.
aBUT HOW MANY UPGRADES HAVE BEEN DONE TO THE b=52 SINCE THEN....AND SINCE WHEN DID WE THINK OF b-52’S AS A DEFENSE AGAINST bEARS. I think we have sufficient defenses to handle any strategic bomber.
For those of us who had an occasion to set watch on the old WLR-1 in CIC (Navy talk for electronic surveillance equipment), we could tell that a Bear D had taken off from anywhere in the USSR after it reached 50 feet off the tarmac. No secrets given here, information about the WLR-1 can be found with a simple Internet search.
I don’t downplay the treat in anyway, but unless they have improved their capabilities, we will know where they are and can counter them with ease anytime we want.
Ping
The B-52 has been upgraded many times and is a fully modern aircraft. We also have the B-1 and the B-2.
Of course, if Russia was really going to do a surprise attack, I suspect SLBMs would be the way to go.
lol
Of course, if Russia was really going to do a surprise attack, I suspect SLBMs would be the way to go.
It would be the worlds largest glass ashtray.
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