Send in Clint before they take off!
Posted on 06/04/2004 9:27:08 AM PDT by knighthawk
MOSCOW. June 4 (Interfax) - The Russian TU-95MS Bear strategic bomber will conduct a flight to the U.S. for the fist time, Colonel Alexander Drobyshevsky, head of the Air Force press-service, told Interfax-Military News Agency on Friday.
According to him, the strategic bomber's flight is timed to the 100th birthday of famous Russian test pilot Valery Chkalov to be celebrated on June 15-21.
"The ferry flight will be conducted along Chkalov's route from Russia to the U.S. via the North Pole," Drobyshevsky said.
He also noted that the TU-95MS would be refueled in the air over the Arctic Ocean outside the Novaya Zemlya archipelago by the IL-78 Midas tanker.
The TU-95MS is to fly from the Russian Air Force base in Engels to Portland, while the IL-78 from Anadyr airbase to Portland. The IL-78 will carry a delegation of Russian Air Force officials and various equipment for the bomber.
"It will be the first time Russian aircraft of this type visit the U.S.," he emphasized.
Ping
The Reds are coming!
You said it! That's just a plain weird scenario, methinks.
BlackJacks and Backfires are their bombers.
Let's practice air defense.
They should watch this aircraft closely. With the world as strange as it is right now, I can't help but fall back on Clancy-esque thoughts...
I'd rather them send the "Backfire" bomber......for some Cold War nostalgia.
About 10 years ago, a Bear bomber visited Barksdale AFB, Louisiana.
He also noted that the TU-95MS would be refueled in the air over the Arctic Ocean outside the Novaya Zemlya archipelago by the IL-78 Midas tanker.
Novaya Zemlya, the site of the world's larget nuclear test.
Yep. I saw it. I think I took a picture of it, too.
We used to get overflights from Bear D's almost every morning when we were patrolling the Barents Sea. Hard to call them strategic bombers though, they were more a recee aircraft. The D was able to guide soviet submarine cruise missles over the horizon. Kind of a nasty capability.
They should land at Fairbanks. We get all kinds of strange airplanes. We especially like airplanes that are bigger than any hangar at the airfield.
Heck, our stuff has landed in Russia so its time to return the favor.
The irony is astounding. A Russian Bear flying over the north pole on a good will mission to the US.
Realistically, when did the Tupulov Bear become obsolete as a nuke platform? The Soviet Union could not have thought it would have been able to safely defend such a slow bird all the way from Russia to the US in an era of jet fighters...........or were they converted to Cruise Missle platforms?
Send in Clint before they take off!
Portland where?
(Above) In 1992, for the first time ever, the Russians brought to U. S. soil (Barksdale AFB, La.) two beautiful Tu-95 Bear H bombers. In 1994, they came back. They spent about a week here each time, and they absolutely HATED to leave - and to be honest, we really hated to see them go. They're just like us in many ways. The Barksdale and Bossier City/Shreveport communities really rolled out the red carpet for the Bear and AN-124 (1992), and IL-76 (1994) crews both times. When they got aboard to leave, it was funny to see the Bear pilots (and many Russian crewmembers) wearing the U.S. flight suits and hats they had traded US crews. I think we all had a bag full of Russian stuff by the time they left. During their last visit, in 1994, I crawled up into the rear gunner's compartment, where you can barely see my mug. Ohh, the S O U N D !! (Ron Edmonson)
The Tsar Bomba!
Probably not this one.
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