Posted on 08/09/2007 8:22:48 AM PDT by jhpigott
By Dmitry Solovyov
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's strategic bombers have resumed their Cold War practice of flying long-haul missions to areas patrolled by NATO and the United States, top generals said on Thursday.
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A Russian bomber flew over a U.S. military base on the Pacific island of Guam on Wednesday and "exchanged smiles" with U.S. pilots who had scrambled to track it, said Major-General Pavel Androsov, head of long-range aviation in the Russian air force.
"It has always been the tradition of our long-range aviation to fly far into the ocean, to meet (U.S.) aircraft carriers and greet (U.S. pilots) visually," Androsov told a news conference.
"Yesterday we revived this tradition, and two of our young crews paid a visit to the area of the (U.S. Pacific Naval Activities) base of Guam," he said.
President Vladimir Putin has sought to make Russia more assertive in the world.
Putin has boosted defense spending and sought to raise morale in the armed forces, which were starved of funding in the chaos that followed the fall of the Soviet Union.
Androsov said the sortie by the two turboprop Tu-95MS bombers, from a base near Blagoveshchensk in the Far East, had lasted for 13 hours. The Tu-95, codenamed "Bear" by NATO, is Russia's Cold War icon and may stay in service until 2040.
"I think the result was good. We met our colleagues -- fighter jet pilots from (U.S.) aircraft carriers. We exchanged smiles and returned home," Androsov said.
COLD WAR CAT-AND-MOUSE
The bombers give Russia the capability of launching a devastating nuclear strike even if the nuclear arsenals on its own territory are wiped out.
During the Cold War, they played elaborate airborne games of cat-and-mouse with Western air forces.
Lieutenant-General Igor Khvorov, air forces chief of staff, said the West would have to come to terms with Russia asserting its geopolitical presence around the globe.
"But I don't see anything unusual, this is business as usual ... like it is normal for the U.S. to fly from its continent to Guam or, say, the island of Garcia," Khvorov said, referring to a remote Indian Ocean atoll used as a military base by the U.S.
On Wednesday, young pilots of strategic bombers passed a series of tests, including missile launches. "We fired eight cruise missiles, and all hit bull's eye," Khvorov said.
He said one crew had taken off from Engels in southwestern Russia, hit a target in the north and then flown thousands of kilometers before finally landing in the Far East.
Engels is home to Russia's supersonic Tupolev Tu-160 strategic bombers, in service since 1987 and codenamed "Blackjack" by NATO while called "White Swan" by Russian pilots.
The generals said under Putin long-range aviation was no longer in need of fuel, enjoyed better maintenance and much higher wages -- not the least because the Kremlin leader once made a five-hour sortie as part of a "White Swan" crew.
"The president learned about the pilots' work the hard way," Khvorov said. "This one flight yielded an awful lot."
Guess we’re going to have to re-target our ICBMs again.
Which is a procedure which can be done in less than an hour, if they ever were re=targeted in the first place.
I bet they exchanged ‘birds’. Not smiles.
One SAM could change this re-started tradition.
L
That's exactly the feeling I got when Bush looked into Putin's eyes and "saw his soul" (or some such crap). The guy is an ex-KGB general - and like the Mafia, I don't think that there's really every an "ex-", especially at the level of a "made" member. He's smart as a whip, dresses nicely (unlike Arafag and other political gangsters), gives lip-service to democracy, etc. IOW, he's good at misleading people, all the while consolidating (at first) and growing (recently, now and planned for the future) his power - at our expense.
As my father's cousin, who left the Ukraine in 1994, told me when I asked about the political situation there since Gorby got kicked out: "Same wall, different wallpaper."
We have much to be worried about, beginning with the Russkies selling all manner of sophisticated weapons to the Arabs and Iran. An anti-US/anti-Western alliance with China is my nightmare scenario, and even if it isn't a formal thing, both of them hate our guts and want to bring us down a few notches. We need to wake up, fast, because the Cold War never ended - it only took a breather. This is very much like the thesis that WW1 and WW2 were 2 acts of the same play, with the 2nd act being far bloodier. Heaven help us, we're going to need it.
re-starting these sorties is a fairly serious step
i guess they are pretty upset about the whole missile shield thing
I find it amusing they send two planes out, then feel the need to brag about it.
Those of us that played a part during the Cold War, especially out in the fleet, remember when it was routine, daily event, sometimes twice per day.
All over the world, not just one 13 hour flight in the Pacific.
Putin’s bluffs are becoming pathetic, in short.
Charlie: Eh lieutenant, what were you doing there?
Goose: Communicating.
Maverick: Communicating. Keeping up foriegn relations. You know, giving him the bird!
Goose: You know, the finger
Charlie: Yes, I know the finger, Goose.
Goose: I-I’m sorry, I hate it when it does that, I’m sorry. Excuse me.
Crack Russian pilots in their scary Tupolev Bear.
looks like a DC-6-ski.
That and it also prevents our guys from getting complacent. We need to be always on the watch and alert.
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