This is a Russian re-run of their glorious(?) long-range bomber flights of the 1960s-1990s. They made constant attempts to penetrate our air defenses but never got very far. It actually worked well for us. Our interceptors did their jobs. We gathered a lot of intel on their equipment and operations. Our F-16s and other aircraft capabilities can make appetizers of Russia’s aging bombers. Thanks to Ragean, their military degenerated. Personnel were not paid, maintenance wasn’t performed and fuel supplies were extremely short. The Russian bogeyman wasn’t scary anymore.
Putin is living in the past. Relax folks.
Oh, yeah. I remember bobbing up and down at Point Yankee watching their regularly-scheduled overflight on the search radars. Their stuff was old then. That was thirty years ago.
Thirty years. (Sob!)
Their bombers are newer than ours. At least B-52s.
You fail to understand that the role of these ALCM carriers is stand-off. The cat and mouse game of bomber intercept was purely for the show of force games. They operated in international airspace and could legally come up to 12km from the coastline. In war-time the Tu-95MS would be standing-off thousands of miles away. The Russians have 3,000km ALCMs.
Think about it the other way. USAF B-52s would be standing off from Russian airspace and lauching ALCMs. In this role the platform doesn’t have to be put in danger as it can opertate in stand-off mode.