It was Kaine's and it was only just his left.
Posted on 08/22/2008 12:55:09 AM PDT by maquiladora
NATO warships, which passed through Istanbul's Bosporus Strait Thursday, entered the Black Sea for long-planned exercises and routine visits to ports in Romania and Bulgaria, the alliance said. A U.S. Navy warship entered Turkey's Dardanel Strait on Friday taking relief supplies to Georgia.
Three warships - from Spain, Germany and Poland - sailed into the Black Sea on Thursday.
The move is not linked to the tensions over Russia's invasion of Georgia, which lies on the eastern shore of the Black Sea, about 900 kilometers (550 miles) from the Romanian coast, said officials at NATO's military command in southern Belgium.
They are "conducting a pre-planned routine visit to the Black Sea region to interact and exercise with our NATO partners Romania and Bulgaria, which is an important feature of our routine planning," said Vice-Adm. Pim Bedet, deputy commander at allied maritime headquarters in Northwood, England.
However, the move risks increasing tensions with Russia which has deployed ships from its Black Sea fleet to the Georgian coast.
The NATO flotilla includes Spain’s SPS Adm. Juan de Bourbon, Germanys FGS Luebeck and the Polish ship ORP General K Pulaski.
The destroyer McFall entered Friday Turkey's Dardanel Strait, Dogan News Agency reported.
NATO-member Turkey earlier authorized the three U.S. ships to sail through the Turkish straits into the Black Sea.
The USS McFall is expected to arrive in Georgia via the Black Sea in about two days and will be followed by two other U.S. ships within a week, officials said.
"The USS McFall is under way now, having taken on humanitarian supplies for the people of Georgia," the spokesman said.
It will be the first U.S. humanitarian mission via the sea to Georgia since the conflict began, when Russia sent forces into Georgia on Aug. 8 to repel an attack on the Moscow-backed separatist region of South Ossetia that Tbilisi had started the day before.
The destroyer McFall would be followed by the coast guard cutter Dallas and the command ship USS Mount Whitney.
Pentagon said Russia has been informed about the passages. "The Russians have been informed along the way about our activities and our intentions," Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said.
ping!
It was Kaine's and it was only just his left.
In late 1945 Stalin tried to get Turkey to block passage through the Bosporus to all states that do not border the black sea. When Turkey refused the Soviets made claims to Ardahan and Kars, two regions of Turkey that had been ruled by the Russian Empire from the early 19th century to 1917 and provided support to communist guerrilla organizations inside Turkey.
Truman sent a cruiser through the Bosporus in 1945 and provided Greece and Turkey with $400 million in military aid in 1947.
This is how Cold War I began.
Thank you for the “ping”:)
Armament:
1 8 cell launch system
16 Sea Sparrow surface to air missiles
2 MK 49 launcher, 21 RAM each
2 quadruple Harpoon anti-ship missile launchers
1 OTO-Melara 76 mm dual-purpose gun
2 Rheinmetall Rh202 20 mm autocannons, will be replaced with Mauser MLG27 27 mm autocannons.
2 Mark 32 324 mm twin torpedo launchers, 8 DM4A1 or Mark 46 torpedo
Armament:
1 × 5-inch/54 Mk45 Mod 2 gun
2 × CIWS FABA 20mm/120 Meroka gun
6 × Mk41 8-cell VLS
SAM: 32 × Standard SM-2 Block IIIA
SAM: 64 × RIM-162 Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile
SSM: 8 × McDonnell Douglas RGM-84 Harpoon anti-ship missile
ASW: 4 × 324 mm Mk32 Mod 9 triple Torpedo launchers with 12 Honeywell Mk46 mod 5 Torpedo
Armament:
2 × double tube Anti-Submarine Torpedo mounts
1 × 76 mm (3.0 in) Rapid Fire Dual Purpose Gun
1 × Vulcan Phalanx system
1 × Guided missile launching system with Standard Surface-to-Air Missiles
Harpoon Surface-to-Surface Missiles
This statement is bizarre and also obviously false.
It's a multi-nation naval excercise that was known about in public months before Russia invaded Georgia, to those that follow naval news/blogs. Not a thing bizarre of fake about it.
Maybe it was not linked to tensions over Russia, but it is now.
How much tonnage of humanitarian aid can you carry on a tin can? A bag of Doritos and a six-pack?
"The USS McFall is under way now" Media morons... It's McFaul.... From Wiki: General characteristics Class and type: Arleigh Burke class destroyer Displacement: Light: approx. 6,783 tons Full: approx. 8,915 tons Length: 505 ft (154 m) Beam: 66 ft (20 m) Draft: 31 ft (9.4 m) Propulsion: 4 General Electric LM2500-30 gas turbines, two shafts, 100,000 total shaft horsepower (75 MW) Speed: 30+ knots (56+ km/h) Range: 4,400 nautical miles at 20 knots (8,100 km at 37 km/h) Complement: 23 Officers 24 Chief Petty Officers 291 Enlisted Personnel Sensors and processing systems: • AN/SPY-1D Radar • AN/SPS-67(V)2 Surface Search Radar • AN/SPS-64(V)9 Surface Search Radar • AN/SQS-53C Sonar Array • AN/SQR-19 Tactical Towed Array Sonar • AN/SQQ-28 LAMPS III Shipboard System Electronic warfare and decoys: • AN/SLQ-32(V)2 Electronic Warfare System • AN/SLQ-25 Nixie Torpedo Countermeasures • MK 36 MOD 12 Decoy Launching System • AN/SLQ-39 CHAFF Buoys Armament: 1 × 29 cell, 1 × 61 cell Mk 41 vertical launch systems with 90 × RIM-66 SM-2, BGM-109 Tomahawk or RUM-139 VL-Asroc missiles 1 × Mark 45 5/54 in (127/54 mm) 2 × 25 mm chain gun 4 × .50 caliber (12.7 mm) guns 2 × 20 mm Phalanx CIWS 2 × Mk 32 triple torpedo tubes Aircraft carried: Cannot embark rotary wing aircraft, but is equipped with a flight deck that allows a single SH-60 Seahawk helicopter to conduct underway replenishment. Motto: Courage, Honor, Sacrifice
As to the humanitarian aspect of the mission: Is it possible to send an LHA/LHD through the straits into the Black Sea? I’m sure the Russians would get their panties in a twist if a ARG were to sail into the Black Sea, but is their any treaty that would prevent transit?
Yes it is. This is what we have been talking about for MONTHS, predicting this.
It’s happening and I can’t understand why people are refusing to believe what they see. Most don’t know history, and far more do not care.
WAY too many believe that “it can’t happen here” and apply that thinking to everything, including this war.
That destroyer has at least 2 fully equipped surgical suites equipped as Trauma Centers, can produce over 100,000 galloons of fresh water a day, and a mess hall that can churn out over 1500 meals a day.
And right about now I'd classify those AEGIS systems as 'humanitarian aid'. But that's just me.
L
Cold War I was long, grinding, expensive frightening, occasionally bloody and anything but glorious and decisive. Nobody wants to go through that again.
A lot of people, including otherwise intelligent people on this site, are in denial and just don’t seem to want to admit that we don’t have any choice in the matter. We are in a cold war and we will either win it or we will loose it.
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