No nukes for Russian bombers in Venezuela

MOSCOW -- Russia on Thursday downplayed the two strategic long-range bombers that flew to Venezuela in the first such flight since the Cold War, saying the bombers carried no live weapons _ nuclear or otherwise _ and would return to Russia next week.

The bombers arrived in South America ahead of planned joint military maneuvers between Russia and Venezuela _ maneuvers that appear to be a tit-for-tat retort to the United States for sending warships to deliver aid to U.S.-allied Georgia following last month's war.

Russian analysts said it was the first time strategic bombers have landed in the Western Hemisphere since the Cold War. The foray, and the coming military exercises with an avowed U.S. enemy, are likely to strain the already tense relationship between Moscow and Washington. ad_icon

Russian air force Maj. Gen. Pavel Androsov said in televised comments that the Tu-160 bombers were carrying only test missiles.

He said the jets would conduct several test flights over neutral waters then return to Russia on Monday. That indicates that the jets would not participate in military exercises that Venezuela and Russia plan to hold in the Caribbean Sea sometime this year.

The deployment _ which will include a naval squadron and long-range patrol planes _ is expected to be the largest Russian naval maneuvers in the Caribbean and perhaps the Western Hemisphere since the Cold War.

President Dmitry Medvedev said he had ordered the Tu-160s to make the flight at the invitation of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who has expressed interest in flying the massive bombers.

"We long-range pilots are responsive people. If they kindly ask us and if we have permission, we will fly him safely and will show him the Caribbean Sea from an altitude of the operating ceiling," Androsov said.

"Good as the Tu-160 is, the bomber is highly vulnerable to an attack from the F-22A Raptor, since the Russian bomber won't "see" the F-22A until it's well within range of even the AIM-9X Sidewinder missile."

Be careful. The TU-160 is an extremely capable aircraft. The Russians are good about stealing our tech and improving upon it. The "Blackjack" is what the B1A was before the Carter administration got a hold of it.

I read somewhere a few years back that the Russians ceased manufacturing this aircraft after the collapse of the old Soviet Union. So I'm curious if they have fired up the production lines again or just flying the old remainders. If so, how many do they have?

Yes, and these are probably the only two planes that they have operathttp://aeroweb.lucia.it/~junap95/bombers/tu160.htmional. See: aeroweb.lucia.it

But again, I want to urge that the military capability of the TU-160 or that of the F-22 is not the significant factor in this episode.

That may sound paradoxical, but allow me to explain that it is the symbolism of their presences in this hemisphere that is of concern because it indicates that Russia has assumed the same virulence as the old Soviet Union and that we must guard against their adventurism as well the possibility that they may execute a preemptive general (nuclear) strike against the United States.

On a military basis this means that we must rapidly build and deploy an anti-missile defense system that can protect us not only against a terrorist state nuclear strike (e.g. Iran), but also protect our major nuclear deterrent assets such as missile basis, bomber air fields, nuclear submarine bases, and of course Washington, D.C.

On a foreign policy basis we must extend our NATO and unilateral treaty obligations between the U.S. and former Soviet states which surround Russia.

In particular we should sponsor and insist on NATO membership for Georgia and the Ukraine as well as Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Kurdistan.

We need to re-project the Central Treaty Organization concept of John Foster Dulles to the Middle East.

In essence the "Cold War" has returned in which we must diplomatically isolate Russia from Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.

Additionally, we must again bring about an competitive relationship between China and Russia which did, but does not now exist. However, if we are unable to bring about contention between Russia and China (as we were unable to accomplish between 1950 and 1970), we must continue our efforts on building a strong treaty relationship and military assistance program aided at thwarting external and terrorist threats.

However, we have to always remember how rickety these regimes (Russia, China, Venezuela, Bolivia, Cuba, etc, etc) are, and that their ability to handle internal opposition outside of imposition of a complete police state is exceptionally poor.

Bottom line you can't have economic productivity without higher levels of political freedom which is a limiting factor to centralized autocratic governmental entities.

However, none of this will occur unless John McCain is elected President so lets get back to the campaign!

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