Posted on 05/18/2013 7:52:52 AM PDT by IbJensen
On May 6, Russia received its first shipment of Sukhoi Su-34 twin-seat fighter-bombers (known by NATO as "Fullback"). The Su-34 is the newest generation of fighter-bombers intended to replace the outdated Soviet-era Sukhoi Su-24s.
While the modernization of the Russian Air Force may and rightfully so raise a few eyebrows of concern, this alone is not sufficient cause for alarm. Russias recent air force maneuvers are, however.
On the night of March 29, 2013, two Russian Tupolev Tu-22M3 bombers (known by NATO as "Backfires"), escorted by four Russian Sukhoi Su-27 fighters (known by NATO as "Flankers") passed extremely close to Swedish airspace and simulated an aerial "attack" on Stockholm and southern Sweden. The Tu-22M3 is a new supersonic long-range bomber capable of delivering nuclear weapons to overseas targets.
The six Russian aircraft flew dangerously close to Swedish airspace, roughly 20 miles from Swedens territorial borders, according to Business Insider.
While Russian military aircraft flying over the Baltic has become routine since Russian President Vladimir Putin restored the old Soviet-era long-range strategic flights in 2011, what makes this particular flight so concerning was Swedens lack of readiness. The Swedish Air Force was caught off guard and failed to respond.
The flights occurred on Good Friday at around 2 a.m. local time. Business Insider reported that at least two JAS-39 Gripen should always be in a QRA (Quick Reaction Alert) and ready for take off in case of alarm, but quite surprisingly there were no interceptors ready on Good Friday night.
Instead of Swedish fighters, two Danish F-16 fighter jets under NATO command intercepted and escorted the Russian planes safely away from Swedens borders.
While Sweden may be grateful to Denmarks Royal Danish Air Force, this raises serious concerns over Sweden's ability to repel and/or deter aggression against its national borders. This incident also raises concerns over the increased belligerence on the part of Russia.
Massive military reductions to the Swedish Armed Forces may account for the air forces lack of readiness. During the 1980s, the Swedish Air Force was comprised of 20 squadrons and over 400 planes. Today, it posseses no more than four squadrons and less than 150 planes. Meanwhile Russia increased its military spending 16 percent in 2012, primarily on new weapons systems and the modernization of outdated military hardware.
A month later, on the night of April 28, two Russian Tupolev Tu-95 (known by NATO as "Bear-H"; shown, above) long-range heavy nuclear bombers were detected flying into the militarys Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) near the Aleutians, where a strategic missile defense radar is located, according to the Washington Free Beacon.
Again, the Russian bombers did not penetrate Alaskan or U.S. airspace, but they did fly dangerously close to it, prompting two U.S. F-22 fighter jets to scramble from Elmendorf Air Force Base. Bill Gertz of the Washington Free Beacon writes, The dispatch of F-22s is an indication the bomber flights posed a potential threat to U.S. territory. It was the fifth incident of Russian strategic bombers flying against the United States since June, when Bear bombers were intercepted near Alaska during a large-scale Russian strategic nuclear exercise that Russian military officials said involved practice strikes against U.S. missile defense sites in Alaska.
On February 12, two of the same class of Russian Tu-95 Bear-H strategic bombers flew over and encircled Guam. This also prompted a quick U.S. deployment of F-15s to intercept and escort the Russian bombers away from U.S. airspace.
Although Putin announced to the world that Russia would conduct such flights in 2011, two Russian Tu-95 bombers made a round-trip surprise visit to Guam in 2007 for the first time since the alleged end of the Cold War.
Who told you that the Cold War was ever over? It transforms; it is like a virus, said Russian KGB/FSB defector Sergei Tretyakov in an interview with FOX News in 2009.
In 2007, Russian President Vladimir Putin reiterated the continuation of the Cold War by threatening the West with a new spiral in the arms race. In Putins KGB eyes the Cold War never ended; it is ongoing. Meanwhile, the West applauds Putin as a close ally on the War on Terror. With allies like Putin are enemies really necessary?
There would have been no emboldened communist China, hence no Korean War.
No Vietnam.
And no being jerked around by the worthless muslim arabs!
Russian parade glorifies the Soviet Union.
I am concerned that Obama prolonging all these scandals and coverups will embolden our enemies. I expect if the scandals continue as news for months, we will see foreign activity taking advantage of our weakened state. Of course, Obama was weak before we knew of Benghazi, IRS, or the AP or EPA or DHS or HHS scandals.
Anticipating the day when Obama gets our nukes down to zero.
What makes you think that would have been so easy? Given the problems we had with the Germans (even as their Reich was collapsing), chasing the Russians back to the USSR would have been very difficult indeed.
A better, more bloodless strategy would have been to wait till Japan surrendered and then given Stalin a nuclear ultimatum.
Won’t take that long...the flexibility puts us in Putin’s palm...they are working “together!”
7 days in May the Obama way
Whenever America has a weak, paper-tiger of a President who's capable of doing nothing (other than giving speeches with the aid of a teleprompter) that's when the enemies of FREEDOM feel emboldened and act in the ways of Putin's Russia.
Want this crap to stop? Don't elect Hitlery during the 2016 elections. Yes, it's that simple. America needs a STRONG President who speaks out unapologetically for FREEDOM around the world.
Wars are fought for economic reasons, not political ones. The United States has not been involved in any wars in the past century that didn’t start without the full approval and backing of every major banker in the USA.
“The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer. [The New World Order] cannot happen without U.S. participation, as we are the most significant single component. Yes, there will be a New World Order, and it will force the United States to change it’s perceptions. “
Henry Kissinger
Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel,
April 19th 1994.
Military men are dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns for foreign policy.” — Henry Kissinger
“We are on the verge of a global transformation. All we need is the right major crisis and the nations will accept the New World Order.” — David Rockefeller - New World Order globalist
Our nation’s media give voice to those who would feel a tingle up their leg if this nation were pounded into submission then folded into a New World Order. Our worthless political class and the now emasculated military would march along like good little soldiers even if they marched into hell!
That strong leader needs to surface....NOW!
Obama is not weak. The problem is he is not an American in any way that matters. He is an international socialist who loathes America’s past and is fundamentally transforming America, just like he told us he would. He is an agent of one-world totalitarianism, doing what he can. He and Putin and all the other dictators are on the same team.
His job is to crush what remains of traditional, historic Americanism. That means us.
Since his forces control nearly every aspect of government and education, the outlook is bleak indeed, because his forces are churning out social liberals by the millions, and importing unamericans as fast as possible.
Time is running out.
rbg81 ~:” Anticipating the day when Obama gets our nukes down to zero.”
Speaking of Zero ..
with Russia rearming it bomber fleet for the Cold War..
Do you know where the nearest Civil Defense bomb shelter is located ?
I went to my nearest Civil Defense shelter to find that it was now the town adminstrative file dump
There were No supplies , not even for a hurricane
Obviously, with our nuclear deterent in decline , we , as a country , are vulnerable .
We have forgotten the lessons of the 60’s , 70’s and 80’s ..
and Russia has shown us that to ignore the lessons of the past,
we are destined to repeat the past .
History is never as clean as you want it to be. If this happened then this would have happened is like trying to predict the temperature a month away. If one set of problems was solved another would soon enough crop up.
Russian thugs bully the weak - and help their friends. Kind of like our IRS...
The Russian people know what it’s like to live with a boot on their faces - so do American conservatives... Putin bullies us - the IRS bullies us... Obama wants to destroy the Bill of Rights - so does Putin. Putin doesn’t believe in a free press - either does Holder.
There is, posted under the Wanted Posters, and the usual government flotsam, an old civil defense bulletin left over from the Cuber-Kennedy Missile Crisis.
It says to put your head down far enough to kiss your backside goodbye.
Many thanks to a government that allowed this nation to be in this colossal predicament. Let’s keep him in office as long as we possibly can because electing an unknown, illegitimate negro as president was a marvelous experiment.
This ‘experiment’ has cost us a perfectly good nation (albeit somewhat tarnished by the millions of murdered babies, etc. etc.) and relegated America to far down the heap amongst the African and banana republic countries. We are, in effect, a banana republic without the bananas.
“If you love your country, you are a patriot. But if you love your government, you are an idiot”
If this be what you term as treason, make the most of it you imbecilic, lop-earned, anti-American phony asshat!
Russian thugs bully the weak - and help their friends. Kind of like our IRS...
The Russian people know what it’s like to live with a boot on their faces - so do American conservatives... Putin bullies us - the IRS bullies us... Obama wants to destroy the Bill of Rights - so does Putin. Putin doesn’t believe in a free press - either does Holder.
It’s not the old days - when we had a country we could love... now it’s ‘our hellhhole’ is still better than their hellhole... Yeah, that’s worth fighting for...
5.56mm
I suppose remorse over using the atom bomb hadn’t set in yet, either, so Stalin would have had to consider it a real possibility within a very short time after V.E.Day.
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