Russian Strategic Bombers Launch Cruise Missiles over Syria (VIDEO)

YouTube ^ | November 18, 2015 | Russian Ministry of Defense

[marvel5]

Russian Long Range Bombers in Action Over Syria. Beautiful planes; impressive operation.

[Tommyjo]

Those Tu-95s are new build Tu-95MS Bear H from the 1980s. The last one rolled off the production line in the early 1990s. None of the old Tu-95s remain in Russian Air Force service.

[doorgunner69]

Well, the boys are getting some live fire time and field testing done to improve the product.

[mkjessup]

Those Tu-95s are new build Tu-95MS Bear H from the 1980s. The last one rolled off the production line in the early 1990s. None of the old Tu-95s remain in Russian Air Force service.

Thanks for that information, I was under the impression that at least a handful of the 'original' TU-95s were still in service.

Interesting that the Soviets (oops, 'Russians' lol) never considered upgrading to jet propulsion on that air frame.

[doorgunner69]

Fairly sure turboprops are more efficient than jets.

After all these years, I'd suspect that engine design is just about bulletproof, why mess with success?

[mkjessup]

Point taken. ‘If it ain’t brokeski, don’t fixitski’. ;)

[Tommyjo]

No problem. Thanks for the reply. The last of the old Tu-95s were used by the Russians at Ryazan for crew training. They were designated Bear Ts (Training) under the US/Russian nuclear treaties. Once those were retired all that remained were the Tu-95MS Bear Hs in the air force.

[mkjessup]

In a similar vein, it was amusing (IMHO) the way the Soviets copied our B-29, naming it the 'TU-4', those little Communist monkeys not only copied everything they could, they even copied a Leica 35mm camera that was left behind by a U.S. air crewman, lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUe0ywSoNeU

(TU-4 segment starts at 2:30, the copy of the Leica camera shows up at 3:35, lol)