Russia sends nuclear-capable bombers on patrol over Belarus

AP ^ | 18 December 2021 | VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV

[blueplum]

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia sent a pair of nuclear-capable long-range bombers to patrol the skies over Belarus on Saturday, a mission intended to underline close defense ties between the two allies amid tensions with the West.

The Russian Defense Ministry said the two Tu-22M3 strategic strike bombers practiced “performing joint tasks with the Belarusian air force and air defense.” Su-30 fighter jets that Russia has supplied to Belarus escorted the bombers.

Saturday’s four-hour patrol marked Russia’s third such mission in Belarus since last month...

...The Belarusian leader wouldn’t elaborate on what kind of Russian weapons Belarus would be willing to accommodate, but noted that the ex-Soviet nation has carefully preserved the necessary military infrastructure dating back to the time of the USSR....

[blueplum]

somebody needs to put saltpeter in that wheat we sell Russia

[period end of story]

It takes a lot more than that to scare a Russian.

[higgmeister]

Who thought this was newsworthy?

[TexasGunLover]

[dfwgator]

“It’s Christmas at Ground Zero....”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t039p6xqutU

[blueplum]

well, it’ was this, or “Drakeo the Ruler ‘is STABBED in the neck at LA festival’

Russia poking a finger in Biden’s eye again seemed the more informative of the two

[higgmeister]

Well, I cannot help but think of the number of times Russian bombers must have flown over Belarus when nobody blinked an eye.   Hundreds, hundreds?   Anyone, anyone?   Bueller, Bueller?

[dfwgator]

Belarus...Belarus...will you do the Fandango!

[WKUHilltopper]

For later

[PIF]

Russia and Belarus are in talks about merging - this is part of the Russian drive to re-establish the old Kivan Rus empire which include Ukraine up to the Polish and Hungarian borders.

[nathanbedford]

More sequelae from the Afghanistan debacle.

[BwanaNdege]

Russia sent a pair of nuclear-capable long-range bombers

Well whoop-de-do! Gen-u-wine "Nuclear capable"!

"US aircraft capable of delivering this weapon (B-61 gravity, or free-fall, bomb.) are the A-4, A-6, A-7, AV-8B, F-4, F-15, F-16, F-18, F-111, and presumably the F-117 stealth fighter."

The Mighty A-4 Skyhawk Was the U.S. Navy’s Best Little Bomber

The A-4 had a wingspan of 27 feet.

[mac_truck]

The Defense Minister's comments about Belaraus preserving its Soviet era military infrastructure are interesting.

Belarus formerly had 80+ Soviet SS-25 Sickle missiles with warheads and an unknown number of tactical nuclear weapons placed on its territory.

These were removed from Belaraus in 1995-96, and their stock of enriched uranium was removed in 2010.

[John S Mosby]

One crappy very OLD design “nuclear capable” Soviet era P.O.S. bomber. The service record on the 497 built units is off the page bad. So whoop whoop— thanks for whomever here listed the number of aircraft designs in the US which are gravity bomb nuclear capable and a whole lot more.