Posted on 08/09/2007 1:45:57 PM PDT by blam
Russian bombers buzz US base in Guam
By Adrian Blomfield in Moscow
Last Updated: 7:36pm BST 09/08/2007
Russian bombers are reported to have buzzed an American military base for the first time since the Cold War when they flew over the Pacific island of Guam.
Google Map: The island of Guam in the West Pacific
Moscow said that US fighter jets were scrambled to intercept the two Tupolev-95 warplanes as they resumed the Cold War era practice of flying over Western offshore military installations in a mission on Wednesday.
The incident, seen as the latest attempt by a revitalised Russia to project its military might, is likely to have unnerved the Pentagon and caused further perplexity at the State Department over the Kremlin's mercurial course.
The US military was silent about the mid-air confrontation but the Russians were happy to boast about it.
"It was always the tradition of our long-range aviation to fly far into the ocean, to meet (US) aircraft carriers and greet (US) pilots visually," Maj Gen Pavel Androsov, the head of long-range aviation in the Russian air force, told a press conference in Moscow.
"Yesterday we revived this tradition."
According to the general, two Tupolev-95 bombers flew from Blagoveshchensk, on Russia's border with China, to the US naval base at Guam in the West Pacific during a 13-hour round trip on Wednesday.
Capable of carrying nuclear bombs, the Tu-95 was the Soviet Union's aviation icon. A lumbering beast, it was instantly recognisable to every US fighter pilot who had to escort the aircraft on its regular sorties down the American east coast.
A new generation of pilots may now have to get used to doing the same.
According to Gen Androsov, American fighters took off from an aircraft carrier and tracked the bombers until they left Guam's airspace. "We exchanged smiles and returned home," he said.
Russia's nuclear forces: Click for interactive map
The return of the airborne games of cat-and-mouse is likely to elicit queasier grins in Western capitals, where military chiefs will be puzzling over how to respond to Russia's increasingly frequent displays of defiance.
Last month RAF Tornado fighters were twice forced to scramble after Tu-95 bombers flew close to British airspace.
Keen to get their share of attention — and perhaps the approval of President Vladimir Putin — Russia's most senior admirals last week called for the establishment of a permanent naval base in the Mediterranean for the first time since the Cold War.
East-West relations also came under renewed strain after the United States appeared to blame Russia for a missile strike against Georgia on Monday that took the diplomatic crisis between the two ex-Soviet neighbours to new depths.
"The US condemns the Aug 6 rocket attack against Georgia," said Sean McCormack, a state department spokesman. "We praise Georgia's continuing restraint in the face of this air attack and call for the urgent clarification of the facts surrounding this incident."
Moscow has strongly denied involvement in the incident and has accused Georgia of "provocation".
Russia's military posturing is partly a desperate desire to show that the armed forces have recovered from the decline in the penurious 1990s, when planes were frequently grounded because the air force could not pay its fuel bills.
The vocal condemnation of Russia's mission last week to plant a flag under the North Pole, a stunt that would once have been laughed off, was a telling example of the international community's growing distrust of Mr Putin.
Puerile, Pootie-poot. Very puerile.
I don’t think this is very smart of them.
They still fly this old thing? you can see them coming for miles.
“is likely to have unnerved the Pentagon and caused further perplexity at the State Department over the Kremlin’s mercurial course.”
Meanwhile, anyone with a smidgen of common sense could have seen this coming a decade ago.
When is Foggy Bottom not perplexed? Their heads are buried too deep in the sands of Arabia to see squat.
It must have been a drill. We probably bought that Bear from the ruskies.
Wonder if they’re playing patty cake at the ICBM sites?
they may be having more troubles at home then we know or are told.
It doesnt matter how much of a relic this plane is...the planes fire nuke tipped cruise missiles from stand off range, and that’s a threat.
ROAD TRIP !
We still fly the B-52.
Can their tradition of shooting down passenger airliners be far behind?
The Tu-95MS Bear H airframes are new-build. The last of them came off the production line in the early 1990s. Compare this to the B-52H still in service with USAF. The youngest B-52H is from October 1962!
The Bear H is a cruise-missile platform carrying the longest range ALCMs in the world.
If we splash just one of these bombers, this sort of thing will stop right quick. Maybe there can be some sort of accident...
The aircraft in the picture is a Bear F of the Russian Navy. It is an Anti-submarine warfare aircraft. In comparison the same age as some of the P-3s used by the U.S. Navy.
Not to mention hear them coming
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
