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.
Lets do what Russia would...Shoot one down!
Mike
Whoops! I don’t know what happened, Vlad. I had no idea that American Airlines jet had a missle on it...
Why would you want to splash an aircraft in international airspace? Last year these Tu-95MS were in the North American ADIZ. Still in international airspace. Reaction is shadow and monitor. It has been going on for years.
Maybe a stealth bomber should visit Leningrad. At night. In rain.
Mike
Let some Raptors pop up behind them out of no where and light them up; and see if they feel like waving.
Dude, I just died laughing here. That is hilarious.
They might want to reignite the Cold war along with their US sympathizers, AKA the Demoncommies, but no luck!
Just a reminder, you are in a LARGE, metal, turboprop plane, visually greeting fighter pilots....had the Americans not needed the humor, the only visual you would have had would have been the vapor trail of the missile incoming to make your turboprop a very large....kit.
“is likely to have unnerved the Pentagon and caused further perplexity at the State Department over the Kremlin’s mercurial course.”
Your perplexed State Dept...half of whom are vested in the Saudi retirement fund.
Time to start building Corsairs and Mustangs as intercept planes for these beasts.
That way our jets do not have to fly at almost stall speeds to stay with the Tu-95...
Thanks. :-)
Sometimes a picture just tells the story better.
Get back to me when the U.S. puts in an official complaint of the airspace violation.
That article posted is poorly written and very stilted. A case of lost in translation.
``Whenever we saw U.S. planes during our flights over the ocean, we greeted them,’’ Androsov said. ``On Wednesday, we renewed the tradition when our young pilots flew by Guam in two planes. We exchanged smiles with our counterparts who flew up from a U.S. carrier and returned home.’’
‘Flew by’’. Legally they can go up to the 12mile limit.
the pentagon would be perplexed as to why the Russkies would use an ancient and highly vulnerable and not very effective Tu-95,
the state department was unnerved because this publicity stunt doesn't fit their foggy world view of how things are going internationally...
Mike
1) develop a midair, stand off, focused electromagnetic bomb missile.
2) next encounter, warn at 12 miles
3) intercept and fire the missile and detonate
4) EMP missile destroys thousands perhaps hundreds of thousands of dollars of equipment.
5) maintaining aircraft for these flyovers becomes very expensive.
And now we'll revive this "tradition."
And we'll revive this "tradition."
Don’t confuse props and turbo-props. You realise that the Tu-95MS cruise speed is approx Mach 0.67. It is the fastest turbo-prop in service today. Top speed is comparable to the B-52H. Tu-95s will hit approx Mach 0.8 flat out.
WWII fighters wouldn’t be able to intercept such an aircraft at height even in cruise mode. The Tu-95 would out accelerate with ease a P-51.
If you follow the Wiki link someone put up, it's amazing how fast these prop bombers fly - significantly faster than even a P-38.
It's also amazing how similar they are to the B-52, in everything but bomb load (30k lbs for the Tu-95 and 60k lbs for the Buff).
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