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.
Geeeeee thanks, I'm flying to Taiwan end of the month...
Thanks. You beat me to it. It’s an impressive airplane. Not as technologically impressive as a B-2 nor as pretty as a B-1B, but not bad. And, just like the B-52, it is still doing what it was intended to do and more.
I had a friend that was an F-4 pilot in the mid 70's who had been stationed in Iceland where he regularly intercepted the Bears. He said that the USSR didn't have anything similar to "Playboy" magazine in those days, so their big laugh was to hold up a centerfold so the guys in the gun blisters could see it. Apparently there was a lot of smiling and waving going on when they did.
The Bear is a loud beast. My F-4 buddy said he could hear the bear from inside the F-4 past the ear protection in his helmet.
Actually, the *reporter* said they flew over the island.
We all know how accurate reporters are.
Buzzed.
By a turbo prop.
Okay.
Pictures of my great grandma in cleats running past me as fast as her walker will take her come to mind.
Can’t wait to see another test of their new submarines ability to launch cruise missiles too.
That last show of force went pretty well as I recall. Some of the crew got a good case of swimmer’s ear.
Because Mustangs and Corsairs don't have enough speed or range, and can't be refueled in flight. The Bear is likely the fastest propeller driven production aircraft with a top speed of 575mph. They're so fast because they drive the props supersonic, which is why the thing is so bloody noisy.
The fastest lap times at Reno with WWII piston fighters is just over 500mph, and that's with tricked out engines turning twice their original wartime power, light airframe and tweeked airframe aerodynamics.
I wouldn't worry about the Russians - thats Wong Wei's sector.
Next time, send up some Global Hawk drones with ATA missiles hanging from the hard points.
That will have the Bear pilots crap their flight suits.
Gosh, you’re just one big frickin’ ray of sunshine, aren’t you???
;^P
fly 45deg up their fairly blind azz and then hit them with a full power RADAR shot from as close as you think you can get... 8^)
we see them when they take off... 8^)
They’ve gone insane.
This amounts to a declaration of a new Cold War.
It is my understanding that some military maneuvers involving 3 aircraft carriers and other warships, plus Air Force and Marines are going on around Guam right now.
A good explanation for this incident.
They're loud because what you're hearing is the sonic boom of those props...they going faster than the speed of sound.
Back in 1948 there was a big controversy in the new DOD about future need for aircraft carriers when the B-36 was supposed to be able to do it all. Navy wanted a fly-off to demonstrate that their latest F4Us could go up and nail the B-36. Officially I don't think it ever happened, though.
I’ll see your Global Hawk drones and raise ya a the legendary 94th Fighter Squadron, which, BTW, is getting re-muscled with F-22 Raptors.
whole lotta buzzin goin’ on out dere (lately).
Return the favor. Swarm B-52s all over their frontiers and let them shit nickels for a while.
Any updates about Wong Wei’s widow?
Has the Navy left Keflavik yet? If so, I guess escort duties from that area no longer are possible.
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.