Posted on 08/17/2007 7:18:31 AM PDT by Aussie Dasher
RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin sent 14 bomber aircraft on patrols far beyond its own territory today, marking the permanent return to a Soviet-era practice.
Mr Putin said the resumption of flights was a response to security threats posed by other military powers.
“We have decided to restore flights by Russian strategic aviation on a permanent basis,” Mr Putin said at joint military exercises with China and four Central Asian states in Russia's Ural mountains.
“Today, August 17 at 00:00 hours, 14 strategic bombers took to the air from seven airfields across the country, along with support and refuelling aircraft.
“In 1992, Russia unilaterally ended flights by its strategic aircraft to distant military patrol areas.
" Unfortunately, our example was not followed by everyone.
“Flights by other countries' strategic aircraft continue and this creates certain problems for ensuring the security of the Russian Federation,” Mr Putin said.
Earlier this month Russian air force generals said bomber crews had flown near the Pacific island of Guam, where the US military has a base, forcing US aircraft to scramble into the air to track them.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.au ...
No cause for alarm. This is make work, a jobs program to keep the troops from getting bored. No more, no less.
I have attempted to avoid/limit purchases ‘made in China’ through the years to avoid funding their military build up, it’s difficult. Wal Mart is just an example.
There are two potential plusses in our trade with China.
Their low cost goods help keep our cost of living low and our standard of living higher, and -
It is very difficult for a totalitarian country to operate successfully under “free enterprise.” They either eventually destroy their economy with totalitarian decisions or free enterprise destroys the totalitarian system. Freedom and tyranny cannot coexist.
If they build a large military with the fruits of free enterprise they will eventually lose it through the destruction of free enterprise and the inability to support the military, ala the USSR or -
If free enterprise destroys tyranny then we will have a well armed friend and ally.
If Russia’s (USSR) abandonment of Communism was genuine it was because Communism is a terrible economic system. They had to adopt a free enterprise system, what they call Capitalism, in order to survive. Regardless, now that Putin is in control they have reverted to the old days of central control, mafia influence and bully tactics with the old Party bosses becoming the owners of the infrastructure and key industries. They will fail.
They are totally dependent on their oil and natural gas for government income. Little economic activity is taking place. A country like that must expand through conquest or die, as they eventually will anyway.
I wish we had the original planned compliment of F-22s
We need a couple hundred more of these.
also
I think Nyquist has been right all along.
We can only hope. I wish that scenario had taken place for Russia in the 90’s, but it seems we are heading back to the cold war era...time will tell. I agree China’s masses are yearning for capitalism and that it is much better than communism. I just believe we should approach cautiously. They do not respect our intellectual property laws and I have doubts about the quality of many of their products, etc...but, that’s just me.
I enjoyed your synopsis on trade with them though.
“Lots of deaf young Russians: The obsolete Tu-95 Bear is perhaps the noisiest plane ever built. Its crews are all stone deaf after a few missions. It is so damn loud, US submarines pick up its sonar profile underwater.”
If it’s still performing the mission, it’s not obsolete. Maybe not state-of-the-art, but not dead yet.
The noise and vibration come from those big-ass contra-rotating props. I can’t imagine what it must be like to fly a long mission in one of them.
Thank you for the ping.
We need 400 F-22’s, 18 Army divisions and we need to be back above 300 Navy ships. I just don’t see it happening.
How do you know they are worn out and old?
The Tup plant was cranking them out well into the ‘90s.
Our youngest BUFF is 40-something.
Dictator Putin is fully cognizant the White House continues remaining mute has the Kremlin prepares for global war, through their proxies against Israel, and also a Russian first strike against American and European cities. Gog is showing his true colours (Red).
I agree...after doing some research
Its my bet that 14 is all they could muster.
This is a snip from FAS.org
http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/russia/bomber/tu-95.htm
Russian Tu-95 and TU-95MS aircraft are now deployed at two air bases A total of nineteen TU-95MS16 and two TU-MS6, operating in the 121st heavy bomber air regiment, which forms part of the 22nd Air Division that is headquarteed in Engels Air Base in the Moscow region. At the Ukrainka airbase (73th Heavy Bomber Air Division) at Svobodny, there are 16 TU-95MS16 and 26 TU-95MS6 bombers that were redeployed from the Dolon airbase at Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan. The TU-95K-22 bombers are subject to decommisioning. In early 1997 five TU-95K-22 were decommissioned and re-equipped in Zngyelse, and five at the Ryazan training center. Eight TU-95 are located at the flight-test institute in at Zhukovskiy [Ramenskoye], and one TU-95K aircraft serves as a static display in Ryazan.
They restarted long-range out of area flights in the late 1990s.
The Russian Air Force Tu-95MS are new-build airframes. The last came off the production line in the early 1990s. It is purely a long-range ALCM platform. That is it’s war mission. It doesn’t need to come close to any air defense system and can launch its ALCMs from thousands of miles away. The same as the USAFs B-52Hs would not be expected to go into Russian airspace as it would launch its ALCMs from a stand-off position.
You fail to understand that the role of these ALCM carriers is stand-off. The cat and mouse game of bomber intercept was purely for the show of force games. They operated in international airspace and could legally come up to 12km from the coastline. In war-time the Tu-95MS would be standing-off thousands of miles away. The Russians have 3,000km ALCMs.
Think about it the other way. USAF B-52s would be standing off from Russian airspace and lauching ALCMs. In this role the platform doesn’t have to be put in danger as it can opertate in stand-off mode.
Not from thousands of miles away. Think B-52H standing-off from an air-defense system with fighters unable to reach or get there in time. The long-range heavy strategic bombers in these cases are stand-off platforms able to launch cruise missiles from thousands of miles away.
Thanks for the update.
I thought we had troops in WWII too?
The Big Red One was wasting their time? Iwo? Hiroshima? Lend Lease?
We owe our freedom to the USSR?
China has a lot more to worry about regarding the Russians than we do.
We don't; Europe does. Like it or not the Soviets did most of the heavy lifting in the European theatre.
The Pacific theatre was all ours though.
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