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 ...
Are WE paying them to fly these missions?
It’s those counterrotating props. They are making mini sonic booms.
Certainly there are parts in any turbine engine (the ones used for these planes are turboprops) that have a shelf life. One overhaul cycle, and assuming there are no corrosion issues, and good to go. Worst case, replace the engines with newer whiz bang versions, made with newer materials and having higher reliability.
While it is amusing to imagine the Bear as a slow, piston driven craft, it actually is the world’s fastest turboprop, with a top speed of 575 MPH. That is faster than certain straight up jet commercial craft, especially some of these newer “fuel efficient” types.
The B-52 was launched one year earlier. Our 52s will be 70 or 80 years old when we muster them out. Some of the Bears were built as recently as the 90s. The world’s most advanced turboprop planes. Some may wonder, why turboprops instead of straight up jets? Range.
But at least some of them are new than ours. With proper maintenance, they will last until at least 2040.
In fact, a Tu-95 approach was happening on 9/11! That was a definite factor.
I’m also wondering about Nicaragua, vis a vis the West Coast. I need to go and do the math, but with a tanker top off near the Aleutians, I believe it would be in range from Kamchatka.
How do you know they didn’t use new parts?
Indeed, the real deal here would be stand off .... Kh-55s (or other cruise missiles).
The parts plants may still be cranking.
First strike wins.
I hadn’t considered Nicaragua. Not even sure if there are any airfields in Nicaragua capable of handling those Russian bombers. Did these guys land at Managua during the 80s? I got stuck at Managua in 1987 when San Jose was socked in. I didn’t see anything bigger than an Mi-8, I think. That would be one hell of a long flight from Kamchatka, even with air-to-air refueling. Somehow, I don’t think they’d be too welcome if they put down at Elmendorf or Eilson and asked for a top-off.
Top off would be via Russian or Chinese tanker. Range wise, tankers of that ilk could probably get to Adak or further, prior to reaching the turn around point. From there, it would be down to the 95’s range. I need to look it up.
Range is 8100 NM. That would allow reaching Cuba from the North Pacific, let alone Nicaragua. May even be able to reach Venezuela.
That crew would be worn out by the time they got to CONUS. Longest flight I ever did was non-stop Cairo-JFK. It took 12 hours and I was just sitting there. But occasionally I could get up and stretch my legs, or sit back down and watch a movie. I’ll bet those Tu-95s are not built for crew comfort. I’ve never been on a B-52, but I’ve got some time in C-141s and C-130s, and they sure aren’t built for PAX comfort.
I don't. But the bear bomber is very long in the tooth, and I don't think any new ones have rolled off a Tupolev production line in quite a few years. If they are new parts, they are left over from previous production runs.
Besides, canning old birds to keep others flying is a time honored military aviation practice (there as well as here). It is the most cost effective way to keep older aircraft flying.
There was active production as recently as 10 years ago. You can’t say that about B-52s.
That sounds about right. I figured sometime in the 90’s. The one flying are probably the newest. And even so there may well have been canned parts on them depending on what maintenance was like.
They may have rolled out ten years ago, but hey may also have spent most of that time sitting on the tarmac in the weather, receiving little or no maintenance.
One the big problems the Russian Airforce had after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, was that it had no money to pay pilots or buy fuel to fly. The bulk of their airforce was all but grounded for a long time.
As for the Buff, the havn’t made new ones for many years, but they have completely remanufactured the old ones from the ground up to the point they might as well be new planes.
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