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 ...
This is a Russian re-run of their glorious(?) long-range bomber flights of the 1960s-1990s. They made constant attempts to penetrate our air defenses but never got very far. It actually worked well for us. Our interceptors did their jobs. We gathered a lot of intel on their equipment and operations. Our F-16s and other aircraft capabilities can make appetizers of Russia’s aging bombers. Thanks to Ragean, their military degenerated. Personnel were not paid, maintenance wasn’t performed and fuel supplies were extremely short. The Russian bogeyman wasn’t scary anymore.
Putin is living in the past. Relax folks.
The cream of 1960’s technology
Imagine the efforts involved in getting 14 of these worn out old birds in the air. After making one long range flight they will be lucky to get home. The fabulous 14 will quickly reduced to a couple of flyable aircraft. The rest will only be useful for cannibalization, for a while. I can almost feel sorry for their aircrews.
I was just reading the story about teh Night Witches. They were gutsy broads!
They recently did. Another 60 or so were ordered.
Wonder who will be flying those planes in a few yrs...the Russian male population appear to be dying off. 56yrs old is the average life span of Russian Males.
That’s what I figured. It’s costly just to have ‘em sitting around.
John,
No one doubts the Russians put in the biggest amount of work in Europe...but...WWII was also fought in the Pacific against Japan, which Russia didnt really participate in till the very, very, end...
so, I’ll give you the Russian 70% against Germany...we had about 90% of the War against Japan...net, net, the US made the greatest contribution to winning WWII...though Russia sacrificed the most lives.
The Bear is a pretty cool plane.
Contra-rotating turbo props. Speed is close to a B-52. Huge payload.
As for restarting the patrols, I think we are making a mistake surrounding Russia with ex-USSR, now NATO Countries.
Then installing missile shields in them.
Russia has been and will always be paranoid.
IMHO we should have taken up Putin’s offer to place the missile shield in one of the ‘Stan’ Countries( don’t recall which one).
You need to read Norman Davies’ account.
One thing about the FSU airplanes is that they are so crudely built. I got to see some of the German MiG-29s up close and the workmanship was very poor. You could get better fit and finish out of a high school shop class.
Oh, yeah. I remember bobbing up and down at Point Yankee watching their regularly-scheduled overflight on the search radars. Their stuff was old then. That was thirty years ago.
Thirty years. (Sob!)
Not often...
I agree. It's like we're pointing a gun at them, and when they call us on it we say we're actually pointing at the guys standing behind them. Not to worry. At least that's how I think they're beginning to view it. Those ex-Soviets are paranoid, and we're just goading them on.
Claiming the Tu-95 is obsolete is a sign of ignorance.
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