Russian planes again fly over U.S. Navy ships

CNN ^ | 3-19-09 | CNN

[LibLieSlayer]

Your last sentence answers as to why it is such a big deal.

LLS

[doc1019]

And our current President never had a set and never will. God help us.

[blam]

"In this day and age, with our updated capabilities, they are playing with fire."

Yup. They know they don't stand a chance.

[El Gato]

Of course back then we had a set

Precisely, we would never have let them get that close and that low, at least not with 2-6 Tomcats or Phantoms all over their a$$.

BTW, their capabilities are upgraded too. They, IL-38s have gotten an entirely new digital avionics refit, for example. I suspect they, like the P-3 they are comparable to, can carry anti-ship missile, not to mention just plain old bombs.

Of course it would be suicide to use them, they'd never get away. But then Obami would apologize for the loss of the aircraft, no matter how much of a smoking mess they left on the carrier.

[El Gato]

Check out the Rusian stoock market. They'll be broke first.

Depends on what the prices of oil and gas do. The Russians have lots of both.

[El Gato]

Russian pilots buzzing us in actual Russian aircraft and then going back to the Russian Officers Club and laughing about it and drinking to it seems downright ... Civilized.

Русские пилоты нецивилизованный.

[JennysCool]

Okay! You gotta translate that! :-)

[Steve Van Doorn]

Obama just spoke Arabic at the end there didn’t he?

[microgood]

U.S. military officials said that in both cases, U.S. Navy F/A-18 fighters met up with the Russian aircraft about 70 nautical miles from the U.S. ships and flew alongside them until they left the area.

Nice, but I did like those old Tomcats.

[Boucheau]

“These days, the old rivalries are somewhat comforting.”

Odd, isn’t it?

I’d prefer the commie Russian “over there” again to 0bama and his leftists “here at home”.

[Boucheau]

“I can’t believe...”

This must be one of the most common phrases on FR right now.

[exblockhead]

I remember back in the 80’s, our bubble around the carrier was a minimum of 250 miles, and an F-14 would play wingman to the Bears and Badgers that came out to play.

[A.A. Cunningham]

Seems like old times.

[microgood]

I remember back in the 80’s, our bubble around the carrier was a minimum of 250 miles, and an F-14 would play wingman to the Bears and Badgers that came out to play.

Yes, I remember you could see that perfect circle surrounding the Big E at night in the IO. Made you feel safe.

[LibLieSlayer]

This is sadly but very true.

LLS

[Forward the Light Brigade]

This was just a test. Expect more to come. They are pushing the limits of the envelope. What is next? Overfly Dallas? or Long Beach? I wonder what will happen if Russia turns to that age old way of boosting there economy—military conquest.

[magslinger]

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[Doe Eyes]

“The last time Russian planes flew over a U.S. Navy ship was February 2008, when two Bears flew 2,000 feet over the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz south of Japan.”

[Ronin]

Of course we did.

I know for a fact that we had ships sniffing around outside of Vladivostok on a regular basis in the late 80s. I imagine we still do. I’ve heard some of the stories the bubbleheads tell about sneaking in close on their ships. It’s routine, but its also dangerous.

[Non-Sequitur]

Did such insulting conduct ever occur under any other President since the Cold War ended?

Where have you been? The Russians overflew the Nimitz off Japan about a year ago. Same situation, the air wing intercepted them 80 or a 100 miles away from the ship and escorted them while in range of the task force.

As others have pointed out, this was a common occurrence back in the day, even when Reagan was in office. I'd be interested in knowing exactly what all you irate folks think we should be doing about it.