Posted on 11/19/2010 4:00:29 AM PST by cunning_fish
A Russian MiG-31 Foxhound interceptor/fighter crashed on Friday in the Perm region of the Urals, but the two crew members ejected safely.
The crew have yet to be located, a local law enforcement officer said.
A local security official confirmed the crash but declined to identify the plane model, saying only that it "was not carrying any weapons" and posed no danger to residential areas.
Defense Ministry spokesman Vladimir Drik said later the pilot and navigator were "in a satisfactory condition."
A special commission has been set up to ascertain the cause of the crash.
MOSCOW/PERM, November 19 (RIA Novosti)
The crew have yet to be located, a local law enforcement officer said.
Defense Ministry spokesman Vladimir Drik said later the pilot and navigator were “in a satisfactory condition.”
Huh?
Guess it is a little early for all the information to be in.
http://www.adn.com/2010/11/18/1561424/searchers-scour-wilderness-for.html
On another note, in Alaska...
Without a decent fleet of air-refueling tankers, fighters like the MiG-29, MiG-31, and Su-27 couldn't extend their range beyond circa 500-600 miles from the air base, and that left potentially dangerous gaps in air defense coverage out into the Arctic Ocean. And the lack of air-refueling tankers meant the Tu-95 bombers flying to the USA were essentially flying one-way missions.
That's why the USAF got over 800 KC-135's and 64 KC-10's, so they could extend the range of bombers and fighters for true worldwide operations. And that's why the next-generation order for tanker planes could be a HUGE one, possibly involving a production run over as many as 300 planes to completely replace the KC-135 fleet.
Actually Tu-95 is pretty capable for a two-way trip even without refueling. You might be confusing it with Tu-4 - a B-29 carbon copy which was unable to get back home.
Also every model you named has inflight refueling capability. And Russians do have tankers too. For example an Il-78.
They have much less tankers comparing to USAF for a good reason.
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