Russian Bombers Fly Near US on July 4th

The only way they cross the US coast is if the US military allows it.

Anyway, the real threats are not reported to the public in a timely manner anyway. This is the have faith in us stuff.

a reply to: SuperFrog

Open Skies flights are scheduled at least a month ahead of time, and only so many a year are allowed under the treaty. They are very limited in what they can fly and use for sensors as well.

a reply to: bjarneorn

They didn't go anywhere near a border, and never do. They ever the ADIZ, we send fighters to see what they're doing, they record radio and radar information, and head home.

It's only a big deal if Russia comes close to US borders and the government gets it's panties in a bunch, but wasn't it Russia that shot down one of our U2 spy planes over Russian air space? So yeah Russia is not the only ones coming close to others air space.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: WeAre0ne

Because it's just another routine flight. It's not a big deal. They did this almost daily for years.

Mr. Z, given you advanced aviation knowledge, can you tell how much does it cost the stupid Russians per each rusty bomber that they send from Russia to California coast i.e. how much is per hour flight on these big birds.

a reply to: WeAre0ne

They flew near Alaska, eh? I wonder if Sarah Palin saw 'em from her front yard. You betcha!

a reply to: JHumm

Yeah they did, in 1960. The next over flight of Russian territory was a NASA ER-2 in the 90s, by request of the Russian government.

a reply to: victor7

Russia doesn't reveal how much it costs to fly their planes per hour. It should be similar to a B-52 though.

a reply to: Zaphod58

nation.time.com...

Above link says it costs good $69k per hour to fly B-52. Stupid Russians still trying to keep up with US. Seems they cannot accept the fact that Russia is now a regional power only.

As some have mentioned this isn't such an unusual occurrence.

Such flights happened (at least in the UK/Europe) even before relations with Russia deteriorated - yet the media insist on reporting them every time. I wonder why...?

a reply to: Kram09

Slow news day is about the only reason it gets reported in the US.

originally posted by: StratosFear
One of these days it`ll be another flight of Mig-29s or the Golden Eagles demo team coming to perform, once several Mig-29s came to a US base on the West coast and traded up with some F/A-18 pilots for their aircraft. So we had American pilots in Mig-29s and Russian pilots in F/A-18Cs turning and burning with each other. Ive been looking around the internet for the story but I cannot find it. This was over 10 years ago though.

how would Mig 29's get anywhere near the US other than at Alaska?? They only have a radius of a couple of hundred miles - max ferry with external tanks is 2100km - about 1400 miles - and that is 1 way!!

Perhaps you are misremembering something that happened somewhere in Europe? Perhaps over the Baltic?

a reply to: Aloysius the Gaul

They came through Alaska for fuel and came down to CONUS.

a reply to: PredatorCrackling

What is wrong with transwestites? You prefer transeastites?

Back in the "good old days" it was normal for US spy plains to fly into Russian air space then do a high speed retreat to Swedish air space with Russian fighters on there tails, it was common for the Swedish air force fighters to lock there attack radar on to the Russians to make it clear they should leave, and the US spy plain would then return to neutral air space. What is happing now is nothing compared to the 70s and 80s

I don't know nearly enough about these exercises but we are supposed to trust an enemy of the state to fly nuclear bombers that close to us? Just seems odd. Just seems that if I had enemies (I hope I don't lol) that the best way to get at someone would be by surprise... But again like I said this is something I don't follow.

a reply to: HawkeyeNation

They're not nuclear bombers, they're nuclear CAPABLE bombers, but that doesn't sound as exciting to the reporter writing the story.

As for flying this close, after all the shootdowns in the 50s and 60s they started regulating these interceptions to the point they signed a treaty on how they would handle these interceptions.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: HawkeyeNation

They're not nuclear bombers, they're nuclear CAPABLE bombers, but that doesn't sound as exciting to the reporter writing the story.

As for flying this close, after all the shootdowns in the 50s and 60s they started regulating these interceptions to the point they signed a treaty on how they would handle these interceptions.

I fear that you have taken all the excitement away from the post, still we should never let the truth get in the way of propaganda. In other words, well said

Big deal. they did that in the 80's off the east coast. I worked at Dam Neck they had a special CIC they used to track them down the coast line. F14s were escorting them all the way. After going down the coast I beleive they landed in Cuba then went back home. As long as they stay in international waters it's legal. The big question is why they started doing it again.

a reply to: datasdream

Training. They're rebuilding which takes a lot of training.