Russian nuclear bomber flies undetected to within 20 miles of Hull

Propaganda for sure.

Back in the 1970's the US knew when TU-95 Bear D's and Bear F's were going to sortie, even before they went "wheels up". Intel was usually good enough to even ID specific crews.

Russian radar emissions from large, fixed wing aircraft can usually be characterized as a) very powerful, and b) very unique. EW assets all over NATO and in orbit can pinpoint Russian bombers as soon as they start radiating.

The Blackjack is hardly a stealth bomber. It is a very advanced and formidable conventional bomber, but is lacks any true LO characteristics. Those things have the RCS of Rodan and ain't exactly easy to hide from even the most primitive MK I eyeball.

Remember, the difference between accurate reporting and what makes good press is often very great.

Edited for weak spelling.

[edit on 30-9-2008 by Pyros]

Well, I live in Hull and I never saw anything!!!

Maybe they have come to see our fantastic football team that beat Arsenal the other night!!!

maybe they got to hull and thought it had already been bombed so didn't bother dropping the bombs. i live there and it is a dump..
on a serious note does anybody have an idea what could have been the target they would aim for??

reply to post by buddhasystem


I think Russia are known to do that a lot, especially over finland and sweden. What do they have to prove by doing this? maybe they are testing new tech on old planes which has also been done before!

I would imagine crowded airspace also played a role. There's just so much stuff in the air these days, I would HATE to have the job of looking at a hundred green dots on a screen and going, "Oh, that one there, that's a bad one!"

Anyways... aren't Russian bombers currently designed to actually fire large numbers of cruise missiles instead of dropping bombs? And if that's the case, wouldn't this be well within striking distance?

reply to post by citizen smith



HEYY! I live near there! The bad part is I agree with you

I believe they will have been tracking this bomber, they just won't have sent out planes to follow it because they knew it wouldn't do it and it would have been a waste of fuel.

reply to post by primamateria


did it though? would you disclose such a thing openly?

double bluff?

could be

things are tense at the moment no good throwing every bit of info away is there?

reply to post by 4N6310



I agree with you 100 percent.

I think the smart thing to do is always keep a watchful eye on your potential foes, as well as respect them.

But over in britain they are too busy fining people for overfilling their garbage bins that they probably werent paying attention.

On a serious note anyone that discounts Russia's Military might is a fool.

Originally posted by sty
Most of the MScs and PHD-s are non-UK citisens, so with less chances to work for the govt...

I would say that most of the MScs and PHDs have LEFT the country, well educated Brits are leaving the proverbial sinking ship. Soon, all that will be left are the CHAVs and other ill educated flotsam.

Case in point - Tony Blair and family have now moved to the US, didn't take them long now did it.

International law recognizes a nations sovereign air and sea area out to 12 nm from the coast. Therefore 20 nm is not a big deal

But... what if they are?

Put my mind at rest by PROVING to me in laymans terms, that bombers fly over British air space all the time.

Anyone?

i believe this is a signal that britain should cease invading other contries and start defending its own territories......thats the purpose of defence,right?

the politicians will probably come back with"we must fight them abroad".well consider the invasion of iraq has made the world a significantly less safer place and fighting abroad weakens the defence of your own country,making you a sitting duck,i believe focusing on defence is the priority.

if the worlds militaries focused purely upon defending their own borders and not invasion, needless war would almost be a thing of the past and we the citizens would be much safer,but thered be alot more of us,which works against our real enemies agenda of human depopulation.

Originally posted by Retseh

Originally posted by sty
Most of the MScs and PHD-s are non-UK citisens, so with less chances to work for the govt...

I would say that most of the MScs and PHDs have LEFT the country, well educated Brits are leaving the proverbial sinking ship. Soon, all that will be left are the CHAVs and other ill educated flotsam.

Case in point - Tony Blair and family have now moved to the US, didn't take them long now did it.

Well, I'm still here. I rather like this sinking ship. I would suggest one way of improving things in the UK would be to send every 16 year old on a world tour. Expensive yes, but they would come back realising how lucky they were. The worst thing about the British is that we believe that the grass is always greener elsewhere, that things ain't wot they used to be (largely true, thank god) and that everything is going down the pan. Bill Bailey Summed it up; "As an Englishman, I crave disappointment"

Back on topic. The Bomber would have been tracked as soon as it left its airfield, perhaps even as it was taxing to the runway. The Norwegian/Nato radar would have tracked it, we would have tracked it, our QRA's would have intercepted it, as usual, a tanker would have been moved to standby and whilst doing this the fighters would have bee replaced by another two on standby. This is a 'story' from the Daily Mail.

reply to post by welivefortheson


Offense is the best defense. The Russians seem to be emphasizing on that point by sending in the bombers.

reply to post by deltaboy

They always have. To be fair our, Canberas in the late 50's early 60's used to fly to the outskirts of the Moscow air district on radar mapping missions.

reply to post by Fang


Then perhaps you Brits should send a couple of Tornados outside Moscow.

You can imagine the chatter over the intercom may have gone something like this...

Bombardier: 20 miles to target, sir

Captain: Affirmative, upon my command, unleash hull...I mean hell

reply to post by citizen smith


I think you were right in your first post. Hull makes Croydon look like Paris.

reply to post by primamateria


Hello!

I consider most BP ..sorry I mean most international Brit political news propaganda thus I will take this news with a grain of salt.
On the other hand if Russians indeed have such capabilities, I could think they have switched their stealth to off for the Brits to see them, so these news would get out. I highly doubt they would act this way though. Why show your true abilities to your opponents? Imagine doing this with subs! I bet there would not think differently with their planes too.

So If they indeed hold vengeance for their Red Square incident back in 1989 (If I remember right) then if they just turned to a "cocky" mode (which I believe is not their style anyway) expect them landing something in the middle of the Times Square.

I would deffinately liked some pictures from that event!