U.S. jets escort Russian bombers off Alaska coast

good day to everyone! I just picked up this piece of news from the internets, seems like the russian bear is starting to warm up on its old tricks. what do you guys think? does the Tu-95 still represent a threat to the USAF as it did way back in the cold war?

Two U.S. Air Force F-15s escorted two Russian Bear long-range bombers out of an air exclusion zone off the coast of Alaska, U.S. military officials said Wednesday.

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PS. is this the right forum or should this be moved to the breaking news forum? mods, please feel free to move this thread if i have inadvertently misplaced it in the incorrect forum. kind regards and sincere apologies if i have made any mistakes in posting this here.

IMHO this is not breaking as this has been discussed many times before.
These flights are routine now, and so are the interceptions.

May be old news but I like the pictures and web: addresses.
Old news needs to be revived from time to time so it's not forgotten

Originally posted by Daedalus3
These flights are routine now, and so are the interceptions.

in your humble opinion, what factors do you think may have contributed to these flights (incursions as well as interceptions) becoming routine "NOW" whereas they did not have this same frequency or degree of predictability (misplaced sense of confidence?) as before?

reply to post by toreishi


Hello there bud.

I will give you some awnsers on some questions:

good day to everyone! I just picked up this piece of news from the internets, seems like the russian bear is starting to warm up on its old tricks. what do you guys think?

Well, lets hope that the Bear is just taking its place as a great power who has lots off influence instead off another cold war wich will be bad for all parties involved.

does the Tu-95 still represent a threat to the USAF as it did way back in the cold war?

That is a resounding YES. why? Because it doesnt need to be NEAR its intended target because the Bear is now and the near future, armed with the KH555 Cruise missile who has a range off 3500 KM.
And to add up its massive range, i reckon this beast hasnt gone out off style yet.

But the flights we are seeing beeing intercepted is an interception the Russians WANTED to happen because they can harvest massive amounts off data so that iff the Sh*t hits the fan, they know exactly where to fly and at what for speeds.

Hoped to awnsered your questions man

[edit on 27/3/2008 by James R. Hawkwood]

[edit on 27/3/2008 by James R. Hawkwood]

reply to post by James R. Hawkwood


exactly what i was thinking, i mean these bears didn't necessarily have to do what they did which begs the question; why did they do it? maybe for some ELINT perhaps or to gauge the reaction time of their respective OPFOR. but that thing you mentioned about the KH555; whew! all i can say about that is WOW! they could launch from their airfields and stay on the air for 10 minutes or so and just launch whichever way they want as long as their targets are within range and what can the major western powers do? *shrugs* i guess i'll leave the answers and speculation to you guys as it seems that most of you know more about this kind of stuff than i do.

and thanks to everyone for their contributions.

The Kh-555 is a long-range, air-launched cruise missile designed as the replacement for the nuclear-capable Kh-55 weapons deployed onboard Russian strategic bombers. The Kh-555 missile is equipped with a conventional warhead. Externally the new missile and its predecessor, the Kh-55, are quite similar but the Kh-555 has been equipped with additional fuel tanks, new engine and navigation system. The new navigation system combines inertial navigation with terrain matching based upon an electro-optic sensor with geo-location data coming from GLONASS global positioning system. With its enhanced accuracy, the Kh-555 missile can hit targets at maximum ranges between 2,000 to 3,500 kilometers.

KH-555




[edit on 3.27.08 by toreishi]

reply to post by toreishi


Hello toreishi. I am going to clarify some stuff. (make things somewhat more clearer to understand)

exactly what i was thinking, i mean these bears didn't necessarily have to do what they did which begs the question; why did they do it?

Just what you said in later lines: to gather inteligence off how much time it takes to intercept there planes and do some rough caclulations off the radars reach so they can use that info to process it into their battle plans.

And they are at the same time training for a possible real war. They are carrying dummy missiles who have exactly the same weight so they can actualy train to use the missiles more efficiently.

And the TU-95 is one bad ass motherf*cker who is together with the B52, the icons off the cold war still going strong with a massive range off 15.000 KM. Coupled with the KH555, they are a dream team.

Just imagine that the bear is flying from all the way from russia, over the UK and follow the Canadian/US coastal line and stay away from the coast. Lets say 3000 KM and shoot off its payload near NY/Toronto/Miami/Washington whilest flying all the way to Cuba to refuel and rearm there and do the trip in reverse order, but then striking other targets.

And then i didnt even talked about the TU-160.

The TU-160 has a range off 13.000/17.400 KM and carry`s a monster load off 40 TONS!!!
And it can go faster then a F18 super hornet/F35 Lightning!
Even F16`s have trouble`s catching it when it flies at Mach 2+ (max speed off course but then again, its also the max speed off the F16)

So i hoped that i gave you some more info about the Bears and some new info about the Blackjacks (TU-160)

Rock on dude!

One day soon, one of these little f*** f**** incidents are going to go south and we will be facing more than a cold war.
Afterthought. Funny how we can gang bang these errant trolls so efficiently within minutes, but could not do the same during 911 in the continental US. Doesn't make sense to me.

[edit on 27-3-2008 by jpm1602]