Russian bomber again intercepted near U.S. Navy ship..whats the real deeal with this?

Question

whats really going on here? and do you think our pilots (US) flipped the russian pilots the bird.

no offense to any persons of russian decent.

Answer 1

The Russians & U.S. have been doing this to each other for 50+ years in order to find out how quick not only the reaction is to their being there, but it also tells about the radar/radio

frequencies. Tu-95 Bears (Russian bombers) used to troll the coast off of and sometimes into Alaska while I was stationed at Elmendorf AFB. We on the other hand, used to send SR-71's thru Europe and off the eastern coast of Russia (a missle testing base & multiple SAM sites) and EC-135's which monitored radar/radio information along with taking photos. Scariest photo I ever saw was that of the Russians testing a multiple armed missle with dummy atom bombs (yeah, i know, it should be nuclear weapons, but that tells you how old I am). There were 4 steaks of light coming from the larger light.

Answer 2

It's been going on for months. Maybe the Government will finally give us more funds to counter this potential threat! The Russians are doing this simply to show that they still have a military and that they can afford to maintain it. that's all. They couldn't afford to fuel their bombers/maritime patrol aircraft after the collapse of the Soviet Union. They have a little money now, so they're just flexing their muscles a bit to prove that they can still do it. Plus, it gives them an easy opportunity to see our brand new Typhoons up close and get some reconnaissance pictures of them. (An old Cold War game we played against them, intercepting and taking pictures of each other) By the way, it was a bomber variant. "This entirely new variant of the BEAR bomber - the BEAR H - became the launch platform for the long-range Kh-55 [AS-15] air-launched cruise missile. The initial version carried Kh-55 air-to-surface missiles located in the bomb bay on a catapult. This was the first new production of a strike version of the BEAR airframe since the 1960s. With the BEAR H in series production, the decline in the inventory of BEAR aircraft, characteristic of the late 1970s, was reversed. By 1988 BEAR H bombers were regularly observed simulating attacks against North America."

Answer 3

This is the same as the earlier scenarios when Russian planes were "caught" close to other country's air spaces. This is the result of Russia begging to flex its oil revenue funded military muscle. This not a mission to gather intelligence (bombers aren't exactly the plane of choice for that) and this was not to see how the U.S. reacts (seriously there's only one outcome to another country, with whom your relations have recently soured, sending a plane towards your carrier). The point of this little exercise was to show the Russian people that the new president will follow in Putin's tracks to increase military strength and that the country has the capabilities to reach out and touch a long way away still. As far as flipping of the bird is concerned I really doubt it. Who ever U.S. command put in charge of intercepting would have to be a very level headed individual. I would imagine it was a tense scenario but executed very professionally since neither side wanted to go down in history as the ones to start a war.

Answer 4

It used to happen "all the time" during the Cold War. The Bears would track Navy battle groups in the western Pacific and eastern Atlantic Oceans. Now the Bears have a newer generation of Navy fighters (F/A-18s) to meet them; in the past F-4s and F-14s would fly out to keep the Bears away.



It is distressing that Russia is trying to bring back the bad old days.

Answer 5

This is the military wing of Russia messing around. They send a bomber by a stationed U.S. rig and get everyone's attention. We send up some guys in a couple F-18s and give them the staredown.



Essentially it is like two teams talking trash to each other before a football game.



It has somewhat serious implications, but really it is just a bit of harassment.



Politically, it's like flipping your opponent the bird.

Answer 6

What the hells so great about flipping some Russian pilots the bird... I can't think of anything more trivial.

Answer 7

Next Putin will send 2 TU-95 Bears down the East Coast, like they used to do during the Cold War, and have them land in Cuba, then continue their flight south to visit their Venezuelan friend "Loco Chavez."



If you want to see how life was in a Bear airbase, read the book "BEAR Flight to Liberty," a novel about the defection of a Bear crew from the USSR to Canada in August 1976. You can get it from amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com

Answer 8

USA carrier groups are giant sea going airplane magnets. Russian bomber was most recent to experience magnetic pull. Most people who fly aircraft avoid floating attractions.

Answer 9

The Russians are making it known that they are a world power again and not to take them for granted or underestimate them .

Answer 10

It's a training and fact finding mission by the russians. They do this to see how we react, and what messures we take. I am sure we do stuff to them like that as well.

Answer 11

They are keeping an eye on us just as we are keeping an eye on them.

Answer 12

This kind of stuff happens all the time.

Answer 13

normal activity