A Russian Tu-95MS Bear bomber entered the Korean Air Defense Identification Zone (KADIZ) over the East Sea on March 5th and shadowed the USS Nimitz Strike Group for twenty minutes from a distance of 5.4 ~ 9km.
The ROKAF scrambled 4 F-16s while the USN scrambled 2 F/A-18s in order to intercept the bomber.
And just when I was thinking that Korea was missing out on the Bear craze.
9 Comments
Russians just helping keep everyone on their toes, I’m sure.
No Chinese submarines surfaced in the middle of the battle group this time, I take it?
Here is an English article:
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/ap/20.....b07b8.html
This is becoming a habit:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20.....0209104009
http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/news/224881.php
We should expect more of these Russian morale-building exercises. Militarily, these are insignificant events. But politically, within Russia, these exercises are significant.
There is a new generation of young Russians who take their levels of freedom and standards of living for granted without knowing what life was really like under the USSR. At the same time, they are being spoon fed a nationalist ideology by their teachers that Russia was once again cheated out of its innate greatness by the West.
In some ways, we see history repeating itself with a proud and yet xenophobic country feeling it has been slighted - a re-occurring theme of Russian history. And we also see a level of loathing in contemporary Russia towards the West and its prior Russian leaders reminiscent of Germany in the 1920s.
I’m not forecasting a decade out we will see a Russia resembling Germany of the 1930’s, but I can imagine seeing a Russia creating problems for its neighbors as a means to distract its population from major internal problems such as shrinking population in the world’s largest nation and likely economic traumas resulting from being overly dependent upon being an exporter of carbon-based energy.
So, in the meantime, we will see Russians flying around in antiquated planes with a few modern planes of questionable electronic sophistication making special, high profile appearances to signal that Russia is back, if only in the eyes of its wistful nationalists.
Agree that these runs are “morale builders” — and they won’t be going away soon. The image projected is that Russia still has teeth as a world-class power…albeit no longer a super-power. Its people, after the breakup of the Soviet Union, desperately need the nationalistic boot — and power-hungry leaders like Putkin need it to stay in power. Like Japan, the younger generation are starting to shape a new self-image of themselves from the ashes of the once-been power structures of the past. This is what the US needs to be concerned with — not the bomber overflights. The overflights to measure defense reaction times have been happening off Alaska, Europe, and the Orient all within the past year are all part of a new power projection for Russia.
Also don’t downplay those “antiquated planes” which, like the 60-year old B-52, are perfectly designed for the Cold War job they do. Also IMHO the Russians make some of the most fearsome state-of-the-art fighter aircraft in the world — in many ways far superior to any Euro and US aircraft.
Also IMHO the Russians make some of the most fearsome state-of-the-art fighter aircraft in the world — in many ways far superior to any Euro and US aircraft.
You are joking, right? Show me something the Russians build that’s remotely comparable to the F-22 or F-35, let alone “far superior.”
You’re missing the point — fact is, the MiG 29 and Su-27 look cooler. It must be their lines are something — they project menace.
Well the su-37 is supposedly the counter to the f-22. It hasn’t been built yet though so that isn’t really a strong claim.
An opinion widely shared is the Russian’s superiority in aerospace engineering.
I don’t know what Putin was thinking. How could anyone takes this seriously? I think it’s a little humiliating. What do the Russians think the rest of the world is thinking when they do stuff like this? I don’t think anybody is taking them seriously? Somebodies not thinking straight. It’s like a pesky fly invading your space. It’s just an annoyance. Theres no real purpose in it? I think the Russians look foolish. Who are they pretending to be? How much real damage can they do now?
Well, they do have quite a few ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads.