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Russian Bombers Buzz the Nimitz
Cold War nostalgics and Putin paranoia mongers rejoice! From CNN:
American fighter jets intercepted two Russian bombers, one of which buzzed a U.S. aircraft carrier in the western Pacific on Saturday......
Russia's Defense Ministry said Tuesday that there was no violation of flight regulations during the incident. A ministry official said the flights are standard operating procedure for air force training.
One of them twice flew about 2,000 feet over the deck of the USS Nimitz Saturday......
The Russians and the U.S. carrier did not exchange verbal communications.
Four turboprop Tupolev-95 Bear bombers took off from Ukrainka Air Base, in Russia's Far East, in the middle of the night, Japanese officials told The Associated Press, adding that one of the planes violated Japanese airspace.
Russian bombers have been making flights over the western Pacific for several months
There have been eight incidents off Alaska since July. Among the latest, on September 5, six F-15s from Elmendorf Air Force Base, adjacent to Anchorage, Alaska, intercepted six Russian bombers about 50 miles from the northwest coast of Alaska.
Cathy Young on the complicated Vladimir Putin, back in January 2005 and subscribers should look for her latest feature reporting on Putin in a soon-forthcoming issue of reason.
Abdul|2.13.08 @ 12:21PM|#
Fortunately, Fred Thompson is free to play the admiral in the movie version.
The Democratic Republican|2.13.08 @ 12:26PM|#
How is it paranoia if this stuff is actually happening?
stoneymonster|2.13.08 @ 12:29PM|#
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't really out to get you.
FrBunny|2.13.08 @ 12:32PM|#
Cougar was number one, but Cougar lost it. I've got to give you
two your dream shot.
I'm sending you... to Miramar.
[Kenny Loggins riff]
Fred Thompson AS Admiral Paint|2.13.08 @ 12:38PM|#
This business will
get out of control,
and we'll be lucky
to live through it.
|2.13.08 @ 12:40PM|#
It's all BS. America is fine with using Russian cargo planes to help them in Afghan and Iraq. Nothing to see here; Cold war days are dead. All rhetoric relating to such should be filed under 'home market only'.
Episiarch|2.13.08 @ 12:40PM|#
The Russians don't take a dump without a plan, son.
Aren't the Tupelov Bears like...fucking, fucking huge? One
of those 2000 feet over your head might be a little freaky.
drawnasunder|2.13.08 @ 12:41PM|#
"Hell.... We are going to have to fight them sooner or later....
Why not do it now while our Army is intact and we can have their
hind end kicked back into Russia in three months? ...just let me
handle it down there. In ten days I can have enough incidents
happen to have us a war with those sons of bitches and make it look
like their fault."
- George S. Patton
|2.13.08 @ 12:52PM|#
Perhaps I was too hasty to complain about the extremely high unit cost of the F-22.
|2.13.08 @ 12:55PM|#
It's probably not a big deal, but I did notice that every single copy of "Red Dawn" was snapped up at the local Wal-Mart.
|2.13.08 @ 12:55PM|#
Sorry, but international airspace and all that. I am pleased to
note that they were intercepted and not ignored.
Putin is a dick who's rattling sabers for the home crowd. He's
still upset that Russia lost their easter and southern European
sattelites.
Get over it, Vlad, they're gone.
|2.13.08 @ 12:58PM|#
He's still upset that Russia lost their easter
This year especially!
• March 23 - Easter Sunday (Western)
• April 27 - Easter Sunday (Orthodox)
|2.13.08 @ 12:58PM|#
Cathy Young on the complicated Vladimir Putin, back in
January 2005 and subscribers should look for her latest feature
reporting on Putin in a soon-forthcoming issue of
reason.
Holy crap. You mean she wasn't abducted by aliens. All traces of
Ms. Young's existence ceased last summer. Now she reappears as
though nothing has happened. Was she sent overseas on a secret
mission for the DHS? The whole thing smells fishy. Can you prove
the real Cathy Young is ambivalent about Putin and not some space
alien inhabiting her internet identity?
Taktix®|2.13.08 @ 12:58PM|#
He's still upset that Russia lost their easter and southern
European sattelites.
No more easter in Russia? Think of the children!
|2.13.08 @ 12:59PM|#
I have a feeling the Russians had thier RWR (Radar Warning Recievers) turned off, because many radars had them locked long before they flew over the Nimitz.
|2.13.08 @ 1:00PM|#
You know, for guys like Putin, or, to a greater extent, Castro and Chavez, who need to point to external enemies for domestic reasons but who really don't want conflict, maybe we should have some sort of "understanding". We'll pretend to be upset at all of their bluster, we'll work to stage minor incidents, but in reality, we'll be best buddies.
Franklin Harris|2.13.08 @ 1:05PM|#
Fortunately, Fred Thompson is free to play the admiral in the movie version.
I think that was the Enterprise, not the Nimitz. The Nimitz is the
aircraft carrier that sailed through a rip in
space-time and then tried to prevent the attack on Pearl
Harbour.
|2.13.08 @ 1:06PM|#
You know, for guys like Putin, or, to a greater extent,
Castro and Chavez, who need to point to external enemies for
domestic reasons but who really don't want conflict, maybe we
should have some sort of "understanding". We'll pretend to be upset
at all of their bluster, we'll work to stage minor incidents, but
in reality, we'll be best buddies.
Hell, I think you guys may already have such an
understanding...
Franklin Harris|2.13.08 @ 1:07PM|#
We'll pretend to be upset at all of their bluster, we'll work to stage minor incidents, but in reality, we'll be best buddies.
Congratulations, I think you've just reinvented the foreign policy
of 1984.
The Wine Commonsewer|2.13.08 @ 1:13PM|#
All traces of Ms. Young's existence ceased last
summer.
She had a darling little boy.
|2.13.08 @ 1:17PM|#
Franklin Harris,
Well, I didn't suggest we do it with everybody. Honestly,
given the U.S.'s status in world affairs, perhaps some other
country should be paid to serve that role. Like, I don't know,
Austria. They're menacing. They had an empire. They've got scary
accents. Hitler was an Austrian. Yeah, Austria. For a mere U.S.
$100 million/year, the Austrian Empire™ will be the enemy of your
people. . .instead of you.
|2.13.08 @ 1:20PM|#
I have a feeling the Russians had thier RWR (Radar Warning
Recievers) turned off, because many radars had them locked long
before they flew over the Nimitz.
RWRs or ESM (Electrontinc Support Measures)equipment have no effect
on radars, thet just listen and ID the emitter. To mess with a
radar you need ECM (Electronic Countermeasures equioment). Using
ECM gear is considered very bad form (displaying hostile intent is
the term I remember). Tracking the Bears is ano harder than
tracking a 747 with it's IFF (Identification Friend or Foe).
transponder turned off. They're freakin' HUGE.
Hugo Chavez|2.13.08 @ 1:29PM|#
I was wrong about America. America is Venezuela's friend. Americans buy oil from us and are a valuable trading partner. Hugo was confused. Our enemy is Austria!
|2.13.08 @ 1:29PM|#
All traces of Ms. Young's existence ceased last
summer.
She had a darling little boy.
Well that would explain it. But how did you hear about him TWC?
Other Matt|2.13.08 @ 1:31PM|#
They are also museum pieces.
It was probably a charter from some Japanese private evangelical
school or something.
|2.13.08 @ 1:31PM|#
All traces of Ms. Young's existence ceased last
summer.
She had a darling little boy.
So her body was taken over by an alien.
[Dang, what's the French word for thinking of the joke after it's
too late?]
|2.13.08 @ 1:31PM|#
"RWRs or ESM (Electrontinc Support Measures)equipment have
no effect on radars, thet just listen and ID the
emitter."
That's why I said that they turned them off, because it would be
pretty noisy with all the buzzing. I figure that if the bears
employed any jamming they would be flaming wreckage.
/Talk to me Goose.
lunchstealer|2.13.08 @ 1:48PM|#
proglib,
Naw, complain away. The F22 program is flawed from the start,
because no effort was made to improve manufacturability or
ease-of-maintenance. None of the parts of that plane cost enough to
justify the pricetag. It's just that difficult to put the parts
together. They fixed that with the JSF program, apparently, which
is plenty capable but less than 1/4 the cost. They just need to
ditch the F22 program and commission a new air superiority platform
with lower cost construction in mind.
|2.13.08 @ 1:48PM|#
That's why I said that they turned them off, because it
would be pretty noisy with all the buzzing. I figure that if the
bears employed any jamming they would be flaming
wreckage.
I get it. I misinterpreted your meaning.
What we have here is a failure to communicate.
|2.13.08 @ 1:52PM|#
Okay, then.
Gosh-darned overpriced aircraft. Can't we fend off the Austrian
menace without spending $100-200 million a plane?
This here\'s a zoo and the kee|2.13.08 @ 2:09PM|#
I feel sorry for the children of the cold war, conditioned to
view the Russkies with the
same helpless dread that ('round here, anyhow) is traditionally
afforded to tornadoes.
I think it's the hide-under-the-school-desks drills that did
it.
Kolohe|2.13.08 @ 2:16PM|#
Warty | February 13, 2008, 12:47pm | #
Aren't those Tupolev bombers the ones that make all the crew
members deaf?
joe | February 13, 2008, 12:51pm | #
WHAT?
Proof that joe is actually a commie?
|2.13.08 @ 2:18PM|#
This here's a zoo and the keeper ain't you,
For me, it was the megatons of fusion-aided death that were pointed
at my city that did it. That, and the fact that in Alas,
Babylon, Tampa was specifically mentioned as "blow'd
up."
"Say, look at that mushroom cloud. Isn't that Tampa?" Not good for
the psyche.
Kolohe|2.13.08 @ 2:19PM|#
The Russians don't take a dump without a plan, son.
Aren't the Tupelov Bears like...fucking, fucking huge? One of those
2000 feet over your head might be a little freaky.
A CVN crew is sorta used to having loud aircraft flying very close
to them, it's kinda their job.
Taktix®|2.13.08 @ 2:21PM|#
I have witnessed the horrors of the new Austrian Empire's
atrocities firsthand.
True story.
|2.13.08 @ 2:25PM|#
Aren't the Tupelov Bears like...fucking, fucking huge? One
of those 2000 feet over your head might be a little
freaky.
You should see the underside of that goddamn Batarang [B2] from
not-too-far-down.
It's a sight which would most definitely send you scurrying back to
your mud hut. Not that you would ever see it, or hear it, if it was
coming on business.
|2.13.08 @ 2:26PM|#
Yeah, there's no way Bears are going to go undetected by a
carrier group.
Funny thing is, those things would have been smoldering wreckage
long before they got inside 50 miles even WITHOUT the fighter
escort had they done anything remotely hostile. You don't fuck with
a carrier group. They know everything you're doing and they will
own you.
|2.13.08 @ 2:28PM|#
Warren: Eprit d'escalie, IIRC. The Spirit of The Stairs. Like when you leave ballroom in tears because the Viscount D'Montaign said something nasty about your hair, and then you remember that he is balding under his wig....OOPS too late...
|2.13.08 @ 2:29PM|#
KenK,
At least BUFFs are continually proving themselves in battle (we can
argue whether that is a good thing or not). Fact is, they're
spectacularly successful and versatile.
|2.13.08 @ 2:33PM|#
Taktix®,
Do tell. I'm thinking about quitting my job and becoming a broker
between Austria and nations needing an ersatz enemy.
|2.13.08 @ 2:33PM|#
"..."the wit of the staircase," those biting ripostes that are thought of just seconds too late..."
Kolohe|2.13.08 @ 2:34PM|#
Guys, the CSG saw them in plenty of time even our 'warmongering
lunatics' think is was no big deal
``I did not consider it to be provocative,'' Admiral Gary Roughead
[ed: the CNO] told reporters at the Pentagon yesterday. ``We
detected them at the appropriate time. We launched our alert
aircraft, who escorted the Russian aircraft.''
highnumber|2.13.08 @ 2:40PM|#
Is that a reference to Putin-style paranoia, or to people who monge on paranoia about Putin?
Kolohe|2.13.08 @ 2:42PM|#
Timon19-
Dammit I wanted an argument! For a site called reason, you all are
being awfully reasonable. :)
|2.13.08 @ 2:45PM|#
I would like to nominate Admiral Roughead for president. He was cautious, prepared, and calm.
LarryA|2.13.08 @ 2:52PM|#
One of them twice flew about 2,000 feet over the deck of the
USS Nimitz Saturday......
As I remember, from way long ago, that's far too low to drop
anything a Tupelov would carry.
You don't fuck with a carrier group. They know everything
you're doing and they will own you.
Amen. Admirals don't talk about "my sky" for the fun of it.
Since when is being 2000 ft overhead "buzzing"?
Aircraft that size don't intentionally get below 10,000 ft. except
to land.
|2.13.08 @ 3:10PM|#
Dammit I wanted an argument! For a site called reason...
Drink! :)
And yeah, nothing's gonna drop much of anything substantial from
that altitude unless they want to take some souvenirs of their own
doing home with them (unless they use retarded bombs, which MIGHT
give them a shot to get out of the frag zone).
Taktix®|2.13.08 @ 3:19PM|#
Austrians run the world banks and meet secretly once a year for cheese and mischief.
|2.13.08 @ 3:24PM|#
You don't fuck with a carrier group. They know everything
you're doing and they will own you.
Amen. Admirals don't talk about "my sky" for the fun of
it.
Great rejoinder, that just needed repeating.
lunchstealer|2.13.08 @ 3:47PM|#
Aircraft that size don't intentionally get below 10,000 ft.
except to land.
Both the Bear and the Buff quickly switched to very low altitude
terrain-following flight paths as their primary tactics for
infiltrating enemy airspace.
While hiking along the ridge of Shenandoah Mountain (which rises
about 2000ft above the valley below) we got the interesting
perspective of looking down at a B-52 rumbling up the valley. Those
things are not, by the way, quiet.
|2.13.08 @ 4:27PM|#
Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear, when
Bears and Badgers and Backfires (oh my) regularly flew over our
carrier groups to test defense response times and just generally
mess with us. And we did the same thing to their ships and
bases.
/Do some of that pilot shit, Maverick
|2.13.08 @ 4:41PM|#
I feel sorry for the children of the cold war, conditioned
to view the Russkies with the
same helpless dread that ('round here, anyhow) is traditionally
afforded to tornadoes.
I think it's the hide-under-the-school-desks drills that did
it.
Huh?
I am a child of the cold war...what stick out most from it is going
to Cape Canaveral as a kid and going to some weird air force museum
and looking at a figure that showed soviet missiles vs US and US
missiles being less capable and far fewer then the soviet
missiles...then like 10 years later learning that it was all a
lie.
No dread here....just a fear of the reaction to the over estimation
of the ability of socialism to beat free markets often promoted by
socialists and war mongers (is there a differance?)
I hear in the 70s and 80s it was common for collage economics books
to consistently show Soviet GDP and GDP growth far higher then the
US.
|2.13.08 @ 5:29PM|#
"They are also museum pieces."
Just like US B-52s?
Yep.
No doubt the B-52's are about as old as the Tu-95's but it's worth
noting that Soviet technology, largely "borrowed" from the US, was
5-10 years (or more) behind, depending on what area we're talking
about. Of course that means this is a turbo-prob airplane we're
talking about, not a jet. So essentially they're still using the
equivalent to a US 1940's era turbo-prop... What, don't we have any
old Connies we could sell them?
Major Kong|2.13.08 @ 5:37PM|#
The biggest dange of having them fly directly overhead of the Nimitz is that one of them might have fallen on it. Thank you, I'm here all week.
|2.13.08 @ 5:39PM|#
I'm pretty sure that the Soviets had some radars that would
sterilize you at 80 nmi. and beat ours at certain times during the
Cold War.
Their fighters were also pretty damn maneuverable, though overall
less capable. Even now, their Flanker variants can do some weird
shit.
|2.13.08 @ 8:28PM|#
two Russian bombers, one of which buzzed a U.S. aircraft
carrier .... One of them twice flew about 2,000 feet over the deck
of the USS Nimitz
...buzzed...?? At 2000 feet - what are the Russians wimps? No pilot
I know would claim "buzzing" if the altitude was "higher than an
elephant's eye" (song reference via 'Oh What a Beautiful Morning'
from Oklahoma)
|2.13.08 @ 8:33PM|#
Syd | February 13, 2008, 2:26pm | #
Since when is being 2000 ft overhead "buzzing"?
Oops didn't notice Syd's earlier posting - but, at least mine has a
song reference, if that helps any :-0
|2.14.08 @ 6:39AM|#
Both the Bear and the Buff quickly switched to very low
altitude terrain-following flight paths as their primary tactics
for infiltrating enemy airspace.
Turgidson:If the pilot's good, see. I mean, if he's really sharp,
he can barrel that baby in so low - you oughtta see it sometime,
it's a sight. A big plane, like a '52, vroom! There's jet exhaust,
flyin' chickens in the barnyard!
Muffley: Yeah, but has he got a chance?
Turgidson: Has he got a chance? Hell yes...
You don't fuck with a carrier group. They know everything
you're doing and they will own you.
Alternatively, you just take advantage of how easy it is to confuse
them, and sail your destroyer right into SSM range while pretending
to be an Indian.
http://yorkshire-ranter.blogspot.com/2008/01/away-sea-boats-crew.html
B|2.14.08 @ 8:31AM|#
"How is it paranoia if this stuff is actually happening?"
Good fucking question, and it is exactly what I was thinking. When
it comes to foreign policy, this magazine hasn't had an intelligent
thing to say, ever. How in the fuck can you preface an article
about Russian Bombers getting dangerously close to a U.S. aircraft
carrier with a statement about "Putin paranoia mongers"? That is
like telling a group of diabetics that they worry too much about
their blood sugar.
I guess it is paranoia to mention that the quasi-dictator has made
repeated arms sales to countries like Iran, North Korea, Syria,
etc., right? I mean, after all, these countries aren't home to the
most threatening regimes on earth. And what about the Russian
bombers that entered Japanese airspace and had to be intercepted by
fighter jets. Those damn paranoid Nips.
If I were to scratch my head at all the stupid fucking things
Reason authors posted about on this blog, I would have worn a hole
in my fucking calvarium.
B|2.14.08 @ 8:38AM|#
"For a mere U.S. $100 million/year, the Austrian Empire™ will be
the enemy of your people. . .instead of you.
Hahahahaha, yeah. That is too fucking hysterical. Hahaha, good
plan, because as everyone knows, all of our enemies are imagined
and we have nothing to worry about. Those two building that fell in
NY a few years back, it was staged in a movie set, just like the
moon landing. Those 3000 dead people, they are basking in the sun,
alongside "last years winners" from The Running Man.
|2.14.08 @ 7:21PM|#
Funny thing is, those things would have been smoldering wreckage long before they got inside 50 miles even WITHOUT the fighter escort had they done anything remotely hostile. You don't fuck with a carrier group. They know everything you're doing and they will own you.
We hope so, at least. I certainly hope everything happened
as described, our Navy was cautious and restrained as opposed to
startled and flat-footed, and that nobody in the DoD is
ass-covering.
|2.18.08 @ 5:26PM|#
Interesting happening unfolding at a time when all our presidential hopefuls don't look so hopeful. I think there's a plan with Russia and Iran if you ask me. Iran has been testing waters and Russia has been testing the airways. I think it's time to invest heavily in missle defense and time to ween ourselves from mideast oil. Where's Ronaldus Magnus (Ronald Reagan) when you need him.
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