Bear's are back

rock45

Active member
RAF scrambles to intercept Russian bombers


From Times Online
July 18, 2007



Richard Beeston, Diplomatic Editor RAF fighter jets were scrambled to intercept two Russian strategic bombers heading for British airspace yesterday, as the spirit of the Cold War returned to the North Atlantic once again.
The incident, described as rare by the RAF, served as a telling metaphor for the stand-off between London and Moscow over the murder of Alexander Litvinenko.
While the Kremlin hesitated before responding to Britain’s expulsion of four diplomats, the Russian military engaged in some old-fashioned sabre-rattling.
Two Tu95 “Bear” bombers were dispatched from their base on the Kola Peninsula in the Arctic Circle and headed towards British airspace.
Russian military aircraft based near the northern port city of Murmansk fly patrols off the Norwegian coast regularly, but the RAF said that it was highly unusual for them to stray as far south as Scotland. Two Tornado fighters, part of the RAF’s Quick Reaction Alert, took off from RAF Leeming, in Yorkshire, to confront the Russian aircraft, after they were shadowed by two F16s from the Royal Norwegian Air Force, The Times has learnt.
“The Russians turned back before they reached British airspace,” an RAF spokesman said.
There was no evidence to suggest that the incident was connected with the diplomatic row over the extradition of Andrei Lugovoy, the main suspect in the murder of Litvinenko.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article2093759.ece
 
Bears

I did a few searches and from what I could find the Russian Bear bombers never saw action. Would have thought Russia might have used them in Afghan but couldn't find anything.
 
I was told about the Ruskies increased activities a month ago at Peterson AFB, Colorado. Putin loves going back to cold war era
 
All this over a dead spy. Governments really do behave like three year olds in a sandbox with one too few toys to go around.
 
Care to elaborate? What reasons would Putin have to return the world to the brink of destruction? What has been done that is so terrible as to put the very balance of the planet on the line? What threats and armies massing on its borders eyeing its troops over a thin wire line has occurred? In what country are our tanks locked on theirs? In what location anywhere on God's green Earth is the US or any other Western power amassing an army with its sights trained on Moskva??
 
Care to elaborate? What reasons would Putin have to return the world to the brink of destruction? What has been done that is so terrible as to put the very balance of the planet on the line? What threats and armies massing on its borders eyeing its troops over a thin wire line has occurred? In what country are our tanks locked on theirs? In what location anywhere on God's green Earth is the US or any other Western power amassing an army with its sights trained on Moskva??

For these people:

US is evil... the rest of the world s just okay

:bang:
 
((Seems you'd love to apologize for every despot leader thou))


look guy, i dont think you quite have me as pegged as you obviously think you do

im not an apologist by any stretch...in fact i urge you to call me out on any despot you believe i have apologised for.

face it p80...i dont have the same world view you have, and there's nothing wrong with that. it's unlikely either of us will change the others mind... but if you're just going to snipe and call me names....then im going to give you all the respect that sort of behaviour deserves.

im not going to nod my head and agree with you all the time, in fact...i kinda enjoy playing devils advocate more often than not.



Care to elaborate? What reasons would Putin have to return the world to the brink of destruction? What has been done that is so terrible as to put the very balance of the planet on the line? What threats and armies massing on its borders eyeing its troops over a thin wire line has occurred? In what country are our tanks locked on theirs? In what location anywhere on God's green Earth is the US or any other Western power amassing an army with its sights trained on Moskva??



now lets ditch the hyperbole

i hardly think sortie-ing a couple of bears is the harbinger of the apocalypse.

the provocation i was referring to was bush's ABM pet project, and the expansion of NATO into what the russians see as their sphere of influence
 
Well, two Russian Bears over the North Sea is not very common anymore, and particulary not far south as these (and the pair being intercepted by Norwegian Air Force on the night to the 20th of July) but I am frankly quite surprised to see the large media coverage of the intercept - or what we call "identifying". The Russians stayed in international air space, did not violate any borders and behaved with class.

You may relate it to the current England - Russia diplomatic conflict but too there has been a large Russian military exercise in the North that has been going on for some time and following the old Soviet exercise pattern a flight or two down the Norwegian Coast to the North Sea is "business as usual" for the Russian Air Force.

The history lession today is during the Cold War Norwegian F16s scrambled and intercepted 600-800 times a year, now a days it is 10 - 15 interceptions. Since the fall of the Soviet Union and the collapse in Russian/Soviet economy the number of flights has been extremely low. Now with the boost of the economy and more funding to the Russian military (equipment and training) the flights will increase as noticed by the Norwegian Air Force since 2000/2001.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top