Cold War redux

micdug

British fighters scrambled to intercept Russian Bear spyplane....

Full story here

Maybe we should order those 60 Eurofighters...

Steyr

Damn you! You beat me to it!!!:D

Zambia

micdug wrote:

British fighters scrambled to intercept Russian Bear spyplane....

Full story here

Maybe we should order those 60 Eurofighters...

Someone call Ryanair!!!:rolleyes:

OS119

someone call the USAF, the RAF have nicked one of their F-15's!

marginally serious point, the Russian AF - and previously the SU - regularly overfly the new Irish Economic Zone (the 200 mile limit, rather than the 12 mile limit). whereas before there was very little there and such flights barely registed on the 'whogivesafcukometer', now however its got a natural gas field in it.

which makes it a bit more important.

this isn't world war three, but this isn't utterly broke Russia that can barely hang on to its borders either.

Russia has in the last 5 years or so has become increasingly willing to flex its increasing military and economic muscles towards the EU, so far its politically interfered in and then shut off gas supplies to and through Belorussia and Ukraine, having a very serious spat with the Baltic states about them 'thumbing their noses' at Russia, massively interfered with Georgian internal politics to attempt to get a result more favourable to them, while Finnish internal government documents have labelled Russia a 'serious future threat' and Iceland has recently signed a new defence agreement with Denmark and Norway to unsure that significant Air and Sea forces are based near and on Icelandic territory.

i assume they haven't done that for fear of the North Koreans....

the last 15 years haven't been 'normality', they have been abnormal. Russia is a very large, rich country with pretentions to 'influence' what it considers its backyard and who has suffered a very serious public slight - its former vassel states running off to join the EU and NATO at the first opportunity.

to think the bear would stay in its cage was unrealistic.

Borzoi

OS119 wrote:

to think the bear would stay in its cage was unrealistic.

Or to look at in another way, military forces always need to do things to make themselves look needed. Hence flybys like this.

OS119 wrote:

marginally serious point, the Russian AF - and previously the SU - regularly overfly the new Irish Economic Zone (the 200 mile limit, rather than the 12 mile limit). whereas before there was very little there and such flights barely registed on the 'whogivesafcukometer', now however its got a natural gas field in it..

I checked, the meter still reads zero:rolleyes:

Judt

Well, nothing is more dangerous to an army than peacetime, so if the Sovs (I'm sorry, the Russian's) wanted to make a military move into the EU (their old stomping grounds, pity we pay better in Europe) then it'll make for a fun day out. Call it a live training exercise, given the state the Russian military is in.

More likely they'll posture and posture some more. But at the end of the day it's their gas pipelines that worry me, not their beaten and battered conscripts.

Clare gunner

Amazing that the old whogivesafukometer didnt respond the last time Putin turned off the gas taps here.We are at the end of the supply line,and that was enough to cause panic around the EU,except here.Maybe it will register when we freeze our asses off next time in Winter

the_syco

Interesting, as they have done this a few times in the past few years, with the same Cold War aircraft.

OS119

BEAR M is the mutts nutts of long-range maritime reece, its a very old design but most of the airframes are rebuilds, so there is no real need to invest in a 'new' airframe design - just continual development of the role specific equipment.

interesting to do a very rough comparison, in the mid-Eighties with the CW at its height there were something like 10 - 15 NATO intercepts a week (ish) over the North sea, Norwegian sea and the Scotland-Faroe-Iceland gap, in the mid-Nineties that figure was down to half a dozen a month, yet in 2007 the RAF alone is doing 2 a week . the other NATO maritime powers - Norway, Denmark, US and France (included because while they don't sit on the military council, they might as well given the co-operation between France and NATO) are equally busy. indeed the French did an interception of a BEAR M and a Tanker in the Bay of Biscay in the last month.

(i've no idea where they dug up the bloke saying it was the first interception in donkey's year, maybe he's been on holiday. on mars.)

Putin comments regarding nuclear targetting are interesting as well. in that kind of 'oh ****!' way...

therecklessone

OS119 wrote:

indeed the French did an interception of a BEAR M and a Tanker in the Bay of Biscay in the last month.

:eek:

Any link?

OS119

none, sorry. its definately in the public domain, i just can't remember which source.

from what i recall its thought to have been a capability test. Tanker forces took a bit of a hit after the fall of the SU, practicing ultra-long range ops is a good work-up for the recovery of the capability.

Bay of Biscay isn't that far for a BEAR M, what made it interesting was the tanker presence so far south - indicating that the package may have wanted to go somewhat further.

Clare gunner

Dont underestimate the Russians.Despite all the love ins and posture,they are STILL capable of giving a good account of themselves or ruining everyones day with ww3.
They have trimmed alot of fat off their army,navy,airforce,
you will find that every devalauled rouble is still stuffed into key divisions,they are still developing an advanced subsea to surface ship killer missile,they are concentrating more on mid range to long range ICBMS that are mobile rather than emplaced,and concentrating on Sub Atomic Demolition Munitions.IE rucksack nukes.
Their latest fighter,the MIG 39[?],could well be more than a match for the US Raptor.It is supposed to be out of prototype stage,but plauged by lack of money to finish off properly.
Plus they are getting the upper hand on the space race,when was the last time the shuttle was up??They are firing up Soyouz rockets like a bus timetable.Chechnya is providing a fine training ground for Spetznaz,and a cleaning area for conscripts.
Most of all, they are currently on the biggest intelligence drive along with the Chinese against the West,thru our open door policies.The more things change....