BlueBloggin

Bear’s return

This is the Russian Bear taking off from Engels, an air force base in central Russia. These enormous Tu-95 bombers have a range of more than 10,000km (6,250 miles).

Since the end of the Cold War, they have been virtually grounded. But this summer, President Vladimir Putin ordered their return to the skies.

It was one of the great military shadow-plays of the Cold War era. But now all this is changing. President Vladimir Putin’s announcement of the resumption of bomber patrols seems to have been previewed by recent Russian air force activity.

The Russians have also been making noises about re-establishing a naval presence in the Mediterranean, probably utilizing Syrian ports.

Russia and China have just held highly visible military exercises along with troops from four Central Asian states and President Putin has warned of Russia’s need to modernise its nuclear arsenal in the face of the Bush administration’s plans to deploy limited anti-missile defenses. Now, why would Putin feel it necessary to activate such an awesome Cold War weapon? These aircraft are not cheap to operate. The TU-95 intercontinental bomber BEAR H bombers were regularly used to simulate attacks against North America during the Cold War.

Well it is not quite a Cold War mark II. But it is part of a new, more muscular Russian foreign policy; a result of a growing perception in Moscow that Russia’s interests have been ignored for too long. Domestic political factors are at play too.

It is all about image-building; something that must be set against the enigma of Vladimir Putin’s political future once his presidential term expires.

But it is not just show of course. Real issues are involved and the message is simple: Russia wants it to be known that it is back as a player on the international stage. Russia’s military is slowly recovering after more than a decade of neglect.

Two times in recent months Britain has scrambled jets to intercept Russian bombers. The sorties by Russian bombers appeared to the latest of the regular long-range patrols that President Vladimir Putin announced last month would be resumed after a gap following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Hampered by a shortage of fuel and airworthy planes, Russian bombers have for years been making only occasional patrols. But Putin said that starting on August 17, they would be in the air more or less constantly.

Vladimir Putin is making a statement, is anyone listening? Putin is drawing a line in the sand that George W Bush fails to respect. Tunnel vision is not a foreign policy. Putin has made it very clear that he is a force to contend with and he will do anything he damn well pleases. He will rattle his sabers to regain the stature held by the old USSR. He is handsome, charismatic, extremely powerful and highly motivated … he is still KGB after all.

See this great Op Ed: ‘What’ Not ‘Who’ Will Shape Russia in 2008
By William Burns in the St. Petersburg Times

There are updates to this post, including photo corrections. Encounters with the Tupelov are more frequent and bold. What follows is a short list:

• August 2007 — two Tu-95s flew towards the U.S. base on Guam, where they were intercepted by U.S. fighter planes. Maj Gen Pavel Androsov of the Russian Air Force told a news conference, “We renewed the tradition when our young pilots flew by Guam in two planes. We exchanged smiles with our counterparts who flew up from a U.S. carrier and returned home.”^[8][9] However, the Pentagon denied that any aircraft were sent up, saying that the proximity of the bombers was not close enough to prompt a response from the carriers.^[10]

• 17 August 2007 — two RAF Typhoons were launched to intercept and shadow a Tu-95 that had veered towards British airspace over the North Sea. The Tu-95 later turned away from UK airspace.^[11]

• 5 September 2007 — six Russian bombers were intercepted by six F-15s from Elmendorf Air Force Base, about 50 miles from the northwest coast of Alaska.^[12]

• 6 September 2007 — Two Norwegian F-16s tracked eight Tu-95s over the Barents Sea^[13] as they neared Norwegian airspace. The bombers flew past Norway and continued towards British airspace where four RAF Tornados were scrambled from RAF Leeming (in two waves of two), before the Russian planes turned away.^[14] It was the same day that Canadian Forces‘ CF-18s and Russian Tu-95s met outside Canadian airspace near Inuvik, Northwest Territories. The CF-18s were scrambled when Tu-95s were seen flying outside Canadian airspace.^[15]

• 22 November 2007 — F-22A Raptors of the 90th fighter squadron performed their first intercept of two Russian Tu-95MS ‘Bear-H’ bombers in Alaska. This was the first time that F-22s had been called to support a NORAD mission.^[16][17]

• 9 February 2008 — 24 aircraft including F-15 Eagles and an E-767 AWAC from the Japanese air force scrambled and gave “a notice, then a warning and another a notice and a warning,” as a Russian Tu-95MS ‘Bear-H’ violated the country’s airspace during a three-minute flyover of Sofugan in the Izu Islands. Japan formally issued a strong protest, demanded prevention of future incidents and presented a protest note to the Russian Embassy in Tokyo. Russian officials conversely stated that four Tupolev Tu-95 bombers completed a 10-hour mission over the Pacific on Saturday, but “our strategic aviation planes did not violate Japanese airspace.” ^[18][19][20]

• 9 February 2008 — in the Western Pacific, a Russian Tu-95 flew over the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz twice, at a low altitude of about 2,000 feet, while another bomber circled about 58 miles out. Four American F/A-18 fighters from the carrier were scrambled and tracked the bombers.^[21][22]

• 5 March 2008 — Off the Korean Coast, a Russian Tu-95 flew over USS Nimitz and was intercepted by two F/A-18 Hornets at an altitude of 2,000 feet at a distance of about 3-5 miles.^[23]

Putin wants to make his position clear. The more he disagrees with US backed policies, the more provocative Tupelovs become.

 

Posted by bosskitty December 23rd, 2007 | Category: Cold War, Foreign Policy, Putin, Russia, Tupelov 95 | Subscribe to comments | Leave a comment | Trackback URL