No surprise- Another Intercept!

[dsawan 624]

on the 4th

 

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/us-jets-intercepted-russian-bombers-203100631.html

 

 

[2skicomrade 34]

This is a question out of curiosity, but during the Cold War, when we had B-52s constantly patrolling outside of the USSR's borders, did the Soviets ever send fighters out "as 'far out as 200 miles'" to escort them?   

[fallenphoenix1986 603]

Its a non event.
30 Years ago this was a near daily occurrence and NATO forces were then and are now doing exactly the same thing.

 

Craig

[B52STRATO 215]

At this time it looks more like a "Knock-knock" joke.

 

- Who's there ?

- Bear

- Bear who ?

- Bear witness

- ...calling Raptors

[ironroad 218]

How is this an issue? Use to happen on a daily occurrence from 1950 something till around 1991-93.

 

We did it to them and they did it to US.

[+Gunrunner 314]

Except supposedly the Cold War is over but apparently someone forgot to forward the memo to Putin.

[HerkDriverJ 5]

B-52s never used for patrol. EP-3s, EP-8s, RC-135s, etc.... also,  "did the Soviets ever send fighters out "as 'far out as 200 miles'" to escort them?"............Soviets couldn't shoot move and communicate effectively that far. We're sending them a message, 'we saw you start your engines fool.'

[2skicomrade 34]

B-52s never used for patrol. EP-3s, EP-8s, RC-135s, etc.... also,  "did the Soviets ever send fighters out "as 'far out as 200 miles'" to escort them?"............Soviets couldn't shoot move and communicate effectively that far. We're sending them a message, 'we saw you start your engines fool.'

 

Please correct me if I am wrong (and I very well might be), but I was under the impression that SAC continuously had nuclear armed bombers in the air, ready to strike targets within the Soviet Union, for a long period of the Cold War.  If that is correct, did our planes patrol around North America, or other areas further from the Soviet Union?  

 

As far as the Soviets/Russian not conducting intercepts as far from their shores as we escort theirs away from ours, I can see it breaking down into three options.

 

1. They were technically incapable of doing so (probably true until the 1970s).  

2. They were confident that if war started, they would be able to intercept our bombers before they could reach their targets (most Soviet cities are deep inland).

3. They didn't want to antagonize us too much (The Soviet leadership was certainly terrified of NATOs nuclear,  naval, and air superiority.  This began to change during the 1970s as they gained parity in ICBMs).  

 

Generally, its my opinion that NATO and the United States in particular holds massive military and economic advantage over today's Russia, and that is why I am always so amazed at our media's alarmist rhetoric and tone.  For these reasons and our history of animosity towards the former Soviet Union, its also pretty understandable why modern Russia would be very sensitive to our military and political posture in Europe.  

[+Gunrunner 314]

@2skicomrade, indeed, on paper NATO has a massive advantage over Russia, in reality taking every member into account NATO's forces readiness is about about half what it ever was during the Cold War and there's so much political divisions and lack of will that it is mostly toothless and very unlikely that any single member, let alone the alliance as a whole, ends up taking aggressive action against anyone without a conflict pre-existing (the two exceptions are the US and Turkey, and even then, for the US the political situation is more complicated than Russia seems to figure).

However, since the US alone are enough to tackle Russia as it currently stands, that point is relatively moot anyway.

 

I'm not entirely sure of how Russia is treated in the US these days but in parts of the EU I know, the alarmism is due less to Russia's military capabilities than attitude, we have EU members who not long ago were part of the USSR or its sphere of influence and they see recent Russian attitude as worrying, they are happy as they are and don't ever want to be pulled back into Russia's sphere of influence and in their eyes it's what Russia actually wants.

 

Worse, we have pro-Russian intellectuals, even in France and Britain, who will nowadays argue that Putin is the best thing that happened to Russia, that he put a stop to the country's pillage by "Jewish oligarchs" (yes, they often make sure to point that those oligarchs are supposedly Jews, as if that were significant for anything else than their underlying anti-semitism), that despite a few suspicious death of journalists and political opponents, the average Russian has never been freer or richer (and maybe he built Autobahns too) and that Ukraine is historically part of Russia therefore it's perfectly OK for them to take it again (that sort of argument makes Poland and Baltic states fairly nervous usually).

Edited July 8, 2015 by Gunrunner

[2skicomrade 34]

Now, I'm one of these intellectuals who have studied Russia for his entire life and briefly lived there. While I am not of the variety that you mention above (links please) and am perfectly capable of criticizing Russia in many ways, I completely disagree with your premise that Russia wants to rebuild its sphere of influence. Before we get too far into politics, maybe we should move this discussion into a pm? I would be glad to offer some of my experiences and insights about Russia and the position of Americas intellectuals there.

[+Typhoid 231]

Please correct me if I am wrong (and I very well might be), but I was under the impression that SAC continuously had nuclear armed bombers in the air, ready to strike targets within the Soviet Union,

 

no

[2skicomrade 34]

no

 

You're right; Operation Chrome Dome lasted only through the 1960s and the planes only flew over North American airspace.  Sorry, I thought it was for longer.  Here's an interesting story: http://archive.wired.com/politics/security/magazine/16-03/ff_nuclearwar?currentPage=1

[jeanba 1,920]

Now, I'm one of these intellectuals who have studied Russia for his entire life and briefly lived there. While I am not of the variety that you mention above (links please) 

France :

http://www.atlantico.fr/

google : eric zemmour + russia

 

Not antisemite so to say, but defending Petain and Vichy as often as possible

Edited July 9, 2015 by jeanba

[ironroad 218]

I'll just leave this here...

 

Based on the footage, this war probably filmed sometime around 1986, 87, or 88.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=86&v=NMb9OmXDj4g