"What Is Russia Up To By Sending Bombers Close To The US?" Topic

"Experts play down concerns about a return to Cold War days. But Russian long-range bombers coming close to the US, plus other seemingly provocative acts, indicate a retrenched power attempting to assert its global presence again.

WASHINGTON — Russia's announcement Wednesday that it plans to send long-range bombers to patrol the skies of America's backyard over the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico may have sounded to many Americans like the stuff of the Cold War.

Anyone remember the 1960s comedy movie, "The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming"?

The Pentagon sought to play down any provocative intentions behind the flights, and some Western officials chalked up Russia's increasingly far-flung military activity to a retrenched power attempting to assert its global presence again…"

Full article here
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Amicalement
Armand

It is just a gesture of….respect…

Prove they're still relevant, boost Putin's approval rating, and distract the public from their dismal economic morass. Same as always…

They listen. Same thing we do.

Yep, watch the pretty, silver bombers, and not the falling ruble.

Man, that falling price for a barrel of oil must be making Putin and others crazy as well. Down over 25% in the last few months, to under $75 USD/barrel, and rumors are it may go to $50. USD

Winter is coming.

Frankly, I guess it is the real explanation of lots of stuff happening around the globe. Some people were wondering why US are not putting a pressure on Quatar/Saudi in order to stop financing terrorists? Simple, bcs. they have agreed to keep the current oil extraction levels and live with their falling profits for some time. Think USA has started Reagan strategy MkII – i.e. dramatically reduce export profits of then SU, now Russia, and see if it can ruin the economy, or at least curb military spending.SInce it also hurts Iran and Venezuela, it is even better. Of course, in this process shale oil/sand oil will fall below profitability level, but who cares as long as it helps the greater good.
Russia has more accumulted "fat" than SU mid 80s, but if a current situation will continue we might be talking of 3-4 years before something really drastic starts happening….

Saying that, I'm not sure that this sabre rattling really helps Russia. BTW, there's very little info locally about these bombers or naval group near Australia, so these incursions are not exactly for the public opinion here…

I read recently that Russia needs the oil price to stay over US$ 100 to balance their budget.

Is the oil price at under US$80 part of a deliberate Western strategy to destabilise Russia?

(Sorry I wrote this before I saw Barins post)

Blimey, those Tu-95 bombers look really cool. Got an itch to make a model of one now.

Everyone goes for the deep political significance of this kind of operation, but if I was the Russian military I would be trying to do this anyway.

Why?

For years the Russian military has suffered from underfunding and neglect. Today, they are trying to reverse this – and two of the main ways of improving operational effectiveness are improved training and operational practice.

Major benefits for the Russians in these flights include giving the air crews invaluable flight practice as well as giving ground crews practice in maintaining systems in a 'real life' situation. What better ways of finding and correcting weaknesses in the system? Weaknesses that you want to know about now, not when you want to use the things for real.

That's another reason. There were flights for several years, but they were not on a regular basis. Tu-95 are very reliable, and they require less refuelling than Tu-160.

I suspect it is an unsubtle saber rattle to the west as Putin consolidates his hold on Ukraine.

All other things aside, the Russkis do make some really attractive aircraft.

Looks lik4e target practice to me.

OK, let's make this clear – "the government" is not lowering the price of oil to destabilize Russia.

You'd have to have some kind of cognitive dissonance to believe that.

So does anyone make a 6mm Tu-95?

We must confront this New Cold War Russian threat with weapons of comparable technology!

Surely we must still have some P-51s laying around somewhere?

Come on, of course usa government is not lowering oil prices…itself.

However, cartel arrangement with opec worked before, and can work again.As long as supply exceeds demand, the prices are falling, so normally opec lowers extraction quotas. However, during last quarter they were even exceeding it, and they're not planning anything big on the next summit. It also worth mentioning that gas prices for europe are calculated on the basis of oil prices too…

Sorry, Balin, but our current regime is intend on increasing energy costs. The US oil and gas boom is lowering oil costs despite our government attempts to do the opposite.

I suppose subsidizing shale gas production and agreement on tar sands pipeline is supposed to lower energy costs? You know, it normally helps to be competitive on the market..;)

I'm not aware of a Tu-95 in 1/300th. Wish there was one in this scale, or 1/600th.

Obama and the Saudis have had a major falling out, so I doubt they are working together against Russia.

My theory is the Saudis/OPEC are tired of US and Canadian production, so are hoping to crush them with an oil glut. Then, they can raise prices again, as desired.

What "subsidies" are you referring to? When the current occupant of the White House took office in 2009, he ordered his staff to find those subsidies and loopholes for Big Oil so they could be repealed. Guess, what? They didn't find any.

As for that pipe line that the private sector hasn't built yet, as late as yesterday, it was facing a veto if it passes Congress.

Blimey, those Tu-95 bombers look really cool. Got an itch to make a model of one now.

The Russians do make pretty birds. I'd love to own a Mi35 and/or Su27 (real-life, not just models)!

They also make nice utilitarian firearms, if you live in a place where firearms are available for civilian purchase. I really like my SVT-40 (and I'm sure Katy has quite a few Germans to her name).

We must confront this New Cold War Russian threat with weapons of comparable technology!

Surely we must still have some P-51s laying around somewhere?

You mean F86s or F100s, though all the Bears still in service are 1980s and 1990s builds, significantly upgraded from their 1950s originals.

So F15s or F16s would be more appropriate. Besides, F86s are hard-pressed to catch up to Bears, they're deceptively fast for a prop plane.

According to Armaments in Miniature website they have a 1/300 Tu-95 'in the pipeline'

Don't buy the oil price thing if it was Texas ANG would over fly Oklahoma and bomb the fields

When I hit the lottery I'll be buying a Tu-95 as my personal transport.

I have a model one in either 1/100 or 1/144 off ebay.

And to US oil production too.

It's useful to be able to count how many planes they have that can actually fly.