[Sixstrings]

That was the top headline on Drudge.

We've had a lot of these Russian bomber runs near the border, I'm not sure if this one is different or not in that they went to the "launch box" position -- optimal for nuclear cruise missile strike.

So is that the same thing the Russian bombers did with Alaska and California couple months back, and the article and headline are being dramtic? Or this this one different?

And, I note, they were not intercepted this time. I guess if these have been probing runs then they're finding weaknesses.

Russian Strategic Bombers Near Canada Practice Cruise Missile Strikes on US

Two Russian strategic bombers conducted practice cruise missile attacks on the United States during a training mission last week that defense officials say appeared timed to the NATO summit in Wales.

The Russian Tu-95 Bear bombers were tracked flying a route across the northern Atlantic near Iceland, Greenland, and Canada’s northeast.

Analysis of the flight indicated the aircraft were conducting practice runs to a pre-determined “launch box”—an optimum point for firing nuclear-armed cruise missiles at U.S. targets, said defense officials familiar with intelligence reports.
http://freebeacon.com/national-security ... kes-on-us/

[ROCKMAN]

I suspect both sides make the same practice runs for the same reason a diamondback has a rattle on its tail: to remind you it's there whether you see it or not.

[Plantagenet]

Both sides did it in during the Cold War, but it hasn't been going on for years. The US has pulled much of their interceptor capability out of Alaska.

Now that Putin and obama have re-started Cold War II, it looks like the practice Russian nuke strikes are back as well. And in response (?) the US is moving new F-35 stealth fighter jet squadrons up to Alaska.


VVvvvrrrrooooooooooooooommmmmmmmm!

[Paulo1]

Canadians have been intercepting these for a long time with F-18s out of Cold Lake Alta. Nothing new as far as I know.

paulo

[Plantagenet]

Actually the canadian air force says the Russians have increased the frequency of their incursions into Canadian air travel zones. "Not the usual shit" was the off-the-record comment on the Russian bomber activity.

Russian bomber incursions towards Canada increasing----"not the ususal shit" says Canadian official

The Canadians are now considering putting in an order for new F-35s like those now being deployed to Alaska by the USAF to better protect the US from potential Russian incursions. Canada and Russia have conflicting territorial claims in the Arctic.


Obsolete Canadian Air Force planes ----Canada may soon buy new US F-35 jets to better guard Canada against Russian bombers and Russia's territorial claims on Canadian Arctic territory.

[AndyA]

Yep, the world is a more dangerous place, buy more stuff. AFAIK the F-35 is still in beta mode, the Russians can evade detection with some shitty old cold war plane? When I look at the forces, it appears the US has exceptional attacking capabilities, but in terms of missile/air defence the US is about 20-30 years out of date. F-35's will be awesome against Iraq next time they bomb it, but against any serious air defence it doesn't look that impressive. I think the US MIC is too obsessed with tanks and jets, whereas China is building hypersonic missiles which can blow these things up for a fraction of the cost.

[TrickyDick]

The Canadians are now considering putting in an order for new F-35s... blah, blah, blah.

This is simply justification for the Canuks to absorb some useless military spending. You could blow one of those old Russian bombers out of the sky with any number of very old F-series aircraft. No need to buy new.

[Sixstrings]

You could blow one of those old Russian bombers out of the sky with any number of very old F-series aircraft. No need to buy new.

It's true. That's like the new US supercarrier, turns out it's buggy as hell and can't even launch its planes. What was the point. Nimitz class is a lot cheaper and works.

Russia has stuck to some old tech, and refined it, and it's cheap and they do well with it. Those bomber they have are propeller engine. Fastest prop plane ever built, but still.

I think the US MIC is too obsessed with tanks and jets, whereas China is building hypersonic missiles which can blow these things up for a fraction of the cost.

History of warfare. It's like evolution. You can evolve some big fancy species and the competition will find your weakness, and nature evolves a simple virus to take it out. And back and forth like that.

US MIC thinking should be going in multiple directions, not just big fancy stealthy expensive.

Sounds like we've got a missile tech gap, with Russia and China.

And these bombers don't drop bombs, they launch nuclear cruise missiles -- that's better than ICBMs in Russia, those cruise missiles are first strike capability and could land on us before we know what's going on.

There's been / is no response to these growing threats.

For starters the boomer fleet needs built up again, that's our first strike counterpart to these bombers. And maybe we need bombers too, but I think subs make more sense overall. (I guess the bombers are a lot cheaper)

One thing the US MIC is doing, anyway: going big on robotic warfare. Won't be too long before Terminator style robots are in combat.

[ROCKMAN]

"Won't be too long before Terminator style robots are in combat." Yep...all that high tech US weaponry really put those scrawny AK toting rat eaters in the Delta in their place. LOL.

Always reminds me of that very old saying: It's not about the dog in the fight but the fight in the dog.

[Sixstrings]

Russia is building new military bases close to Alaska:

AK Beat: New Russian military bases going up on Arctic island near Alaska

New Russian military bases going up on Wrangel Island: Russia has started constructing new military bases on Wrangel Island northwest of Alaska and on Cape Schmidt on Russia's Arctic coast with two sets of 34 prefabricated modules, The Moscow Times reported Monday, quoting a spokesman for the Defense Ministry. "On Wrangel Island and Cape Schmidt, block-modules have been unloaded for the construction of military camps.

The complex is being erected in the form of a star," said Col. Alexander Gordeyev, an official of the Eastern Military District. "The construction of the new Arctic bases, which will be the first new facilities established in the area since the Soviets abandoned their Arctic positions in the waning years of the Cold War, marks a milestone in Russia's militarization of the region," the newspaper said. "Wrangel Island is classified by the Russian government as a nature reserve and was never used by the Soviets as a military base.

In late August, the Russian navy carried out an expedition to the island and planted a flag, which Pacific Fleet spokesperson Captain First Rank Roman Martov said 'heralded the station of the first ever naval base on (Wrangel Island).'"
http://www.adn.com/article/20140910/ak-beat-russia-erecting-military-base-wrangel-island

Other Russia news roundup:

Russians start asking: are we at war?
Families demand answers over deaths and disappearances of troops thought to have been fighting in neighbouring Ukraine.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/29/russia-ukraine-war-asking

Russia Threatens To Block Flights Over Sanctions
http://news.sky.com/story/1331980/russia-threatens-to-block-flights-over-sanctions

Putin may delay Japan visit over Tokyo's Ukraine sanctions
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/11/us-russia-japan-putin-idUSKBN0H61B720140911

[ennui2]

The US has never directly engaged Russia's military. To do so would spark a WWIII apocalypse. Any game-theory matching up US conventional forces vs. Russia is therefore absurd. It ain't gonna happen.

[Sixstrings]

The US has never directly engaged Russia's military. To do so would spark a WWIII apocalypse. Any game-theory matching up US conventional forces vs. Russia is therefore absurd. It ain't gonna happen.

Well, you say that, but here are these new arctic bases -- first since the USSR.

And there is that old soviet spy base in Cuba, reopened a few months ago.

And there are those nuke cruise missile bombers flying off Alaska, then down to California. And then the recent bomber flights around Iceland and then Canada.

I get what you are saying ennui, and one would assume the Russians know they cannot engage us just as we know we can't engage them directly either. But they're sure testing. So what is it about. Intimidation? Canada says its destroyer in the black sea was buzzed by a Russian warplane.