Bare posturing
I see that Vladimir Putin has ordered out-of-area reconnaissance flights to resume
Russia Resumes Patrols by Nuclear Bombers - New York Times. And with such planes as the venerable Tu 95 Bear
Russia Says U.S. Intercepted 2 of Its Bombers Over Pacific - washingtonpost.com, but also the Tu 160 Blackjacks (a concorde sized version of the B-1)
Tupolev Tu-160 - Wikipedia I remember when all the Navy had to worry about was the Tu 22(m) Backfire. Bear fly-overs  I've seen twice personally (as we came on station, roughly as we sailed
west of Guam and again half a year later as we sailed east back to the
US). I have pictures I took with my own camera - not that spectacular
the planes insisted on remaining way up in the air. I have these two here taken by the USS Ranger's escorting F-4s which give a better view of the event . The plane is a Tu 95 D, or Bear Delta. Mr. Putin also seems to reviving the practice of stitching sorties in and out of Nato airspace especially during military exercises according to reports
BBC NEWS | Europe | Russia restarts Cold War patrols. Not unrelatedly he was seen attending an Air show the other week where he signaled his desire to raise profile of Russian Air Industry
Putin calls for Russian leadership in military aviation AFP.com | Agence France-Presse, a global news agency. Both for the purpose of not falling a two generations behind western aircraft
Moscow flexes its military muscle again, but few in west say it is fit for a fight | Russia | Guardian Unlimited, and for the export product cash and the ties and relations such deals engender.
The BBC aired a spot Friday dryly commenting that the recent images of Putin fishing bare chested in a stream in Siberia are of a piece with this "muscular, flexing" of the Russian President in airpower. I don't think anyone knows what Sarkozy may have been thinking.
In the department next door at work (the library), one of graduate students who is from India has a jet fighter of the day screen saver. We talked airplanes briefly. It happens his father is involved with the series of Indian air power exercises that match Euro and US fighters against Russian planes. The Sukhoi Flanker 27/30 varients
Sukhoi Su-27 - Wikipedia, which tend to do well in these excercises, are in his opinion the best fighter planes in the world. Particularly the version the Indian air industry bought from Sukhoi and refits with Indian avionics, the Su-30MKI. They contracted with the Russians to buy and refit 40 planes of the Russian export model the Su 30 MK (Modernised Kommerical) to the standards of a multirole air superiority fighter
Su-30 FLANKER (mk-I). At which point Hindustan Aeronautics Limited has essentially built them up to the level of the Su 35, the current front-line Russian fighter [actually the MK and MKI were develped by competing branches of Sukhoi; Knaapo and Irkut]. They will build outright another 140 of these under license, and apparently more beyond that. Some of which they will sell as an export model themselves to such nations as Belarus. The phrase with friends like these who needs enemies comes to mind, but these are difficult times and it is better to say little and not antagonize anyone. As it stands the
Su-30MK's have been selling like hot cakes around the world. Venezuela, for instance, has 10 and will take delivery of 14 more in the next few years. All of which are said to be a variant capable of anti-ship missions.
11:56:45 PM  ;;
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