Two Russian Tu-95s reportedly skirt U.S. military base at Guam

[SajeevJino]

Bomber incident: two Nuclear-armed Russian Tu-95s reportedly skirt U.S. military base at Guam​

According to the Washington Free Beacon website two Russian Tu-95 Bear-H strategic bombers circled Guam island, in the Pacific Ocean, on Feb. 12."Defense officials said the bombers tracked over Guam were likely equipped with six Kh-55 or Kh-55SM cruise missiles that can hit targets up to 1,800 miles away with either a high-explosive warhead or a 200-kiloton nuclear warhead," reports Bill Gertz in his piece.

The episode happened shortly before President Obama delivered his State of the Union address and prompted U.S. to scramble some Kadena F-15s temporary deployed to Andersen Air Force Base.

The Eagles shadowed the two Russian bombers until they left the the area in a northbound direction.

Andersen AFB, on Guam, is strategically located 1,800 miles (about 2,900 km) to the east of China.

It has hosted a deployed strategic bomber force since 2004; recently, the Air Force has announced it will base two B-2 Spirit bombers in the Pacific atoll.

Although this kind of incident is not frequent, this is not the first time Russian strategic bombers conduct a long range training sorties into the south Pacific. And circumnavigate Guam.

In 2007, President Vladimir Putin said Russia had resumed the long-range flights of its strategic bombers that had been suspended in 1992. According to Putin, those tours of duty would be conducted regularly and on strategic scale.

On Aug. 8, 2007 two Tu-95 undertook a 13-hour round trip from Blagoveshchensk base to "visit" Guam for the first time since the end of the Cold War.

Guam is among the key strategic U.S. military installations in the Pacific theater; a base that is pivotal to the Air Sea Battle Concept strategy designed to counter China's military power in a region characterized by territorial disputes.

The Aviationist » Bomber incident: two Nuclear-armed Russian Tu-95s reportedly skirt U.S. military base at Guam

 

[sayareakd]

how do they know that they were armed with nukes ?

 

[SajeevJino]

how do they know that they were armed with nukes ?

I think they guessing Kh-55 Cruise missile armed with Nuke warhead or Explosives ..Not confirm but they Confirmed Tu95 had Six Kh-55 Cruise Missiles on board

 

[sayareakd]

found pics while searching google, this one has 8 missiles.

 

[asianobserve]

Looks menacing to me... Those cruise missiles no doubt give the Bears excellent stand-off capabilities. This capability though makes you wonder why they have to fly too near a US military base...

 

[SajeevJino]

@sayareakd Sir..Is that having 2000+ km Range and It's on Air Launched Platform Checked Some sources that Iran had several Kh 55 but which Fighter/Bomber is used to carry these Missile.. is Su 24 of IRIAF capable to carry these missiles

 

[sayareakd]

.Well this type of missiles are not sold to any country for love of money. Many weapons system sold by soviets end up in USA, plus this is their nuke carying missile.

 

[spikey360]

how do they know that they were armed with nukes ?

Well, they usually are. You see, when you send a long range bomber on routine strategic flight, they are always armed with nuclear weapons. The philosophy behind this is same as that of arming submarines with nuclear bombs. If a nuclear attack was to happen on the motherland while it was airborne, the strategic bombers would just be given the target and they would launch.
It is highly unlikely that Bears were flying with no nukes.

 

[sesha_maruthi27]

Is this a normal routine sortie or a warning which is indicating something unexpected is going to happen.........

 

[Austin]

The Bear and Blackjack patrol are routine training mission of Long Range Aviation.

They DO NOT carry any nuclear weapons on board while on these training missile but conventional long range curise missile are possible.

Their Flying Routes are shared in advance with countries that these aircraft passes through but outside national airspace in neutral airspaces but they are declared in advance so its no surprse to any one and is safety measure too.

 

[Austin]

found pics while searching google, this one has 8 missiles.

These are the new generation Longe Range Cruise Missile Kh-101 , it has a range of 5,500 km and carries a conventional warhead of 400 Kg and has the lowest RCS.

The Red Color indicates it does not carry realy warhead and could be a training/dummy round

 

[spikey360]

The Bear and Blackjack patrol are routine training mission of Long Range Aviation.

They DO NOT carry any nuclear weapons on board while on these training missile but conventional long range curise missile are possible.

Not carrying a nuclear bomb during routine strategic flight is not a SOP. Maybe you have access to some classified docs fro Russian Air Force which points to the contrary, enlighten us.

Their Flying Routes are shared in advance with countries that these aircraft passes through but outside national airspace in neutral airspaces but they are declared in advance so its no surprse to any one and is safety measure too.

So why was the Guam base surprised?

 

[Ray]

Guam has become an important cog in the US Pacific command. The us is developing it to be a global hub for intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, strike, and aerial refueling at Andersen Air Force Base.

Guam would be central to any conflict in the Pacific Rim and even in Asia.

In a 2009 paper of the Naval War College in Rhode Island, Guam would be to counter balance any threat to US hegemony in the Pacific.

The only flaw is Guam's single harbour which provides a hostile submarine force with a tradition of unconventional tactics an opportunity to transform Apra Harbor into a critical vulnerability and may bottle up forces in such a base.

The Russia bombers may be on a recce msn to check the status of this global hub of the US.

It is believed that the latest ships and many new hi tech equipment has been installed in Guam.

 

[Ray]

This is a very interesting view on the Importance of Guam in the US scheme of things in the Asia Pacific Region

GUAM USA: AMERICA'S FORWARD FORTRESS IN ASIA PACIFIC

http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA404522

 

[SPIEZ]

Well, they usually are. You see, when you send a long range bomber on routine strategic flight, they are always armed with nuclear weapons. The philosophy behind this is same as that of arming submarines with nuclear bombs. If a nuclear attack was to happen on the motherland while it was airborne, the strategic bombers would just be given the target and they would launch.
It is highly unlikely that Bears were flying with no nukes.

I would belive in the contrary.

The Tu-95 is a propeller plane, what if it falls on bad weather? What if there is an engine failure? Also having a large size, the plane can easily be spotted by radar. And what if some trigger happy commander decides to shoot down the aircraft?

Nuclear submarines are totally different.
1) They are powered by nuclear energy
2) Since they are powered by nuclear energy they can stay under for long periods of time.
3) Detection of nuclear submarines are not very easy.
4) And finally they are NOT meant to be detected.

 

[pmaitra]

Conspiracy Theory: US military-industrial complex needs more military orders and research funding. They pay the Russians to send their "bears" crawling around Guam. The US government is alarmed, an there is a possibility of loosening the purse strings.

 

[Ray]

I am not too sure that a submarine underwater can undertake missions for gathering intelligence of land based assets of the adversary.

 

[spikey360]

I would belive in the contrary.

The Tu-95 is a propeller plane, what if it falls on bad weather? What if there is an engine failure? Also having a large size, the plane can easily be spotted by radar. And what if some trigger happy commander decides to shoot down the aircraft?

Nuclear submarines are totally different.
1) They are powered by nuclear energy
2) Since they are powered by nuclear energy they can stay under for long periods of time.
3) Detection of nuclear submarines are not very easy.
4) And finally they are NOT meant to be detected.

I assure you, it is not as simplistic as you make it out to be. Strategic bombers are not meant for stealth, they are meant for flying straight into the enemy heartland, destroy military bases, installations, factories and whole cities. Strategic bombers can fly non-stop for almost a day. The Stratofortress and B2s of USAF take off from CONUS(CONtinental US), bomb targets in Afghanistan and come back, this was during OEF(Operation Enduring Freedom). Drones have been used only recently and that too for surgical strikes. For MO(Massive Ordinance) you will need strategic bombers, and you certainly can't carry those on Aircraft Carriers.

Now, as for your questions of it falling in bad weather or it having an engine failure. Well, these planes are maintained in an hour-to-hour basis. Military aircrafts have auxiliaries and fail-safes. Once again, this is too simplistic a concern to not put nuclear warheads on a SB. The gains far outweigh the risks which are minimised by regular maintenance.
Next, large size and easy detectability. Both are true. Once again, these SBs are not meant for stealth and they fly at supersonic speeds. Unless you have advance info on which path the SB is going to fly by, it hard to scramble jets fast enough for you to actually shoot it down. By the time you realise that your airspace has been invaded by an SB, it will have already launched its primary weapon and flown away.
Now, long periods of time. Strategic bombers can fly intercontinental and fly non-stop for 17-20 hours. If you think that is a short time or short distance, you are clearly mistaken.

Finally, you may not take my word for it. But I believe you can trust wikipedia a bit more.

During the Cold War, the United States and United Kingdom on one side and the Soviet Union on the other kept strategic bombers ready to take off on short notice as part of the deterrent strategy of Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD). Most strategic bombers of the two superpowers were designed to deliver nuclear weapons. For a time, some squadrons of Boeing B-52 Stratofortress bombers were kept in the air around the clock, orbiting some distance away from their fail-safe points near the Soviet border.

During the Cold War, strategic bombers were primarily armed with nuclear weapons. However, since the end of the Cold War, bombers originally intended for strategic use have been exclusively employed using non-nuclear, high explosive weapons. During Operation Desert Storm, the military action in Afghanistan, and the Invasion of Iraq in 2003, American B-52s and B-1s were employed in mostly tactical roles. During the Soviet-Afghan war in 1979–88, Soviet Air Force Tu-95 carried out several mass air raids in various regions of that country.

I hope your doubts have been allayed.

This was just a trailer from the Russian side. The Bears are noisy bombers. In fact, you could hear a Bear approaching from miles out. If the Russians had really intended to threaten the US, they would have used Blackjack instead. It is more stealthy, faster and has the largest load capacity for any SB ever created till date.

NB: If you are interested in movies, you must watch Failsafe. It involves nuclear weapons aboard Strategic bombers. Also, you could watch Dr. Strangelove.

 

[W.G.Ewald]

I am not too sure that a submarine underwater can undertake missions for gathering intelligence of land based assets of the adversary.

Intelligence Collection Submarines

Are there dedicated submarine platforms for intelligence collection or is this task assigned to the more universal SSNs and SSKs? I assume it is the latter.

 

[Austin]

Not carrying a nuclear bomb during routine strategic flight is not a SOP. Maybe you have access to some classified docs fro Russian Air Force which points to the contrary, enlighten us.

It was stated by Russian High Command many times that these patrols dont carry any nuclear weapons , its a training mission to give the Long Range aviation pilots realistic training as possible. They fly in neutral airspace and for most part their flights are declared well in advance.

So why was the Guam base surprised?

Dont take Bill Gertz article seriously.