Bears and Raptors

Saw this the other day. Sorry for the high-rez, it's my desktop now. This encounter happened 50 NM off California's coast last Wednesday, June 4th, 2014.

The tail gun seems so quaint.

Oh my!

AK tail code?.....must have followed it from Alaska to California.

I understand it is not war time. I understand it's easier to get from Elmendorf with tanks but it sort of defeats the purpose of the plane....unless of course the idea is to keep spending my bucks.

From CNN

Great pic!

I like your desktop

Cold War 2.0 !!

Its deja vu all over again!

Why not...Crimea was so easy, guess they want Kalifornia now.
One Bear, should do it, I heard they don't have guns there...
Was 'Homeland Security' hot on this?...lol...
50 miles off the coast?
Wonder what the administration would do if a carrier group showed up that close?
Do we sail that close to Russia?
I seriously don't know.

About the fuel....from what I've heard, the F-22 gets pretty good mileage at low speed considering, how about 'super cruise'......is it cheaper than the F-15's?

If they were worried about fuel, they could have used F-16's.
Or put OG in the air!

I do know that Alaska is only 2.5 miles away from Russia.
You could almost fire a rifle that far.....lol.

We used to get along, but this has never been done before AFAIK.

Seriously though, nice photo.....but this is, 'Odd'.

A 'bomber'?!!
Wonder what he was carrying.......illegals?

lovely picture

Maybe giving the old birds one last hurrah before they fall apart.
Speaking of fuel, two full loads per Bear is quite a splurge for
such a pointless embarrassment. Would have made more sense to just
send them over to an ancient aircraft airshow. Russia seems to be
plummeting into an oblivion of cluelessness.

I know, right? If Russia wants to show some muscle, send that stuff over for an airshow. Even with the current political situation, we'ld love to see that hardware up close for the pure love of aviation. Hell, they sent brand new highly classified MiG-29's to an England airshow in the mid '80s. Putin is a freak, but I would welcome some Russian pilots for a friendly visit.

They can have it as far as I'm concerned.

Those Bears are still pretty militarily relevant, same as the B-52, since if it were for real they'd be launching cruise missiles from far beyond the range of interception.

look like a remembering era at an air show... the bear is soooooo old gen! Like if a Su33 intercepted a B29! LOL

The primary ammunition type is chaff as far as I can tell. It is still capable of loading HE, but I don't think it has been used that way in a long time.

What, the F22 pilot didn't pass out due to oxygen deprivation? Progress!

Actually the B-52 and TU-95 are very similar in a lot of capabilities. The Tu-95 is only about 50 knots slower at max speed, has a slightly lower service ceiling, and has almost identical wing loading. The B-52 can carry a lot more conventional ordnance (double basically), but the Tu-95 is very capable of carrying a whole bunch of either ship killer cruise missiles or nuclear cruise missiles. Being within 50 miles of our shore when they were intercepted is about 200 miles too close for even the shortest range cruise missiles it can carry.

Sure it looks old fashioned as a prop job, but it will hum along at .80 mach all day long.

-Jenrick

I noticed a couple peeled off. I wonder if this guy had mechanical problems, and asked to fly close, to shorten the trip back home? Would that be feasible?

Cause I sure can't figure out the purpose in flying that close to our coastline, with a "bomber"!....that can, and does, carry a 'load' of nukes.... ....we'd have a lot of our citizens, depending on the 'sanity' of that pilot .
Cause you couldn't stop him, at that range......he could just drop a load, bye bye West Coast.

I'm betting he had clearance, and mechanical trouble.....just a guess.

He's well into international air space. It's something we and the Russians do to teach other all the time, and did all the time in the cold war.. It's basically a show of force, countered by another show of force. Just a little bit of poking and testing.

-Jenrick

No, the photo is actually from 2007 and was taken over/near Alaska.

^ this.

Pretty much the Russians saying "Hey guys we're still here and we still mean business."

....lol....Just goes to show ya, hope we don't rely on the media for our information.

'Jeez'....

More like a B-36...

Love me some B-36s!



The Jedi Master

I read an article last week about this and the military said this happens 50 times a year out there, nothing new at all. Just more saber rattling.

Least they got to do something other than Airshow Demo's....

Drop Tanks on an F-22?, Kinda defeats the Internal Stores Setup.

Right, but having stealth as an option, beats not having stealth option and needing it.

Raptor just needs the pylons removed and full stealth.

Besides...despite assumptions, I do recall some quiet tall about stealthy drop tanks...no idea if that went anywhere.

Intercepts like that used to be so common over Canada and Alaska, and I recall hearing that the UK had to do the same often enough. But it is cool to see an old Bear with a bleeding edge Raptor!