Russian bombers flew undetected across Arctic - AF commander

[AGENDA21]

MOSCOW, April 22 (RIA Novosti) - Russian military planes flew undetected through the U.S. zone of the Arctic Ocean to Canada during recent military exercises, a senior Air Force commander said Saturday.

The commander of the country's long-range strategic bombers, Lieutenant General Igor Khvorov, said the U.S. Air Force is now investigating why its military was unable to detect the Russian bombers.

"They were unable to detect the planes either with radars or visually," he said.

Khorov said that during the military exercises in April, Tu-160 Blackjack bombers and Tu-95 Bears had successfully carried out four missile launches. Bombing exercises were held using Tu-22 Blinders.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/news/russia/2006/russia-060422-rianovosti01.htm

[acmavm]

1. Well, when you're spending the entire military budget on a 'war' that

can't be won, some things just have to be ignored. Apparently like our radar systems. Can't be dumping money into them and making sure they're up to current standards when we need to be paying Halliburton for sewage water for our service people to drink.

[Delphinus]

2. Hmm ... this may actually be a good thing.

Now the boy king is going to have to *think* twice before invading Iran, 'cause Russia could come over here and do a little damage of their own.

[DoYouEverWonder]

3. Why would that stop him?

Especially since his main goal in life is to start WWIII.

[NNN0LHI]

4. Nothing good about this. This is the kind of thing that can cause accidents

Suppose they had awoke a half drunk chimp and told him there was a chance we were being attacked.

Would the nut have launched an all out nuclear response without checking further?

What do you think the Russians would have done if he had?

Don

[acmejack]

5. Since we have a $Billion Radar chain up there to prevent this type of deal

The AN/FPS117 Radar System is a 3-D (azimuth-range-height) phased array antenna radar. The system is a low power, long range (200-250 nautical miles), L-band pencil beam, solid-state transmitter and deacon interrogator search radar. System design includes a redundant architecture with computer software remote controlled and monitored operations to minimize manning requirements.

The AN/FPS-117 and AN/FPS-124 form an array of radars stretching across North America from Alaska via Canada to Greenland. This North Warning System is designed to provide long-range detection and coverage for drug interdiction support and tactical command and control. Implementation of the North Warning System has resulted in a reduction in Operations and Maintenance (O&M) spending by up to 50% compared to previous systems. Due to extreme northern locations of these radars, the physics of radiowave propagation in the 1215-1400 MHz frequency range is even more critical for target detection requirements. The Air Force and the FAA also operate a limited number of AN/FPS-117 radars within the continental United States. The AN/FPS-117 radar is capable of randomly hopping among 18 channels in the 1215-1400 MHz ba

http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/usa/airdef/an-fps-117.htm

[RC]

10. Here's the problem...

"This North Warning System is designed to provide long-range detection and coverage for drug interdiction support..."

The Russians made sure there were no drugs on the planes so our government didn't care where they were or were going.

[RaleighNCDUer]

12. Great techi stuff there, but what's your point?

You say "Since we have...to prevent this type of deal" but you don't complete the sentence - just go into the tech.

Are you saying "Since we have..." "...this can't be true"?

Or, "Since we have..." "this should not have happened"?

Or what?

[acmejack]

14. The point being all that tech stuff is meant to ensure that doesn't happen

Our tax dollars at work! I thought taxpayers would get excited after seeing our vaunted multi billion dollar air force fall flat on it's ass doing the very thing that it WAS built to do! I guess that's just me.

btw, There was a lot of money made off of that particular program. There are a bunch of real expensive radars just like those protecting the borders of Saudi Arabia. GE, they bring good things to life...

[RaleighNCDUer]

16. I had similar thoughts about 9/11, when the official story was

"we couldn't find the hijacked planes or tell where they were headed because they'd turned their transponders off."

Whaaa???

With all the radars across the country, at every airport and military airfield, they couldn't find the hijacked planes because they weren't sending out a signal?

I say again, Whaaaa????

[trof]

6. Guess our air defense is at the same high alert level as 9/11.

:eyes:

[AGENDA21]

7. I agree with what youre trying to say

but the Russians knew exactly what they were doing...and did it anyway.

[madrchsod]

8. a russian jet flew a hundred or so feet over the flight deck

of an american carrier patrolling in the seas off of china. the russian pilot emailed the picture back to the ship. the official excuse was the navy intelligence did`t think the russians were flying at this time of day. this was a long article in "proceedings magazine" within the last 18 months. the article pointed out they needed upgrades to the system to catch just such a problem. ever wonder why the military is allowing and encouraging people to speak out against bush? the war has cost our military it`s future. there`s is no money to update naval intelligence capacity to find both the russian and now the chinese navy and their aircraft.

[DELUSIONAL]

9. The Russian and US military do this all the time

old habits from the cold war days die hard.

The only change is that this little game has made the light of day and onto the Internet.

All during the Cold War the US played cat and mouse with Russia, China and North Korea.

I suspect that this might be a warning to the nut case in the white house. The subtle hints didn't work.

[applegrove]

11. Maybe he didn't get pick up on radar because of all the commercial

jumbos who now fly over the arctic? Are they not followed by radar?

[Lasher]

13. Hey, I thought Dubya's Maginot Line in the sky was supposed to protect us!

The Chimp in Chief has been spending $10 billion a year on his missile defense pet project, and a total of at least $100 billion has been flushed down that toilet so far. Why didn't Star Wars II automatically blow the Russians out of the sky? :nuke:

[BlooInBloo]

15. Greeeaaat. Here comes the SDI bullshit all over again...

[hunter]

17. The system worked perfectly.

The U.S. Military-Industrial complex got our money.