Posted on 11/17/2015 11:21:07 PM PST by Mariner
The Russian air force just pulled off one of the biggest and most complex heavy bomber missions in modern history—sending no fewer than 25 Backfire, Bear, and Blackjack bombers on a coordinated, long-range air raid against alleged ISIS forces in Syria.
The Tuesday mission, which launched under the cover of darkness from a base in Ossetia in southern Russia, signaled a significant escalation of Moscow’s air war in Syria—and heralded the rebirth of Russian heavy bomber squadrons that once had withered from a lack of funding.
Gen. Valery Gerasimov, chief of Russia’s general staff, announced the raid on Tuesday, calling it part of “a new plan [for] the air campaign.â€
(Excerpt) Read more at thedailybeast.com ...
Keep flexing that Russian muscle, Putin. Our ‘president’ will get busy eventually, and put more boots on the ground. If for no other reason than to not let Putin get all the glory of destroying ISIS. Destroying ISIS, not just possibly delaying them.
“. . . Idlib and Aleppo are not ISIS strongholds. Indeed, U.S.-backed rebels hold much of both provinces.”
Barry just got bitchslapped . . . Again.
One takeaway from that:
“Launching 25 bombers on one mission is an impressive undertaking. Russia possesses just 70 Backfires, 58 Bears, and 13 Blackjacks. The 14 Backfires, six Bears, and five Blackjacks that reportedly struck Syria represent a significant portion of the overall fleet. The massive raid is evidence of improving readiness on the part of the Russian air force, which in the 1990s and early 2000s grounded most of its aircraft because it couldn’t afford to fuel them or pay their pilots.
“By comparison, on any given day 57 of the U.S. Air Force’s 77 B-52s, 35 of its 60 B-1s, and nine of its 20 B-2 stealth bombers are even flyable, according to statistics from 2013.”
This surprised even the Pentagon.
There were 14 of them.
Surprised Obama hasn’t tried to glom credit yet.
Mach 2.1 and the biggest payload of any bomber in the world.
They are so impressive the Russians name them like ships...The Admiral Kosmonov etc.
Not a surprise to anyone who’s been paying attention to Russia (or China, or our other potential adversaries.) Unlike several people here who sniffingly dismiss any reports of Ivan being competent or his tech/doctrine getting better.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/18/world/europe/russia-plane-crash-bomb.html?_r=0
http://www.chinatopix.com/articles/7779/20140823/isis-trained-u-s-government-funded-allies.htm
Not to mention the Blackjack is actually semi-stealthy.
I don’t understand why Putin is pussy-footing around with the small potatoes, wasting time and money. I’d nuke those muzzie pirates.
That's impressive reliability and maintenance.
Semi.
It's greatest stealth feature is the ability to fly at Mach1 at 300ft.
Nothing else can do that.
We need a GoFundMe page to buy more bombs for Vlad.
“Unlike several people here who sniffingly dismiss any reports of Ivan being competent or his tech/doctrine getting better.”
I’ve been talking about the Russian-Chinese military tech projects for 10 years....
They are literally JUST NOW beginning to put that stuff onto the line.
It's unfair to put the Chinese in the same class as the Russians. They still cannot built a reliable jet engine with afterburner.
Perhaps, but the joint tech projects have just begun to be deployed in the last 18 months, such as the new command-control aircraft, the upgraded TU’s, the new mobile radars, etc.
Russian hardware, Chinese electronics...
Other reports listed far fewer bombers taking part in the raid, but both agreed that they flew from Russia, and delivered a total of 34 cruise missiles.
No big carpet bombing on Tuesday, no squealing on twitter.
34 Cruise missiles is a lot more than they are accustomed to in Raqaa, but not greatly different from the last couple of days, in terms of the number of explosions, or total net explosive weight. Cruise missiles could be quite accurate though, if they had good targeting intel, it could have been a painful blow.
I did see a photo of one of the big bombers landing, in what was supposed to be Latakia, Syria. Perhaps they were re-positioning today, and didn’t carry a big bomb load, so they could fly the long distance.
If they will be based near the Syrian coast, it is a short flight to Raqaa, and iron mountains of bombs could be off-loaded from ships and dropped on Raqaa every day. If bombs are already in Syria, the party could start in earnest as soon as tomorrow, more like a week if they need bombs and Turkey lets a ship through the Bosphorus Straits, or a couple of weeks if the have to come around through Gibraltar.
If they do want to carpet bomb and make the earth shake, these are just the heavy bombers that could do it. Potentially hundreds of tons per day. If it is just a few bombers, they could each easily carry full 20 ton loads that short distance (vs. the 500lbs that make up a typical sortie that ISIS has been seeing).
France’s aircraft carrier, the Charles DeGaulle, is now scheduled to sail from its home port of Toulon on Thursday. It is a few days sail to the Syrian coast, where its 26 jets will also be within easy range of Raqaa. Some of the jets on deck look like ground attack aircraft, which would pack a bit more wallop than the others, but nothing like the big bombers.
Although not big by American standards, it is the biggest naval ship in service in Western Europe, and carries its own iron mountain of bombs to drop. It will take France from 12 jets in the fight, up to 38, with additional support and other capabilities.
So in the next days to weeks, Raqaa could see something that ISIS has not seen before - a mass casualty exercise.
The 34 cruise missiles were from the Russian ship in the Med.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.