The Blog

Another Bear Intercept

1:22 PM, Feb 13, 2008 • By JOHN NOONAN
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4_61_NIMITZ_Bear.jpgAn F-18 escorts a Russian bomber near the Nimitz.

It's almost becoming routine again, isn't it?

U.S. fighter planes intercepted two Russian bombers flying unusually close to an American aircraft carrier in the western Pacific during the weekend, The Associated Press has learned.

A U.S. military official says that one Russian Tupolev 95 buzzed the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz twice, at a low altitude of about 2,000 feet, while another bomber circled about 50 nautical miles out. The official was speaking on condition of anonymity because the reports on the flights were classified as secret.

The bombers were intercepted by a flight of four F-18 Hornets a few hundred miles from the Nimitz. Fun fact though, we used to intercept the same ancient Bear bombers with some of our first generation jet fighters, just to give you an idea of how long the United States and Russia have been playing this game. Though these incidents do make it somewhat easier to understand why the Air Force is clamoring so loudly for more F-22 Raptors: Russia currently flies 232 bombers, most of them supersonic Backfires. That's enough to give even the most strident Raptor critics pause.

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