Russia to send warships, planes to Venezuela

[Dr Strangelove]

Originally posted by Zkribbler


I was watching "The Missiles of October" just a couple of nights ago. That was one MF scary time. We came so close to blowing the world up.

Watched it? Heck, I lived it. You'd be amazed how many air-raid drills a school can schedule in a week.

[onodera]

Originally posted by Zkribbler
After further consideration: We should send in three jets, not four. One drops red flares. One drops white flares. One drops blue flares. No one on any of the ships could have any doubt where the flares came from.

Welcome to the Western Hemisphere, Russians.

Take a look at the flag next to my username. Familiar colours, aren't they?

[Ecthy]

Lasst die Finger von Ve-ne-zueeela...

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Lonestar

Now? We've gotten better(going so far as to rent a Swedish sub and train against it), they haven't, and they don't put to sea nearly as often as we do.

I actually saw that Swedish diesel electric sub in dry dock in San Diego about 1.5 years ago.

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by Dr Strangelove


Watched it? Heck, I lived it. You'd be amazed how many air-raid drills a school can schedule in a week.

Theses days they would just tell the kids to stick their heads between their legs and kiss their asses good bye. It's a lot less tramatizing.

[Patroklos]

Not that I'm a military expert of anything, but what missles do they have on carriers and subs that they don't have on every surface ship in the USN.

Missile wise sometimes Penguins/Mavericks/Hellfires for carriers, but aside from the Penguin that really doesn't matter. Carriers of course carry all mannor of precision bombs that could be used. Subs sometimes carry tactical tomahawks and harpoons in bow tubs, but DDGs and CGs carry those as well.

In reality the best weapon in the US inventory would be a harpoon. Good range and good payload. While the Kirov isn't armored to any relevant degree, it is big and will be able to absorb a good bit of damage.

Unfortunetly for us, the newest version of the Alreigh Burkes do not carry Harpoons, leaving them without a single truly offensive weapon. You can use SM2s for surface attack, but their range and flight profiles are limited. Hell, even the older DDGs do not get their full loadout these days, my last deployment we only had four of our standard loadout eight Harpoons.

Submarine are able to launch undetected attacks.

Non wake homing torpedoes are loud.

A 24-plane strike package can launch many more missiles in much less time than the escorting destroyers in a carrier's battlegroup.

That depends.

Also, and just as importantly, the USN really doesn't focus on surface combatants - it focuses on carriers, submarine, and anti-aircraft escort ships. Our Ticonderoga class cruisers - the only cruiser hull currently active in the USN - are basically anti-aircraft ships and nothing more. Some of our destroyers do have anti-ship capability, but we don't have anything on the level of a Kirov.

This is not true. While it is true the CGs have as the PRIMARY mission air defense, in reality they have a more robust surface warfare capability than a DDG due to their two 5" guns and larger VLS capacity. Both classes carry the same Harpoon rollout (Flight I & II DDGs)

SM-2ERs

Come now, take your stewardship of the taxpayers dollars seriously! We are not going to be using ERs for anti missile defense unless the MRs run out.

I've heard that during the Cold War the Soviets had a sub within range of every deployed carrier, ready to take it out, and that our ASW wasn't as good as we made it out to be, especially against some of the more advanced Soviet boats. True?

No.

1.) Battle Groups, even the watered down ones of today, always have one or two of our own subs with them, which are the best anti-submarine defense anyway.

2.) The primary Soviet submarine threat to our carriers were not the direct homing torpedoes or missiles, but wake homing torpedoes. These are much more quiet than other types and if the Soviet sub was to close we would hear them launch them, defeating the purpose.

3.) Wasn't Walker involved with SSBN locations, not carriers?

[Sandman]

Just blow up the Kirovs with one of those laser cannon jumbo jets. Easy.

[Lonestar]

Originally posted by Patroklos

Come now, take your stewardship of the taxpayers dollars seriously! We are not going to be using ERs for anti missile defense unless the MRs run out.

Bite me, it's been a good 4 years since I got my ESWS

3.) Wasn't Walker involved with SSBN locations, not carriers?

Only in terms of the USSR being able to read anything the USN sent out. Reading USN messages meant the USSR found out just how LOUD their subs were, which meant they made more of an effort to quiet them.

[Kidlicious]

Sharks with freakin lazers

[Dr Strangelove]

Originally posted by onodera

Take a look at the flag next to my username. Familiar colours, aren't they?

It's a different shade of blue.

[Lancer]

Really? It's the same shade in my box of crayons.

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by Sandman
Just blow up the Kirovs with one of those laser cannon jumbo jets. Easy.

Unless someone on board has a mirror.

[Serb]

Two Russian bombers land in Venezuela

(CNN) -- Two Russian bombers have landed at a Venezuelan airfield, from which they will carry out training flights for several days, the Russian Defense Ministry said Wednesday.

The Tupolev Tu-160 strategic bombers landed at Venezuela's Libertador military airfield and "will spend several days carrying out training flights over neutral waters, after which they will return to the base," Interfax reported, citing the Russian Defense Ministry.

Col. Alexander Drobyshevsky, a ministry spokesman, told Interfax that NATO fighters followed the bombers on their 13-hour flight over the Arctic Ocean and the Atlantic.

"All flights by air force aircraft have been and are marked by strict conformity to the international rules on the use of air space over neutral waters," Drobyshevsky told Interfax.

The U.S. will monitor the Russian training, said Pentagon officials who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak on the information.

On Monday, Russia announced it might hold joint naval maneuvers with Venezuela in the Caribbean. The declaration came in the wake of increased tension between Russia and the United States over Russia's invasion last month of the former Soviet republic of Georgia, a U.S. ally that aspires to join NATO.

Russia on Monday denied any link between that announcement and the conflict in Georgia, although Russia has criticized U.S. support for Georgia, and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has long antagonized Washington.

Earlier this month, Chavez said Venezuela would welcome the Russian air force, according to Russian news agency Novosti.

"If Russian long-range bombers should need to land in Venezuela, we would not object to that either. We will also welcome them," Chavez said on September 1, according to Novosti.

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/09/10/russia.venezuela/index.html?iref=topnews

[Lancer]

Ha! Serb is back. I knew he couldn't resist one of these threads.

Welcome back again Serb! Russians may be alot of things, but they are not quitters.

Oh, regarding the 2 bombers that landed in Venezuela, any news about how many actually took off from Russia?

[David Floyd]

So, Serb - what is your perspective on the Kirovs? Do you feel that they are up to par in terms of training, maintenance, and personnel quality? Do you think they have the ability to take out a US carrier?