September 19, 2008

I have made a couple of entries since my last, and they didn't post...so here goes?

National Security-Whose?

I posted about security circles growing concern regarding the increased influence of Putin's Russia in Venezuela. Last week was the news many people I talk with were unaware of, that Russia flew two long range bombers from Russia to Venezuela, and yesterday they flew back to Russia. Russia is already supplying the regime there with weapons, and has promised to sell about 24 Sukhoi (Сухой) 35 multi-role fighters to the Chavez controlled government, which has sparked concern in Venezuela's neighbors, including Brazil. Brazil is now entertaining procurement of several Saab Gripen planes from Sweden, which are considered a very good aircraft.

According to Jane's Aircraft of the World, the Su 35 has a range of 2232 miles (1940 nautical miles), which means these planes could reach from Carcas Venezuela to Brazil's capitol city Brasilia, which means they could also reach the USA, roughly an arc from Boston to Houston.

Bombers for Venezuela?

On July 22 at at his confirmation hearing to be the next USAF chief of staff, U.S. Air Force Gen. Norton Schwartz told the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee that sending the giant Blackjacks to Cuba would be crossing "a red line in the sand."

Schwartz's tough comments to the Senate Armed Services Committee confirmed how seriously the U.S. Air Force takes the threat of a forward deployment of Tu-160s in Cuba. Schwartz knows that U.S. military planners cannot afford to bet against Blackjack. Russia appears to be hedging their position, thinking that basing these planes in Venezuela a safer bet, forcing the USAF revise any plans to counter these planes.

Four-star Russian Gen. Pyotr Deinekin, former head of the Russian air force, told the RIA Novosti news agency in July that allowing the Blackjacks to operate from bases in Venezuela would allow the aircraft to operate on an almost 24/7 basis within very close distance of the United States itself.

The U.S. Air Force and NATO took the Tu-160 bombers very seriously and sent combat aircraft to shadow them closely in their flight across the Atlantic Ocean.

For the two Tu-160s are historic and strategic game-changers. They can carry 99,000 pounds of munitions, including Mach-2, nuclear-capable X-555 cruise missiles capable of annihilating targets 2,000 miles inland in the continental United States when fired from outside U.S. air space.

Arguably, their deployment could prove as epochal as the Soviet deployment of deadly nuclear missiles in Cuba within 90 miles of the U.S. mainland that set off the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.