Putin prepares for flight on strategic bomber

"""CHKALOVSKY (Moscow Region), August 16 (RIA Novosti) - Russian President Vladimir Putin was given a medical checkup and preflight instructions before boarding a Tu-160 (Blackjack) strategic bomber at the Chkalovsky airfield, outside Moscow, on Tuesday.

Lieutenant General Igor Khvorov, the commander of the 37th Air Force army, said Putin would be accompanying the jet's pilot on a mission planned as part of an exercise to practice long-range bombing operations against northwestern targets. A squadron of three Tu-160s is taking part.

Khvorov said the bomber would head for the city of Vorkuta, beyond the Arctic Circle, and would break the sound barrier when it had moved away from population centers. He said breaking the sound barrier would be the mission's most crucial phase and that the pilot would tell Putin about it in detail.

At some point during the operation, the bomber will descend to an ultra-low altitude of 200 meters (about 650 feet) and be flying at a speed of 900 kilometers per hour. It will also be refueled in mid-air. One of the other bombers will launch a cruise missile, whose flight will be observable from Putin's jet.""

thats a good move by putin ...crossing the sound barrier...a "democratic " way to avoid criticism

Hmmm...... Must be a publicity stunt, sort of like Bush taking a flight on an aircraft carrier. Of course I'd much rather fly on a Blackjack than a USN aircraft other than an F-14.

Lets all hope this does not turn out like the submarine launched missile testing he attended last year. He was quite pissed at the failure.

Anyhow, this will indicate confidence on his part in a variety of ways, at home and internationally.

Putin has his ways, but he has balls, also.
You either like him or you don't.
I would hate to play a game of chess against him....




seekerof

[edit on 16-8-2005 by Seekerof]

Originally posted by Seekerof
Lets all hope this does not turn out like the submarine launched missile testing he attended last year. He was quite pissed at the failure.

Anyhow, this will indicate confidence on his part in a variety of ways, at home and internationally.

seekerof

[edit on 16-8-2005 by Seekerof]

Hey.. I missed that SLBM failure bit.. could give me a good read on it?

Didn't like 2 Blackjacks crash last year... If I were Putin, I would have flown in another aircraft.

Originally posted by Daedalus3
Hey.. I missed that SLBM failure bit.. could give me a good read on it?

Three Russian SLBMs didn't work right during a big war game. The Russian denied it at first, like they always do, then finally admitted it. They used the excuse that they were aging and were destined to fail once in awhile.

Two failed to launch, and the one that did went off course.


[edit on 17-8-2005 by NWguy83]

And the Blackjacks??
When did that happen??..

When Putin boards the Tu-160, does it become Russian Air Force One?

Yeah, fly a nice cool Antanov which is equipped to carry bombs

Seekerof
""Lets all hope this does not turn out like the submarine launched missile testing he attended last year. He was quite pissed at the failure. """"


NW Guy ""Three Russian SLBMs didn't work right during a big war game. The Russian denied it at first, like they always do, then finally admitted it. They used the excuse that they were aging and were destined to fail once in awhile. ""

As far as I knew that the socalled failure of the SLBMs was very popular with the US/western media (as it always has been when it comes to Russia) but there was no evidance of this claim(as it has always been) .....well I may be wrong ...nwguy/seekerof can u please provide me a creditable link that says that the Russian Govt admitted the socalled "failure"......



[edit on 17-8-2005 by prelude]

Originally posted by NWguy83
Didn't like 2 Blackjacks crash last year... If I were Putin, I would have flown in another aircraft.

which aircraft would u prefer ...i m sure u wont go for the raptor ......i has similar crash records .......

Originally posted by prelude

Originally posted by NWguy83
Didn't like 2 Blackjacks crash last year... If I were Putin, I would have flown in another aircraft.

which aircraft would u prefer ...i m sure u wont go for the raptor ......i has similar crash records .......

I think there has only been a total of 2 maybe 3 Raptor crashes.

I just got off the "Blair Force One" thread and it made me think, why not use a Blackjack as Putin's personal plane? After all those things are amazing aircraft. I figure if they could deliever the kind of ordance to the places they had in mind, it would be a perfect transport for a few guys with a few changes. And just think, he'd be able to bomb the enemies of Russia himself.

Originally posted by prelude
Seekerof
""Lets all hope this does not turn out like the submarine launched missile testing he attended last year. He was quite pissed at the failure. """"


NW Guy ""Three Russian SLBMs didn't work right during a big war game. The Russian denied it at first, like they always do, then finally admitted it. They used the excuse that they were aging and were destined to fail once in awhile. ""

As far as I knew that the socalled failure of the SLBMs was very popular with the US/western media (as it always has been when it comes to Russia) but there was no evidance of this claim(as it has always been) .....well I may be wrong ...nwguy/seekerof can u please provide me a creditable link that says that the Russian Govt admitted the socalled "failure"......
[edit on 17-8-2005 by prelude]

It took me all but 3 seconds to find an article about this..

www.nti.org...

Try actually.. searching..

Thanks QuietSoul.

Found a couple pictures of Putin and the horse he arrived on.

His horse:


Putin looking like a Bush minime after arriving:


From here:
MAKS-2005 - Zhukovsky, Russia





seekerof

Originally posted by Mudja
When Putin boards the Tu-160, does it become Russian Air Force One?

Yeah, fly a nice cool Antanov which is equipped to carry bombs

What???

You don't think that the Tu-160 is from Antonov, do you. I hope I got you wrong because it's from Tupolev. Thats another airplane maker and that is why it Starts with Tu like the first letters of Tupolev

Su-XXX Sukhoi
Tu-XXX Tupolev
An-XXX Antonov
MiG-XXX Mikoian and Gureevich
Jak-XXX Jakovlev
Be- XXX Beriliev
etc.

Isn't it YAK-Yakelov..?

Nice pics seekeroff

Is it just me, or does Putin's red flight helmut like sort of like a bicycle helmut... If you've seen the picture you'll know what I'm talking about.

Originally posted by Daedalus3
Isn't it YAK-Yakelov..?

Nuote]

Yeah what ever
It depends on where you're from