Norad Admits F-22 Fighter Jets Intercepted 4 Russian Bombers 50 Miles Off California Coast

Norad Admits F-22 Fighter Jets Intercepted 4 Russian Bombers 50 Miles Off California Coast (ZeroHedge, June 12, 2014):

At the height of the Cold War I do not remember them getting this close,” notes a retired Air Force Lt. Gen. as The Washington Free Beacon reports that four Russian strategic bombers triggered U.S. air defense systems while conducting practice bombing runs near Alaska this week, with two of the Tu-95 Bear H aircraft coming within 50 miles of the California coast, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (Norad) confirmed Wednesday. Two U.S. Air Force F-22 jets were scrambled and intercepted the bombers over the Aleutians but the remaining two nuclear-capable bombers then flew southeast and entered the U.S. northern air defense zone off the coast of Northern California, before 2 more F-15s were scrambled. As House Armed Services Committee member Connaway ranted, “truth of the matter is we would have squashed either one of those [bombers] like baby seals.”

As The Washington Free Beacon explains,Four Russian strategic bombers triggered U.S. air defense systems while conducting practice bombing runs near Alaska this week, with two of the Tu-95 Bear H aircraft coming within 50 miles of the California coast, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (Norad) confirmed Wednesday.

Davis said the latest Bear H incursions began Monday around 4:30 p.m. Pacific time when radar detected the four turbo-prop powered bombers approaching the U.S. air defense zone near the far western Aleutian Islands.

Two U.S. Air Force F-22 jets were scrambled and intercepted the bombers over the Aleutians.

After tracking the bombers as they flew eastward, two of the four Bears turned around and headed west toward the Russian Far East. The bombers are believed to be based at the Russian strategic base near Anadyr, Russia.

The remaining two nuclear-capable bombers then flew southeast and around 9:30 P.M. entered the U.S. northern air defense zone off the coast of Northern California.

Two U.S. F-15 jets were deployed and intercepted the bombers as they eventually flew within 50 miles of the coast before turning around and heading west.

A defense official said the four bombers also were supported by two IL-78 aerial refueling tankers that were used for mid-air refueling during the operation this week.

The bomber incursion is the latest Russian nuclear saber-rattling amid stepped up tensions over Moscow’s military annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea.

Rep. Mike Conaway (R., Texas), a member of the House Armed Services Committee, called the Russian flights “intentional provocations.”

“Putin is doing this specifically to try to taunt the U.S. and exercise, at least in the reported world, some sort of saber-rattling, muscle-flexing kind of nonsense,” Conaway said in an interview. “Truth of the matter is we would have squashed either one of those [bombers] like baby seals.”

“It’s a provocation and it’s unnecessary. But it fits in with [Putin’s] macho kind of saber-rattling,” he said, adding that he expects Russia will carry out more of these kinds of incidents in the future.

Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerney, a former Alaska commander for the North American Aerospace Defense Command, said he does not remember a case of Russian strategic bombers coming that close to the U.S. coast.

“Again we see the Obama administration through their covert—but overt to Mr. Putin—unilateral disarmament, inviting adventurism by the Russians,” McInerney said in an email.

“At the height of the Cold War I do not remember them getting this close. Mr. Putin had to approve this mission and he is just showing his personal contempt for President Obama right after meeting him in Normandy less than a week ago,” McInerney said.

McInerney said no American president has been treated with such disrespect in U.S. history.

“A sad day indeed and at the same time Mosul and Tikrit [Iraq] fall to radical Islamists after the Obama administration’s failed Iraq policy,” he added. “He snatched defeat from the jaws of victory yet again.”

5 thoughts on “Norad Admits F-22 Fighter Jets Intercepted 4 Russian Bombers 50 Miles Off California Coast”

  1. This is a scam, started by US corporate serving swine who want a war with Russia. Now, the propaganda begins, “Russia came within 50 miles of CA coast” “Never has the US president been shown such contempt, even during the Cold War”…..this is US produced propaganda. Obama will do anything to work up the masses for a war with Russia……his corporate owners want it.

    I hope Americans are not fool enough to buy into these lies. If Putin wanted to hit the US, he has missiles enough to do the job. I don’t believe it, I don’t believe anything they say.

    Reply
  2. 8 million pigs dead so far. Perhaps some laws demanding they be given enough room to live and breathe might help. The way they cram them together is a crime in itself. Millions of cattle have died of similar diseases, and I bet it is the greedy gut way of forcing them to exist so close together, they cannot turn around. Chickens and turkeys are also dying at record rates for the same reasons.
    The criminals in power are the cause of the coming starvation that most Americans will experience, and I hope they find a special hell to suffer in when they die.
    These poor animals! Goddamn the bastards who treat them in such a shabby manner.

    http://www.cnbc.com/id/101738949

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  3. Right now, I am scanning US propaganda media, and they are all focused on one subject…..how great the economy is doing. Nothing else (except that Kevin McCarthy will probably lead the GOP in Cantor’s place) all stations are insisting the economy is doing great despite the growing despair of millions who are still losing their homes, jobs, savings………you name it. Never have I seen such hopelessness. Death seems the only solution to thousands, yet nothing is done.
    No jobs bills, no infrastructure funding to create jobs. Here, in the bay area, when we needed a new Bay Bridge, it was built in China and assembled here. It could have created an entire economy here in CA, but instead the work went overseas using our tax money. Now, the bridge is already having problems……surprised anyone?
    There are no decent jobs, people with BA degrees search for months, sometimes years for jobs paying $12.00 an hour…….how can anyone live on that?
    All hope and character has been destroyed. I had an idea of setting up a boarding house on the model of the 1930s…..people robbed me blind……..no honor, even among so-called decent people. You cannot trust anyone. My idea, just like me, comes from a different era when people believed their behavior, seen or not would count. Our world is gone, and savages rule.
    Perhaps it is the total breakdown of the family. I am not sure. All I know is that somehow we now have criminals in power, and nobody says a word in protest.

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