Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Brrrrrrrr.....is it end of summer or a new cold war

Ahh the Russians are coming the Russians are coming,..........it seems the Putin lead regime of Russians still wants to subtly contest Canada's sovereingty over the True North Strong & Free.............according to this GAzette story ,the Russians not being able to wrestle their own 'states' back into the fold ,want to flex their relatively flabby muscles against Canada's claim to the North ( you know where the North West Territories are....lol) 
    Instead of just scrambling jets to intercept the 'wayward Russian bombers' they should have shot them down,......and you know what would happen....Nothing ,the Russians would launch formal complaints and make a lot of noise,but otherthan that ,they would be put in their place,& a message would be sent to the international community that they now know where the border is,.....................besides you can bet that big brother south of the border is watching too...  besides there are far more threats & nutbars on the planet than the Russians,......      

Two CF-18 fighter planes shadowed the Russian TU-95 bombers within 55 kilometres of Canadian soil after they were discovered approximately 220 kilometres north of Inuvik, Northwest Territories, said Harper's spokesman Dimitri Soudas in a statement.                                                            CHURCHILL, Man. — As Prime Minister Stephen Harper prepared to depart on the next leg of his week-long trip to the North, the government revealed that Canadian fighter jets were launched on Tuesday after two Russian bombers approached Canadian airspace.

Similar to an incident at the end of July, two CF-18 fighter planes shadowed the Russian TU-95 bombers within 55 kilometres of Canadian soil after they were first discovered approximately 220 kilometres north of Inuvik, N. W. T, said Harper's spokesman Dimitri Soudas in a statement.

Once the "Bear bombers" turned around, the Canadian jets, scrambled from 4 Wing Cold Lake, Alta., returned safely back to base.

Annually, U.S. and Canadian militaries monitor 12 to 18 of the Russian flights, but the Department of National Defence does not regularly release information on them.

In Wednesday morning's statement, Soudas said that the government "has ensured our Forces have the tools, the readiness and the personnel to continue to meet any challenges to Canadian sovereignty with a robust response."

He added that the CF-18 allows the military to "meet Russian challenges in our North," and that when the new F-35 replacement jets go into service, they will continue with a similar mission.

Soudas said the technologically advanced F-35 is the best plane the government could provide for the military and "when you are a pilot staring down Russian long-range bombers, that's an important fact to remember."

After the incident in July, the opposition claimed the government was using the routine Russian flyby to bolster support for the Harper government's plan to spend $16 billion on new stealth fighter jets.

Opposition Leader Michael Ignatieff told journalists at the time that the incident doesn't prove the case for buying new fighters.

"We're in the middle of a $54-billion deficit and we're just about to do $6 billion in corporate tax cuts," Ignatieff said. "So they're buying their joint strike fighter, or they want to buy it, on borrowed money. And we think that's crazy."

The House of Commons defence committee meets Wednesday at the request of opposition MPs to debate whether to hold hearings to study the government proposal to buy 65 F-35 fighter jets

1 comment:

Les F said...

worry about the Russians ....only if they insist on sending the junk automobiles they make over there,& clogging up all our resources & mechanics from maintaining our cars......lol
Slow News Day Folks............................................................Cheers !! HF&RV