cuba aircraft

Cuba Aircraft - Key point:  Russia wants to be able to spy on the United States and gain an advantage in case of war.

On December 10, 2018, two Russian Tu-160 supersonic bombers came in with large condor-like pods to land at the Simón Bolívar International Airport in Caracas, Venezuela. Over the next few days, the large, nose-mounted bombers made two ten-hour patrols over the Caribbean, occasionally accompanied by Venezuelan F-16s and Su-30MK2 multi-role fighter jets, before flying back to Russia on the day 14 December of Moscow and Caracas talked about opening a permanent base on the island of La Orchila by destroying existing facilities.

Cuba Aircraft

As Michael Peck explains in this article, the cost to the parties involved and the increased political risks involved in such a move are far from certain. In fact, provocation itself may be more valuable than building such a bomb base.

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Both Russia and the United States have regularly deployed fighter jets and spy planes to patrol each other's airspace, for political and military reasons. For example, in 2008 and 2013, Blackjack bombers visited Caracas before, the latter time moving Moscow's opposition by opposing the Russo-Georgian war. In 2008-2009, the Russian military also raised the noise of nuclear bomb bases in Cuba or Venezuela.

However, the presence of Russian mines in the Caribbean has a history of almost 50 years, as detailed in this article by Ruben Urribarres and later explained in Miguel Vargas-Caba's blog.

While building up the Soviet military base that caused the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, Moscow struggled to find a way to quickly move senior officials to the island nation. The long-range Tu-114, the civilian version of the Tu-95 "Bear" strategic bomber, was to be grounded in Africa, but Washington forced the governments of Guinea, Senegal and Algeria to deny access to the Tu- 114s. small plane.

So Soviet engineers modified three major Tu-114D aircraft to replace 60 percent of the seats with fifteen fuel tanks, enough for the eighteen-hour Moscow-Havana connection with a stop in Murmansk. Transatlantic flights are difficult to pass: the winds from the Jetstream can reach speeds of almost 200 miles per hour, adding several hours of flight time and gas consumption.

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Although Moscow agreed to withdraw nuclear forces from Cuba, the island was an important Soviet ally at the door of the world's main enemy. Between May 18 and 21, 1970, three pairs of Tu-95 of the 392nd.

The long-haul aircraft flew from the arctic Kola Peninsula to San Antonio Airport near Havana. They were accompanied by a Soviet naval force sent to the Caribbean to retaliate against the increased US naval bases.

For the next eleven years, Tu-95RTs or (Bear-D) flew thirty to forty patrols a year from Cuba along the eastern seaboard, shadowing the movements of American vehicles. During this time, one Bear disappeared without a trace during takeoff and another had a non-fatal landing accident.

The Tu-95RT is a "revision target" version of the iconic Bear bomber, a long-range, four-engine beast that can be propelled to 575 mph by four noisy turboprops, each spinning faster than the speed of sound with two propellers. . Although the RT model does not carry bombs or missiles, it is far from harmless: it is specially designed to guide the P-6 missiles launched underwater to destroy US aircraft with 350 kiloton nuclear warheads.

Old Cuban Aircraft At Pearls Airport In Pearls, Grenada

The P-6 supersonic cruise missile (NATO codename SS-N-3a Shaddock) is fitted to the Juliet and Echo II class diesel-electric submarines and can theoretically attack ships at a range of several miles. 310. However, the submarine radar actually cannot

Proximity to such distant targets and the U.S.-based team that has an outfield close enough during navigation to provide radar control is a risky business.

This is where the Tu-95RT comes in, using a belly-mounted "Success" radar to track the location of American planes, then remotely control the weapons using a data link in its unique, rotating "basket" arm, or send back course corrections using the submarine's Arfa motion on its tail. The P-6 radar works only when approaching the terminal for a kill.

Urribarres' article suggests that the P-6 could also have been used to launch nuclear strikes on North American targets. However, many sources claim that the P-6 was not designed with ground attack capabilities.

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Despite this, Tu-95s are often intercepted by American F-4 Phantoms and F-15 Fighters, as well as Canadian CF-101 Voodoos armed with Genie nuclear weapons. However, the Bear crew and their NATO counterparts often only take pictures of themselves above international airspace. Cuba-based Tu-95s have occasionally invaded US airspace, prompting diplomatic protests, and in one incident in 1980, an escort of F-15s had to shoot down a Bear near Langley Air Force Base. in Virginia.

Uribarres said NATO interceptors carried out dangerous radiological missions in the shadow of Soviet patrol planes. But exchanges published by Flight Engineer Robert Sihler with weapons systems personnel in the back seat of an F-4 based in Iceland suggest that frequent interruptions are not the enemy.

"In those days, we probably averaged two 'Bears' shoots a week... The shoots usually took place on Fridays and Sundays, with the 'Bears' flying from Murmansk to Cuba on training and, we guessed, 'for' missions. These barrels were often made at the request of Soviet officials. They gave us hand signals to let us know that this is what they wanted. We also photographed .The Cold War is coming to an end and attitudes on both sides have improved," Sihler explained.

In 1973, the Cuban Revolutionary Air Force sent MiG-21F planes to intercept the bears that had started lying in Cuba at 40,000 feet. The Bears stood as agents for the high-flying U-2 spy planes. The FAR found that its MiGs could only do so using fuel-injectors.

Aviation Monument In Cuba

In November 1981, Moscow decided to base up to twelve Tu-95RTs in San Antonio and even began building facilities to repair the bomber's air blades. Predictably, the deployment of the Bear "Eastern Express" Caribbean is popular with the Bear crew and experts, who are able to relax from the Arctic Circle deployment in full-service hotel rooms in Havana.

In March 1983, the Tu-95s were joined by Tu-142M Bear-F aircraft variants, which performed a very different mission: tracking the location of American submarines by setting dozens of beacons. sonar in the Caribbean Sea. According to Uribarres, the Tu-142s found six submarines in their first ten flights alone. Later, the Bear-Fs flew over the South Atlantic and flew back and forth to the base in Luanda, Angola. Presumably, the Tu-142 is armed with anti-submarine torpedoes.

The Soviet Navy conducted 756 submarine patrols from the Cuban base before it was shut down for good in 1989, as the Soviet government began to disintegrate. Tu-95 aircraft gathered useful intelligence and carried out military pressure on the US Atlantic coast. However, Moscow could not afford the economic aid needed to maintain a remote Cuban base.

That equation must change for Russian destroyers to return permanently to the Caribbean today.

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Sébastien Roblin graduated from Georgetown University with a degree in conflict resolution and worked as an educational instructor for the Kannada Peace Association. He has also worked in education, rehabilitation and refugee resettlement in France and the United States. He currently writes about defense and military history for War Is Boring. This was originally published in January 2019.

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