{"id":180942,"date":"2018-12-23T07:46:20","date_gmt":"2018-12-23T07:46:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=180942"},"modified":"2018-12-27T05:46:14","modified_gmt":"2018-12-27T05:46:14","slug":"a-much-needed-likbez-about-russian-tu-160-bombers-in-venezuela","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=180942","title":{"rendered":"A much needed \u201cLikbez\u201d about Russian Tu-160 bombers in Venezuela"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Saker \u2013 Dec 22, 2018<\/h1>\n

Remember what happened when the Admiral Kuznetsov carrier sailed around Europe to reach the eastern Mediterranean? NATO leaders were making fun of the black smoke coming out of the ship\u2019s engine while at the same time shadowing the Kuznetsov as if it was the Death Star from the Star Wars series and as if its final goal was to obliterate the British Isles. Frankly, this is nothing new. Even during the Cold War, western propagandists liked to dismiss all Soviet weapons systems as junk while at the same time declaring that they were the terrifying weapons of a Mordor-like Evil Empire set to destroy the entire Free World. This time around, we are seeing exactly the same pattern yet again:<\/span><\/p>\n

\"NATO<\/a>

NATO intercepting “museum pieces\u201d. Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n

The US Ambassador to Colombia Kevin Whitaker declared<\/a><\/strong><\/span> that these aircraft were so old that they were \u201cmuseum pieces<\/em>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Mike Pompeo (who makes even Nikki Haley look almost smart and almost sweet!) angrily declared<\/a><\/strong><\/span> that this was a case of \u201ctwo corrupt governments squandering public funds, and squelching liberty and freedom while their people suffer<\/em>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Diego Moya-Ocampos, a senior analyst for IHS Markit Ltd, a London-based global information provider, declared<\/a> <\/strong><\/span>that \u201cThis is Russia trying to force the U.S. to say, \u2018listen if you withdraw from this and if you make these moves in Europe, we will make these moves as well<\/em>.\u2019\u201d He also added that a \u201cRussian base would represent a much larger investment in Venezuela than Russia has signaled it\u2019s willing to make, as well as a larger provocation to the United States<\/em>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

There is so much military illiteracy in the AngloZionist Empire that, once again, I decided to engage in some much needed LikBez<\/a><\/strong><\/span> to try to set the record straight.<\/span><\/p>\n

First, the basics: the Tu-160 is, indeed, a supersonic heavy strategic bomber, meaning that they have the speed and range to strike targets at long distance (how far depends on the load, the availability of in-flight refueling and flight profile; usually a max range of 12\u2019000km is quoted). While the Tu-160 can carry regular (\u201cdumb\u201d) bombs, its primary weapons are cruise missiles, specifically six Raduga Kh-55SM\/101\/102\/555<\/a><\/strong><\/span> missiles or twelve AS-16 Kickback<\/a><\/strong><\/span> missiles. The former has a range of about 4,500\u20135,000\u20135,500 km (2,800\u20133,100\u20133,400 mi; some sources even claim as much as 10,000 km (6,200 mi) range with a flight endurance of 10 hours. The AS-16 is a short range weapon with a range of 300 km (160 nmi) which can fly at 40,000 m (130,000 ft) and then dive at a speed of Mach 5. Both of these missiles have a low radar cross-section, advanced guidance (including terminal), onboard electronic warfare kit and maneuvering capabilities. Finally, these missiles exist in several variants including conventional, nuclear and anti-ship. The first conclusion, these figures suggest, is that Russia does not need to send her bombers anywhere near the US to deliver a powerful conventional or nuclear strike: <\/em><\/strong>with a range anywhere between 4500km and 10000km the main missile armament of the Tu-160 does not require this bomber to be anywhere near the target at the moment of launch of the missile. Instead of attacking from Venezuela, the Tu-160 can fire its missiles from over the polar cap and still strike the continental US.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is true for bombers, but this is even more true of ship or submarine-based ballistic and cruise missiles.<\/span><\/p>\n

Second, this is hardly the first time the Russian military paid a visit to Venezuela: Russian Aerospace bombers visited the country in 2013<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, and Russian Navy ships did so in 2008<\/a><\/strong><\/span>. Nothing happened then, and nothing happened now.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"I<\/a>

I will admit, this is a scary looking “strateg” (as these supersonic heavy strategic bombers are called by their crews). Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n

So what\u2019s all the hysterics all about?<\/span><\/p>\n

I think that this is all about internal US politics and, shall we say, \u201cinformation management\u201d: every time the Russian military visits Venezuela, the US public comes dangerously close to finding out three things the Neocons and their Deep State desperately want to keep a secret from the US public:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The US mainland is completely undefended for the very simple reason that (almost!) nobody is threatening it.<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Russia has the means to deliver conventional and nuclear strikes anywhere in the US.<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. We have never been as close to a full-scale conventional and nuclear war as we are today.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Let\u2019s look at each one of these statements one by one.<\/span><\/p>\n

    The US is totally undefended because nobody threatens it<\/a><\/h2>\n

    True, Russia and (to a lesser degree) China, can strike the US. But since they could only do that at the cost of a terrible counter-strike by US conventional and nuclear forces, US force planners and analysts are pretty darn confident that neither Russia nor China will initiate such a strike. Besides, unlike the AngloZionist Empire, neither the Soviet Union nor Russia has ever planned for an attack on the US or Europe.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Sidebar<\/h2>\n

    Quick reminder for the believers in \u201cwestern values\u201d \u2013 this is what the wonderful western allies had in store for the Soviet Union by the end of WWII:<\/span>
    \n     Plan Totality<\/a> (1945):<\/strong> earmarked 20 Soviet cities for obliteration in a first strike: Moscow, Gorki, Kuybyshev, Sverdlovsk, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Saratov, Kazan, Leningrad, Baku, Tashkent, Chelyabinsk, Nizhny Tagil, Magnitogorsk, Molotov, Tbilisi, Stalinsk, Grozny, Irkutsk, and Yaroslavl.<\/span>
    \n     Operation Unthinkable<\/a> (1945)<\/strong> assumed a surprise attack by up to 47 British and American divisions in the area of Dresden, in the middle of Soviet lines. This represented almost half of roughly 100 divisions (ca. 2.5 million men) available to the British, American and Canadian headquarters at that time. (\u2026) The majority of any offensive operation would have been undertaken by American and British forces, as well as Polish forces and up to 100,000 German Wehrmacht soldiers.<\/span>
    \n     Operation Dropshot<\/a> (1949):<\/strong> included mission profiles that would have used 300 nuclear bombs and 29,000 high-explosive bombs on 200 targets in 100 cities and towns to wipe out 85% of the Soviet Union\u2019s industrial potential at a single stroke. Between 75 and 100 of the 300 nuclear weapons were targeted to destroy Soviet combat aircraft on the ground.<\/span>
    \n But the biggest proof is, I think, the fact that none of these plans was executed, even though at the time the Anglosphere was safely hidden behind its monopoly on nuclear weapons (and were Hiroshima and Nagasaki not destroyed in part to \u201cscare the Russians\u201d?) See     here<\/a><\/strong><\/span> for more details<\/span><\/p>\n

    However, if the people of the US realize that they don\u2019t have any credible enemy, they might wonder why their country spends more on \u201cdefense\u201d than the rest of the planet combined. They might even get angrier if they came to realize that even though their country spends more on \u201cdefense\u201d than the rest of the planet combined, they remain entirely unprotected<\/em><\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Russia can wipe out the United States<\/a><\/h2>\n

    During the Cold War, the vast majority of US Americans knew that the USSR could wipe out the US in a massive nuclear strike. However, since the end of the Cold War, this fact has been somewhat pushed back away from the awareness of most US decision makers (hence their frankly suicidal rhetoric and policies). Nowadays the big difference with the Cold War is that Russia can strike anywhere inside the United States using only conventional weapons. Two years ago I wrote a detailed analysis on how Russia is preparing for WWIII<\/a><\/strong><\/span> so I won\u2019t go into all the details here, but just mention one excellent example of this new conventional capability of the Russian military:<\/span><\/p>\n

    Take the Kalibr cruise-missile<\/a><\/strong><\/span> recently seen in the war in Syria. Did you know that it can be shot from a typical commercial container, like the ones you will find on trucks, trains or ships? Check out this excellent video which explains this:<\/span><\/p>\n