Saturday, August 11, 2007

Russian bombers resume Cold War sorties - Update

USAF F-15 escorts a Russian Long Range Air Force TU-95 Bear aircraft. (USAF Photo)

Is the Cold War truly over? Someone needs to tell the Russians and Vladimir Putin that it is.

In an August 9 article written by Dmitry Solovyov for Reuters, he reports that Russia's strategic bombers have resumed Cold War-style long-haul missions to areas patrolled by NATO and the United States.

On August 8, a Russian long range bomber flew over the Naval Station Guam. Pilots from the Department of Defense scrambled to track the Russian bomber that is an asset of the long-range aviation service in the Russian air force.

You can read the complete story on the Reuters website.

And you can listen to the Russian Long Range Air Force on HF. The main station is REA4, the LRAF headquarters in Moscow. The primary mode used by REA4 is CW, but 1000/50 RTTY has also been reported.

Recently reported frequencies include:
RTTY 1000/50 on 5157.0 7018.0 9193.0 kHz
Hourly CW broadcast -- 4706.0 7044.0 11408.0 23961.0 kHz.
CW traffic -- 2721.0 2737.0 3476.0 3531.0 4179.0 4379.0 7018.0 7515.5 7785.5 7959.0 kHz

Aerial view of Naval Station Guam (US Navy Photo)