Recently, Russia and the United States and Western international organizations for three rounds of intensive negotiations on a week without success, the two sides exchanged harsh words, the United States and NATO announced the British aircraft carrier "Prince of Wales" as the flagship of the rapid reaction force, to strengthen the sea containment of Russia. In the face of the "gun to the head" of the United States and NATO, the Russian side has retorted: it does not rule out the deployment of military forces to Cuba and Venezuela. Will Russia's first new Tu-160M strategic bombing opportunity once again go on a cross-ocean expedition to South America? During the Cold War of the last century, the "Cuban Missile Crisis" in which the United States and Russia touched the core button with their hands and blinked before anyone else, will it repeat itself?
Dialogue Ends Without Results, It Is Difficult to Bear the "Gun to the Head" Russia's Words Directly Hit the US "Backyard"
From January 10 to 13, three negotiations between Russia and the United States and western countries were fruitless. Russia says patience has been exhausted.
In this regard, commentator Bai Mengchen believes that If Russia finds itself that if it does not draw a red line, the borders like Ukraine or Finland in the north will suddenly become NATO, just like NATO wants to put a gun on Russia's brain, then for Russia, it is unbearable.
The United States and Slovakia launched the British aircraft carrier willingly to be the vanguard Russia was blocked on all sides of the chest tightness and on fire
Western countries also said that the three dialogues with Russia were between "deaf people". Before the words could be heard, the military layout was stepped up. According to Reuters, the Slovak government, which borders Ukraine, has approved a military agreement on the 12th, Slovakia will receive $100 million in US aid, and the United States can conditionally use two Slovak airports.
In addition, according to the "British Defence Network", since January 11, the British Navy's "Prince of Wales" aircraft carrier has become the new flagship of NATO's rapid reaction force. The Prince of Wales aircraft carrier has a displacement of 65,000 tons and can carry F-35B fighter jets. At present, nato's rapid reaction forces are mostly deployed in Eastern European countries close to Russia. The "Prince of Wales" aircraft carrier as the flagship, will go to the Arctic, the Baltic Sea and the Mediterranean Sea and other places to carry out missions.
Commentator Du Wenlong analyzed that this means that the next step of military confrontation between the two sides will be more intense.
Du Wenlong pointed out that in the frontline area, the US military deterrence capability against Russia, including the ability to confront Russia, will be greatly improved, but it is not excluded that Russia will open a new battlefield in the "backyard" of the other side.
A repeat of the Cuban Missile Crisis? Russia said it would not rule out the deployment of military equipment to the "backyard" of the United States
Sure enough, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Ryabkov pointed out on January 13 that if the situation is further tense, Russia does not rule out the deployment of military forces to Cuba and Venezuela.
Commentator Qin Hao analyzed that this does not rule out that Russia deliberately played a clear card, but the purpose is to warn the United States not to go too far in Eastern Europe, otherwise it will return the color. In fact, during the Cold War, in 1959, the United States deployed medium-range ballistic missiles in Italy and Turkey. In order to recover the strategic disadvantage, in 1962, the Soviet Union shipped ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads to Cuba.
Located in the northwestern Caribbean Sea, Cuba is the largest island nation in the West Indies. Northern Cuba is across the sea from The U.S. state of Florida and is 217 kilometers from the nearest. So much so that some people joke that swimming can swim to Miami Beach. The Soviet Union wants to deploy medium-range missiles here, how can the Americans sleep? Friends who like to watch movies know that "X-Men: First War" has exaggerated the scene of the two sides fighting swords and nearly breaking out a nuclear war.
Cuban Missile Crisis The United States and the Soviet Union touched the nuclear button before anyone "blinked"
At that time, after discovering the Soviet Union smuggling missiles, the US military immediately blockaded Cuba by land, sea and air, intercepted Soviet cargo ships, and nuclear submarines and strategic bombers carried nuclear missiles and were on standby all day long. In the end, in this desperate competition of "who blinks before whom", the Soviet Union gave in to withdrawing its missiles and the crisis was resolved.
The outside world thinks that at present, Russia's "front door" is blocked, and it is inevitable that it will want to directly pound the "backyard" of the United States to "encircle Wei and save Zhao."
Some analysts have pointed out that this time Russia wants to deploy military forces to Cuba and Venezuela, and does not rule out using strategic bombers as a starting point. The Tu-22M, Tu-95MS and Tu-160 bombers are known as the "troika" of the Russian air nuclear force, and the Tu-160, known as the "White Swan", is the most important, and it is said that its white coating is not for aesthetics, but to reflect the strong radiation after the nuclear bomb is dropped, and there are currently 16 Tu-160s in the Russian Air Force.
The "White Swan" announced a new mass production of nuclear wings on several cross-ocean expeditions
The Tu-160 does have the ability to go on a cross-continent expedition and has always been used by Russia to support its allies and deter its opponents. In 2008, 2013 and 2018, the Russian military repeatedly dispatched the Tu-160 to directly penetrate South America across continents.
In particular, on December 10, 2018, two Russian Tu-160 strategic bombers flew directly from Engels Air Base on the Volga River to Venezuela without aerial refueling. The flight covered a distance of more than 10,000 kilometers, shocking the world.
In recent years, the Tu-160 has also frequently appeared in Eastern Europe and the Far East, and in the military confrontation between Russia and NATO. In 2020, two Russian Tu-160s flew along the border areas of Belarus bordering Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania and Latvia on the day of the "Slavic Brotherhood 2020" joint military exercise.
Russia "started from scratch" The new version of "White Swan" was finally mass-produced
A few days ago, Russia announced a high-profile announcement that the new Tu-160M can be mass-produced. Russian Red Star Television reported on January 12 that the first newly manufactured Tu-160M strategic bomber successfully made its first flight at the Kazan Aviation Manufacturing Plant. This new bomber has updated and retrofitted 80% of its systems and equipment. Russian Deputy Defense Minister Borisov told the media that it is planned to produce a total of 50 Tu-160M, starting mass production from 2023, and the Russian Air force will be equipped with 3-4 aircraft per year.
Originally, when the Tu-160 was facing nato fighter surveillance and accompanying flights, it repeatedly staged a high-speed "drag race" at 2 times the speed of sound, so that NATO's "wild wind" and "storm" fighters, including the US military's proudest stealth fighters F-22 and F-35, could only look at the dust and sigh, and the US strategic bomber B-1B, which could only fly 1 times the speed of sound, was naturally left behind by it.
Now, the Russian military has revealed that the combat effectiveness of this new "White Swan" will be more than 2 times higher than that of the active aircraft. Russian military experts also pointed out that the performance of the Tu-160M far exceeds that of the same type of strategic bomber of the US military. So, where is the Tu-160M's greatly improved combat power hidden?
Tu-160M "change of heart" Global strategic cruise is more powerful
The Tu-160 is equipped with four Kuznetsov NK-32 afterburner turbofan engines with a thrust of 25 tons, a maximum range of 16,000 kilometers, a maximum flight speed of Mach 2.05, and a built-in bomb bay that can carry up to 45 tons of various types of ammunition.
On this basis, the Tu-160M was upgraded again. First of all, the Tu-160M "heart change", equipped with a new NK-32-2 engine, the maximum range increased by 1,000 kilometers, reaching 17,000 kilometers, showing a stronger global strategic cruise capability.
Tu-160M "brain change" digital without fear of electronic warfare suppression
In addition to "changing hearts", the Tu-160M also strengthens the digital "brain", upgrades the avionics system, significantly improves the air situational awareness ability, and the radar, communication, navigation and other systems also have strong anti-jamming capabilities. The representative of the Russian military industry system said, "The system can still work when the aircraft is attacked by electronic warfare and suppressed by omnidirectional electronic warfare." ”
In addition, the Tu-160M's "teeth" are also more high-tech and sharper. The blessing of the off-zone strike ammunition has improved the Tu-160M's long-range precision strike and battlefield survivability.
The Tu-160M has stealth strike ammunition outside the defensive zone
The Tu-160M is equipped with two built-in magazines, a rotating magazine at the front and rear, and can each carry 6 air-launched cruise missiles. The latest Kh-101 with a conventional warhead and a Kh-102 cruise missile with a nuclear warhead have a maximum range of more than 4,500 kilometers. The two cruise missiles also adopt a stealth penetration design and have the ability to strike outside the area.
When the war burns on the doorstep, will Russia send the Tu-160M to Cuba or Venezuela and put strategic weapons on the doorstep of the Americans? Let's wait and see. After all, Putin said back then: "If Russia is gone, what else will the world do?" ”
However, special commentator Shi Hong analyzed that the Soviet Union was still backing down in the face of the threat of nuclear war in the United States, and now Russia's strength is far inferior to that of the Soviet Union, coupled with the tendency of the people involved, it is more difficult.
He pointed out that Cuba and Venezuela, although they do not deal with the United States, they are also well aware that if Russia is allowed to deploy military equipment on their territory, it will definitely attract great pressure from the United States. In this way, they will become pawns in the struggle between the United States and Russia, which is obviously not something that Cuba and Venezuela are willing to see, because the people of the two countries will not necessarily agree in the first place.
Author: Qin Feng, editor-in-chief of Shenzhen Satellite TV's "Military Intelligence Live Broadcast Room".