West puzzled as Russian long-range aircraft disappear
According to Al-Masdar News, the West is puzzled by the strange "disappearance" of a squadron of Russian long-range aircraft after leaving the base on April 12.
Al-Masdar News quoted defense analyst Babak Taghvaee as saying that three Russian long-range bombers left their airbase in southwestern Russia on April 12 and headed to an unspecified location.
This expert believes that among these three long-range aircraft, one is a Tu-95MS and the other two are Tu-160 strategic bombers capable of firing long-range cruise missiles.
Expert Taghvaee added that during their mysterious "disappearance" journey, these long-range aircraft were escorted by a fleet of Su-35S aircraft and Il-78M heavy refueling aircraft.
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| The West only discovered the entire Russian long-range aircraft fleet leaving from the published photo. |
According to this expert, Western reconnaissance vehicles are currently unable to detect which military base this squadron landed at after detecting them leaving the base using only satellite images.
Although the destination of the Russian long-range aircraft fleet has not been determined, according to this expert's guess, it is very likely that the Su-35S, Tu-95MS and Tu-160 aircraft could go to Hamedan air base in western Iran to prepare for a large-scale war that could occur if the US launches an attack on Syria.
According to Al-Masdar News, this expert's assessment is completely grounded because right before the entire Russian aircraft squadron mysteriously "disappeared", Su-30SM fighters and Su-24M frontline bombers with full weapons flew from the Hmeymim base to monitor the US destroyer USS Donald Cook, which was in the Eastern Mediterranean.
The source said that the US Navy's heavy warship had come within 100 km of the city of Tartus, where the Russian naval base is located, and that Russian planes had approached the destroyer at least four times.
The Donald Cook is an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer capable of carrying SM-3 missiles from the Aegis missile defense system and Tomahawk land-attack cruise missiles. Each ship of this class is capable of carrying up to 56 Tomahawks.
Along with the deployment of forces closer to Syria, the US announced that it will make a decision on a military response to the chemical attack in the Syrian city of Douma, after consulting with its NATO and Middle Eastern allies./.
