Blogger Former Spook wrote:
…the Thanksgiving intercept may have been an inadvertent gift from the Russians. The Air Force will use the mission as proof of an escalating threat, that must be met by state-of-the-art fighters like the F-22.
True. But we returned the favor. The Russians got what was presumably their first close-up inspection of the F-22. So while a Bear-Raptor aerial tango was inevitable, the timing of the resurgent bomber flights (coming around the same time as the F-22s deployment to Elmendorf) appears calculated. Aside, but somewhat related: The Russians are currently developing a fifth-generation fighter, unofficially dubbed the “Raptor Killer.” No doubt the Bear crew and the MiG’s production team were talking shortly after the Thanksgiving intercept.
