"David Bromage" wrote in message

Mike wrote:
There was some cold war era movie that starred Rock Hudson as the
President about 25 years ago.

I can't remember the name, but I think it might have been called
World War 3.

1982 telemovie, also starring David Soul and Brian Keith. Fairly
typical brinksmanship drama which IIRC included a Soviet invasion of
Alaska. Or was it just a special forces attack? I definately remember
scenes of small arms fire around the pipeline.

There was one scene in the movie where they talked about how as
tensions had risen, the Soviets had sent their Backfire bombers
over Seattle as a show of force.

But weren't Backfire Bombers later found to have never been
anything more than a medium-range bombe?

The actual range of the Backfire was (and still is) hotly debated, as
is whether they were capable of being refuelled in flight. Officially
they didn't have refuelling probes, but some sources say these could
be screwed in at short notice and the refuelled range was said to be
comparable to the Bison.

Just to clarify this bit, early Backfires had a very visible refuelling
probe. It was removed under SALT II, but there is some debate about whther
it could be reinstalled quickly or not.

I'm not sure this is a valid a concern; if you heven't flown a proble and
drogue refuelling, the last place you want to learn is in the middle of an
operational strategic bombing mission.


While the Soviets claimed that they did not have intercontinental
range, this was a moot point. If carrying the Kh-55SM they only
needed to get within 1300nm of their targets. That puts almost any
fixed target in the western USA within range of an unrefuelled
Backfire.

Does the Backfire even carry AS-15/Kh-55? I believe that missile is limited
to the Tu-169 and Tu-95. Most sources credit the Tu-22M3 with AS-16/Kh-15P,
a SRAM-equivalent short-range nuclear missile, but not the longer-range
cruise missile.

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"If brave men and women never died, there would be nothing
special about bravery." -- Andy Rooney (attributed)