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The Ilyushin Il-38 May maritime patrol aircraft, the type of plane that flew over Navy ships at 500 ft.

The Russians are at it once again. This time they did a fly over U.S. Navy ships in “Mays” bombers while the ships were in international waters in the Sea of Japan. How close? 500 ft above. In a plane, that’s incredibly close. It was a legal move, but still leaves your concerned.

But what’s up with these guys? Between threatening British, Canadian, and American airspace, looking for runways in the Caribbean and South America, doing flyovers of naval ships. Our government says it’s them flexing their muscles. Flexing muscles are for scared wimps, hoping to intimidate someone. I don’t think that’s the deal. Smells like they are testing the waters. Consider it, right now they are “flexing” their muscles, then being quickly herded back out by fighter aircraft (except for the case where a Russian bomber flew through U.S. Airspace undetected a while back). In the latest attempts, it appears the F-18′s didn’t intercept until apparently after the planes flew over. Maybe I read it wrong, but if that’s the case, imagine those bombers were on a mission. They could have taken out several ships in a quick sucker punch.

Things are starting to add up to trouble. Russian has been trying to “flex its muscles” in multiple venues now, and she is getting a stronger and wider influence. These cards aren’t adding up well.

My whole life, the Cold War was a vague concept from my childhood. I was 6 when the wall came down, far too young to grip what it all meant. I fear the time may be coming of a second Cold War, or worse.

Just a quick correction, the “Mays” is actually a maritime patrol aircraft, not a bomber, but still moved decidedly close to naval vessels. Beyond search and rescue, these planes are also used for reconnaissance roles, lending to the question of why the Russians are so interested in.