Months of preparation, drones introduced clandestine in Russia and “spider web” for code name: Ukrainian security services led this Sunday An unprecedented coordinated operation against Russian military aviationstriking thousands of kilometers from the front.
The attacks would have affected 41 planes used to “Bombing Ukrainian cities”assured a source in Ukrainian Security Services (SBU), citing in particular Tu-22 strategic bombers and detection and command devices A-50. But above all, kyiv would have destroyed several Tu-95 bombers to claim up to “$ 7 billion in damage”. A strategic target.
Of a nuclear threat giant
The TU-95 is one of the major instruments of Moscow in His massive bombing campaign in Ukraine. He is one of the large bombers capable of carrying nuclear weapons. From its code name “Bear” for NATO, the TU-95 is An old plane thought during the Soviet era Like a nuclear threat to the United States with an autonomy of 14,000 km, an round trip to the American continent.
“It’s a medieval thing. The plane was intended to be used only for twenty years before moving on to a higher generation in the 1970s, but because of its rusticity, a predictable cost of exploitation and the incapacity of the Soviet Union to mass produce the TU-22 and TU160 before succeeding it, it was maintained in service with some minor modernizations “, analysis, Xavier Tytelman, former military aviator.
Since its first flight in 1952, the TU-95 has been modernized to reach its latest modernized version, the TU-95M SM, several copies of which were affected this Sunday, according to kyiv. This “strategic” bomber can take more than 20,000 kg of ammunition, with conventional missiles and bombs. The Russian army used it mainly to take on board cruise missiles KH-55 ET KH-101.
“This quadrimotor does not shine by its performance, they can only carry half the payload of an American bomber B-52 yet designed at the same time, and only 50% more than a simple burst hunter,” explains Xavier Tytelman. The expert adds that the aircraft “would require 60 hours of maintenance for each hour of flight, with only 40 planes able to fly in 2021 on a theoretical fleet of 58 devices”.
With a length of 50 meters, this tune giant is considered slow, moving at only 830 km/h. But its gigantic radius of action (10,500 km claimed) and its ability to move at low altitude (100 m) make it extremely versatile and difficult to detect for the enemy clan. Sufficient to make it one of the weapons most used by Moscow in its air bombings.
Despite several copies also destroyed in strikes this Sunday, the TU-22 is a less serious loss for Moscow because it is less effective on the field, Russia being the only country to still use this type of aircraft. The TU-22M3, its modernized version renowned “Backfire” by NATO, was a “supersonic” bomber with a maximum speed reaching 2,160 km/h. But its exorbitant cost – up to $ 100 million – had enough to cool the ardors of Moscow, which limited its production to 500 copies. Before the damage of this Sunday.
