(Washington, DC) Russia’s move to publish photos and weapons of three of its bombers appears to be an overt and deliberate show of massive strength, as the bombers are photographed with an entire identifiable payload laid out in front of them.
Russian Bombers
Perhaps Russia is trying to show that its force is deeper, more advanced and more lethal than a U.S. B-1B bomber and B-52. None of the three aircraft shown, the Tu-160 Blackjack, Tu-95MS Bear-H and Tu22 Backfire-C appear super stealthy persay, and the emerging Russian PAK DA stealth bomber is expectedly not shown.
The T-160 Blackjack does look a little stealthy given its slightly rounded or blended wing-body, however it looks much more like a B1-B than a super stealthy bomber. The pictures, released by the Russian Ministry of Defense, appeared in an interesting report by The Drive.
There is no question that, taken together, the display of bombing firepower is quite significant and potentially quite threatening given the expected retirement of the B-1B bomber in coming years.
Just how threatening are these bombers? Of course that depends in large measure upon the size of their fleet, however there are also some interesting additional variables to consider.
U.S. Bombers
For example, how might this line-up compare with the U.S. bomber fleet plans. The U.S. Air Force has been quite vocal that the service faces a massive “bomber deficit,” in terms of numbers, yet that is something there are fast-tracked efforts to correct.
The overall strategy, Air Force leaders explain, is to incrementally and slowly retire the B-1B and ultimately the B-2 as sufficient numbers of B-21s arrive.
