By Julian Röpcke
So what is that? New satellite images from the end of August show several Russian strategic bombers on which soldiers have placed dozens of car tires – apparently to protect them from Ukrainian drone attacks.
Photos from the “Engels 2” air base in the city of Saratov show both Tupolev Tu-95MS and Tupolev Tu-160M, some of which were “paved” with just a few old tires and others with up to 100 old ones. A “protection” to which even Russian military experts reacted with a mixture of disbelief and derision.
▶︎ The Russian blogger channel “Vorposten” (105,000 followers) held back with his comments. “Remarkable,” was his comment. “The Tu-95 was first seen with distorting camouflage on the fuselage and wings to camouflage itself from drone attacks. They are car tires…”
This Tu-95 was also practically paved with car tires
Photo: AP
▶︎ The tire jewelry Russian war blogger “Military Observer” (627,000 followers) found it less funny. He wrote half ironically on the Telegram news service: “As it turned out, the Tu-95s in Engels’ satellite images were not, as previously assumed, repainted to blur the silhouette, but covered with car tires. Apparently the assumption is that the tires are somehow intended to protect the Tu-95 from dropping ammunition from drones.”
Referring to the almost useless “anti-drone cages” of Russian tanks in Ukraine, the Russian military expert added: “Now we just have to wait for protective visors against missile attacks, similar to those on our tanks.”
▶︎ The Wagner mercenary supporter and critic of the Russian Ministry of Defense “Alex Parker” (154,000 followers) did not find the massive tires on the Russian nuclear bombers funny at all.
He sarcastically stated: “The TU-95 was covered with car tires to protect them from kamikaze drones. Clever! But instead of building protective walls and hangars, our defense minister preferred to build churches and plywood Reichstags. Now we have to cover ourselves from head to toe in tires.”
Another photo of a Russian warplane covered in tires was released on Friday. This time it was a Sukhoi Su-34. Also a bomber. Since the photo was taken from the ground by a Russian soldier, there is now no doubt that Russia’s military leadership actually believes that car tires will protect their aircraft from drone and missile attacks.
The bombers’ “camouflage” also caused amusement in Ukraine. However, they were seen as a success for the massive drone attacks of the last few weeks, which, among other things, destroyed two Il-76 transport aircraft.