Operation Sword
The Ukrainian Intelligence Service, led by General Budanov, issued a statement saying that they had assassinated the Russian bomber pilot Oleg Stegakov, a colonel who had flown a plane and carried out rocket attacks on civilian targets in Ukraine and killed Ukrainians. Justice is omnipotent! ”
The Sun and other news outlets reported on it, while Russia strongly criticized the assassination, calling it a "terrorist attack". However, the jury is still out on whether the assassination will be successful, and Oleg Stegachev is said to have been killed, but not killed, while Ukrainian intelligence said: "His survival is still being verified."
Colonel Oleg Stegachev, who flew the Tu-95M-"Bear" tactical bomber, repeatedly participated in the Russian air power against Ukraine"Precise attacks from a distance", the unit is based at the famous Engels airbase, and the assassination was also carried out in the area, and it has been circulated on the Internet that Oleg Stegachev should have been wounded by a pistol equipped with a muffler and was found at the first time, otherwise he would have died of excessive blood loss.
For Ukraine, long-range precision attacks are a very key asymmetric advantage, although the Ukrainian military is equipped with advanced missiles provided by Western countries such as Storm Shadow, Scarp-EG, and ATACMS, they are all short-ranged, with a maximum effective range of only 300 km, while Russia has a large number of missiles capable of covering the whole of Ukraine. And the suicide drones used by the Ukrainian army, due to their limited firepower and slow flight speed, are likely to be hit, so it is difficult to deal with well-defended targets.
The Ukrainian military has weakened Russia's long-range attacks through espionage, suicide drone attacks on Russian bombers, missile factories, etc., but assassinating Russian bomber pilots is rare. The assassination of Oleg Stegachev this time is also to warn all the Russian Air Force that the killing of Ukrainian citizens must bear the corresponding consequences, and deliberately shooting ordinary people with a missile is equivalent to taking a submachine gun to ** ordinary people, the two are not fundamentally different, they are both terrorism.
The Russian Air Force now has a total of three models, Tu-95MS "Bear", Tu-160 "Pirate Flag", Tu-22M3 "Backfire" type, of which the Tu-95 "Bear" type is the main bomber of the Russian Air Force, while the Tu-160 "Pirate Flag" and Tu-22M3 "Backfire" aircraft are not so keen on "long-range precision attacks" against Ukraine, and some military blogs point out that the reason why the "Pirate Flag" type "Pirate Flag" is not used so frequently, Because it can effectively contain a possible strategic enemy.
The Tu-95MS "Bear", like the American B-52 Stratospheric Sky Fortress, was developed during the Cold War, was large-scale, constantly updated during service, and is now dominated by cruise missiles, and the maintenance cost is also very cheap, making it a trustworthy long-range combat unit.
However, what is a headache is that the Tu-160 "Corsair Flag" and Tu-22M3 "Backfire", one is strategic and the other is medium-range, both have supersonic speed (yes, not supersonic), but its swept structure, which makes it difficult to repair and the maintenance cost is also very high, and it is called a "money-burning machine", so the US Air Force will change the B-1B "Lancer" to a retractable wing.
The problem is that with the mass production of the B-21, the decommissioning of the "Lancers" will replace the "Lancers" of the B-1B and the "Phantom" of the B-2A as the backbone of the US Air Force. And how long the Tu-95 "Bear" and "Backfire" and "Backfire" can still serve, it is difficult to say, these two models have long been retired, and if you want to extend your life, hehe, it is very difficult, the biggest difference between the United States and Russia is the lifespan, and Russia has never had such a project.
The Tu-160M is relatively advanced, but it is expensive, the maintenance costs are high, and the equipment that matches it is also expensive; The Tu-95 MS is relatively inexpensive to repair, but it has ceased production after all, and no one knows whether it will be able to extend its life, and because of the special operation, its service life will also be extended to a certain extent, and to be honest, he does not know how long he will be able to stay in the Russian army. It will be difficult for even the United States to do this, even if it is the B-2A, it will have to give up, not to mention a country like Russia.