Following the profitable initiation of Operation Spider Net by the Ukrainian SBU on the afternoon of June 1, which noticed giant scale executed strikes launched from vehicles inside Russia in opposition to a number of main bomber bases, some of the vital achievements of the operation was the unprecedented strike on the Belaya Airbase within the Irkutsk area, Siberia. Situated greater than 4000 kilometres from Ukraine, and roughly 300 kilometres from the Russian-Mongolian border, the flexibility to carry the airbase in danger served to spotlight the boundaries of Russia’s extremely prized strategic depth, and raises the potential of main industrial services, such because the Irkutsk Aviation Plant the place Su-30 fighters are constructed, might be focused in future assaults. Belaya Airbase was constructed within the late Forties to host interceptors for air defence duties below the 350th Fighter Aviation Regiment, as a part of a broader effort to extend the safety of Soviet airspace. The contraction of the tactical fight aviation fleet after the tip of the Chilly Warfare, nevertheless, has meant that the power presently hosts no fight jets apart from Tu-22M3 bombers.
Belaya Airbase started to function a staging floor for Tu-4 strategic bomber deployments to China in 1954, within the instant aftermath of the Korean Warfare. Later that decade the power was modernised and noticed its runway paved to host a extra everlasting bomber presence. It started to host Tu-16 strategic bombers from 1958, together with the improved Tu-16K variant from 1961, earlier than transitioning to the Tu-22M2 a while earlier than 1982. By 1982 the power hosted two Tu-22M2 regiments, alongside the Tu-128 interceptors that had been based mostly there since 1967. Manufacturing of the improved Tu-22M3 from 1989-1997 allowed all older medium vary bombers to be phased out of service, with the Tu-22M3 being deployed to Belaya sooner or later throughout that interval. The brand new bomber was powered by extra trendy NK-25 engines, and had reshaped air intakes and wings with higher most pace amongst different modifications that considerably improved its flight efficiency, and facilitated flight at speeds exceeding Mach 2. These upgrades additionally elevated its vary by one third in comparison with the Tu-22M2, whereas avionics have been improved significantly.
Though leading edge when launched within the late Eighties, the capabilities of the Tu-22M3 deployed at Belaya Airbase below the 2 hundredth Guards Heavy Bomber Regiment have been thought of more and more old-fashioned. Various sources point out that the Russian Defence Ministry beforehand deliberate to section the plane out of service round 2030, and exchange them with Su-34M strike fighters, earlier than they demonstrated their distinctive worth throughout bombing operations in opposition to Turkish-backed jihadist militants in Syria from 2016. The Tu-22M3 fleet has since confirmed to be notably beneficial within the Ukrainian theatre, primarily as a result of superior capabilities of the Kh-22 cruise missile and the very giant Soviet period reserves of the missiles which the Russian Armed Forces retained from that interval. The difficulties which Tu-22M3 strikes utilizing Kh-22 missiles brought on for the Ukrainian Armed Forces have been highlighted in December 2023 by Ukrainian Air Pressure spokesperson Yury Ignat, who noticed that over the previous 22 months Russian forces had fired roughly 300 of the missiles, and that Ukrainian air defences had not been capable of intercept a single one. Ignat had beforehand said in January that 12 months: “I emphasise that it’s unimaginable to shoot down Kh-22 missiles with the means we have now in our arsenal,” highlighting the missile’s sheer pace as a major motive.
The low precedence allotted to the Tu-22M3 was highlighted within the late 2010s when it was revealed that plans to modernise the plane to the Tu-22M3M normal had been scaled again significantly, with solely a small portion of the fleet anticipated to be refurbished. The parameters of the improve bundle have been additionally scaled again, with plans to combine new NK-32-02 engines, the identical because the engines used on the brand new Tu-160M bomber, having been cancelled. The improve bundle nonetheless stays pricey, and contains changing or upgrading 80 % of avionics, and integrating SVP-24-22 bombsights, a GLONASS navigation system, a contemporary digital glass cockpit, new digital warfare methods, and an NV-45 phased array radar, whereas additionally extending the bombers’ service lives to 45 years. With out these upgrades, losses among the many bombers at Belaya Airbase stay comparatively straightforward to exchange, with over 50 Tu-22M3 airframes estimated to be in storage. The remoteness of Belaya Airbase makes it one of many much less vital bomber services with Russia, as mirrored by its distant location and the shortage of bigger intercontinental vary bombers on the facility.Probably the most vital consequence of the assault on the power is thus more likely to be the shaping of Russian confidence that the sheer dimension of its territory shields main services from being focused, which can have been meant to have a psychological influence on the Russian management.
