International Military - It's been more than half a year, the war between Russia and Ukraine is still going on. The two sides fell into endless friction. On the one hand, Russia has a large fighter fleet. But Ukraine itself has not given up on launching a counterattack. The unceasing supply of weapons is a cornerstone for Ukraine.
Seeing that, Time considered that the supply of weapons was the key to victory for both sides. Ukraine can still face the great power of Russia with its arms transfers. Meanwhile Russia had to stop the supply to win the war.
Time stressed, if Russia wants to win the war immediately, make sure Ukraine is no longer receiving weapons supplies. With the help of weapons, Ukraine can at least prevent a Russian attack.
Reportedly, Ukraine was able to withstand Russian advances around Kyiv, Kharkiv, and several other cities. And Russia needs to stop this with large-scale air-to-ground strikes. This type of attack can only be carried out by large platforms, such as bombers or bombers.
That said, even the most powerful army was unable to withstand this large-scale air raid. But strangely, so far Russia has not deployed its bombers.
Quoted from Defense View, Russia has three different types of bombers, namely the Tu-22M3 Backfire-C, Tu-95MS Bear-H, and Tu-160 Blackjack. According to data by the end of 2021, the Russian Air Force has 123 strategic bombers, including 15 active Tu-160s, 66 active Tu-22M3s, 42 active Tu-95Ms. That number is only 18 units less than the bombers owned by the United States. And keep in mind, only very few countries have strategic bombers.
With all that, Russia could target some of Ukraine's vital facilities. Such as weapons manufacturers, repair factories, fuel supplies, airports, trains, and so on. If all of that is destroyed, Ukraine's arms supply will come to a halt, and victory is in sight. Seeing it all, why hasn't Russia deployed its mighty bomber yet?
Quoted from Defense View, it turns out that there are two underlying reasons. The first is about the cost of using the bomber itself. For example, the Tu-160 costs $60,000 in just one flight. And other bombers, the Tu-95M and Tu-22M3 are also believed to cost tens of thousands of dollars per hour.
Indeed, the high cost guarantees a large destructive power as well. Russia should have put aside this cost issue first. But from this point of view, we continue with the question of the cost of the Russian bomber. Russia is currently also launching strategic bomber strikes with its cruise missiles.
The difference is, this attack is carried out from land or warships. And these two platforms are much cheaper than using a bomber like the Tu-160. And this attack also in fact brought progress to Russia on several occasions. Seeing that, Russia considered it unnecessary to launch an attack with bombers.
The second reason is the fact that Russia has not yet acquired air superiority. Currently, Ukrainian fighter jets are in “good condition”, having received a number of upgrades and advanced missiles from the West. Ukrainian fighter jet strikes have become more deadly than ever.
As an example of the upgraded Ukrainian MiG-29, the Ukrainian MiG-29 is currently capable of firing the US-made AGM-88 High Speed Anti-Radiation Missile (HARM). The missile itself is used for the Suppression of Enemy Air Defense/Destruction of Enemy Air Defense (SEAD/DEAD). The missiles used by Ukraine to destroy Russia's air defense network.
Quoted from Defense Security Asia, the AGM-88 HARM anti-radiation missile can hit targets as far as 150 kilometers. The MiG-29 itself requires some modifications to be able to use Western-made missiles. To that end, Ukrainian engineers are working closely with US experts to improve the performance of the MiG-29. The Ukrainian pilots themselves used this HARM missile in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine which is now controlled by Russia.
According to a senior Ukrainian military official, the Russian military created an effective network of air defense systems there, making it difficult for Ukrainian fighter jets to operate. Even the Russian defense also caused the failure of the Bayraktar TB2 attack drone which had become a "hero" at the beginning of the war.
Therefore, the US sent special weapons to face Russia's strong defense system. Even the Tu-160 bombers had a hard time dealing with Ukrainian fighter jets. Although this Russian bomber has a speed of Mach 2, it lacks stealth. So that it will become an easy target for the Ukrainian air defense system.
Moreover, Russia currently only has 14 Tu-160 bombers. Judging from the conditions of war and its availability, Russia is very difficult to use its bomber aircraft in this war.