The Greek word "strategy" expresses the concept of a meaningful plan to achieve the main goal. In the military aspect, this means a directed sequence of actions with the aim of winning victory in the armed conflict as a whole, without detailing and concretizing the individual stages. To accomplish this task, the modern armed forces of some countries have special means. These include special reserves, missile forces, a nuclear submarine fleet, and strategic aviation. The Russian Air Force has two types of long-range bombers in its composition, capable of striking at remote targets almost anywhere in the world.
A brief history of domestic strategic aviation
For the first time in the world, strategic bombers appeared in the Russian Empire. The requirement for this class of airplanes consisted in the ability to deliver a sufficiently large amount of ammunition to the target and cause significant damage to the economy and industry of a hostile country.
60 Ilya Muromets type bombers, which constituted a special air squadron, while remaining invulnerable, posed a serious danger to cities and factories in Austria-Hungary and Germany throughout the First World War, during which only one aircraft of this type was lost.
The revolution and the Civil War threw back the development of the aviation industry. Aircraft school was lost, the designer of “Muromets” Sikorsky emigrated from the country, and the remaining copies of the world's first long-range bomber ingloriously died. The new authorities had other concerns, their plans did not include defense. The Bolsheviks dreamed of a world revolution.
Aircraft for defense
Strategic aviation of Russia in its concept was a defensive weapon, since the capture of a destroyed industrial base, as a rule, is not included in the plans of the aggressor. In the prewar years, a unique TB-7 bomber was created in the USSR, surpassing the best at that time model of this class B-17, Flying Fortress. It was on such an airplane that V.M. Molotov visited Great Britain in 1941, freely passing through the airspace of fascist Germany. However, this miracle of technology was not produced in series.
After the war in the USSR, the American B-29 (Tu-4) was completely copied, the need for this type of aircraft became urgent after the emergence of a nuclear threat, and there was not enough time to develop its own design. However, with the advent of jet interceptors, this bomber is also morally obsolete. New solutions were needed, and they were found.
Rocket or plane?
Along with nuclear submarines and intercontinental ballistic missiles, strategic aviation also solves the problem of countering global threats. According to the class of carriers, Russia's nuclear weapons are divided into these three components, which form a kind of triad. After the appearance of sufficiently advanced ICBMs in the 1950s, the Soviet leadership had certain illusions about the versatility of this delivery vehicle, but the design work begun under Stalin decided not to turn it off.
The main incentive to continue research in the field of building a heavy machine with a large radius of action was the adoption by the U.S. Air Force in 1956 of a B-52 bomber, which had subsonic speed and a large combat load. The symmetric response was the Tu-95, a four-engine aircraft with an arrow-shaped wing. As time has shown, the decision to develop this project was the right one.
Tu-95 vs B-52
After the collapse of the USSR, the strategic carrier of nuclear weapons Tu-95 became part of the Russian military. Despite the venerable age, this machine continues to serve as a missile carrier. The large, powerful and robust design allows you to use it as an air-based launcher, as well as the overseas counterpart of the B-52. Both aircraft entered service almost simultaneously and have approximately similar technical characteristics. Both Tu-95 and B-52 at one time cost the states dearly, however, they were designed and made to last, therefore they have a very long engine life. Volumetric bomb compartments contain cruise missiles (X-55), which can be launched from the side, which creates the conditions for a nuclear strike without crossing the border of the attacked country.
After the modernization of the Tu-95MS and the dismantling of dropping mechanisms for free-falling ammunition, in fact, Russian long-range aviation received a new strategic aircraft equipped with modern navigation equipment and guidance systems.
Air-based missile bases
Except the USA, all over the world only the Russian Federation has a fleet of long-range bombers. After 1991, he was practically inactive, the state did not have enough funds to maintain technical combat readiness, and even fuel. Only in 2007 Russia resumed flights of strategic aviation over various regions of the planet, including along the American coasts. Tu-95 missile carriers spend non-stop in the air for almost two days, refuel and return to the air base, demonstrating the possibility of a contribution to global retaliation in the event of a nuclear conflict. But not only these machines can fulfill the task of containment. There is also supersonic strategic aviation in Russia.
Do not shoot the “white swans”, it is useless
The adoption by the US Air Force of the strategic supersonic B-1 bomber widely announced back in the seventies could not go unnoticed by the Soviet leadership. In the early eighties, the Soviet air fleet replenished with a new aircraft, the Tu-160. After the collapse of the USSR, strategic aviation of Russia inherited most of them, with the exception of ten pieces cut into scrap metal in Ukraine and one “White Swan”, which became an exhibit in the museum in Poltava. In terms of its technical and flight characteristics, this missile-carrying bomber is a new generation model, it has a variable wing sweep, four jet engines, a stratospheric ceiling (21 thousand meters) and a significantly higher combat load (45 tons than 11 ) The main advantage of the White Swan is supersonic speed (up to 2200 km / h). The radius of combat use allows you to reach the American continent. Interception of an aircraft with such parameters is a problematic task for specialists.
Conditionally strategic Tu-22
The structure of strategic aviation in the USSR and Russia has much in common. The aircraft fleet is inherited, it can serve for a long time, but basically consists of two types of machines - Tu-95 and Tu-160. But there is another bomber that does not fully comply with the strategic objective, although it can make a decisive contribution to the outcome of the global conflict. Tu-22M is not considered heavy and belongs to the class of medium, it develops supersonic speed and can carry a large number of cruise missiles. This aircraft does not have a range characteristic of intercontinental bombers, therefore it is considered conditionally strategic. It is designed to strike at bases and bridgeheads of a potential enemy located in Asia and Europe.
Will there be new strategic bombers?
Russian strategic aviation currently consists of dozens of three main types of aircraft (Tu-160, Tu-95 and Tu-22). All of them are no longer new, they spent considerable time in the air and, perhaps, it may seem to some that these machines need to be replaced. Journalists, far from military issues, sometimes call the "Bear" Tu-95 relict machine. However, any phenomenon in comparison should be considered. The Americans are not going to send their B-52s for scrapping, sometimes the grandchildren of the first pilots who have mastered them fly to them, but no one calls up these air giants with junk. As far as we know, our probable opponents do not plan to build new types of strategic bombers, as far as we know, considering them perhaps a rapidly aging morale of technology class. Most likely, the Russian side will not initiate a new round of the arms race.