An operation by Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) has hit “more than 40” Russian bombers at air bases “in the rear of the Russian Federation,” a source in the agency told the Kyiv Independent on June 1.
“Enemy strategic bombers are burning en masse in Russia — this is the result of a special operation by the SBU,” the source said.
Video provided by the source shows what appears to be a row of heavy bomber aircraft on fire at an undisclosed location.
On a runway - no. I just would think that such an old and valuable machine would be in some underground concrete hangar and wouldn’t be used to terrorize cities with conventional payload. Because their supposed role is not that.
I think it’d be much smarter to simply use the piece of equipment when its capabilities suit your needs, than treat it like a weirdly-shaped ICBM.
It was intended as part of the system including also ICBMs. But OK, doesn’t matter, late Soviet doctrines were all idiosyncratic anyway. Produced in a stagnating hierarchical system and little-tested.
Also just doctrine being subject to rapid change to suit changing realities during times of war. As an example, we can look to WW1 to see rapidly changing doctrines as it became understood to be necessary, like when the maneuver warfare of the Napoleonic Era quickly shifted to trench warfare.