For a long time, there has been an absence of Tu-160 aircraft in combat missions.
The head of the Defence Ministry’s Defence Intelligence Directorate, Kyrylo Budanov, shared information on the current state of Russia’s strategic aviation. According to him, no one has seen Tu-160 aircraft on combat missions for quite some time.
He announced this during the telethon.
“Everything that the Russians do is exclusively maintaining their (airplanes) condition so that they can take off and fire missiles. As for the Tu-95, they still see that all their activity is a flight from one airfield to another, loading with missiles, then taking off, launching missiles and leaving,” he said.
According to his statement, there has been a long absence of Tu-160 aircraft in combat missions.
The head of intelligence said that Tu-22 aircraft are used quite limitedly for X-22 launches.
“They have big problems. In their documents, especially on the Tu-22, they directly write that they need to finish off their service life and, in principle, forget about this type of aviation. And as for the years of aviation. So what kind of aviation do we have? The same years, but still it flies and can carry out its tasks,” Budanov said.
Budanov also emphasized that only Tu-95 aircraft are used for missile launches, while Tu-160 remain in reserve to preserve their resources.