According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the Ukrainian drone 's air strike on the Saratov Engels Air Base only resulted in the deaths of three Russian military technicians without any equipment loss. The three people who died were killed by the wreckage of the Ukrainian drone shot down by the air defense system . This statement was questioned at the time: The Ukrainian drone flew all the way to the base before being shot down. Only the debris killed three people? Russian media reports stated that in addition to the three dead, four other people were injured, but it was obvious that these injured were ignored intentionally or unintentionally by the Russian Ministry of Defense.
In addition, some Russian sources, such as journalist Vladimir Zolkin, revealed that the actual losses were much greater than the official data. This attack not only destroyed the control tower of Engels Air Force Base, resulting in 17 deaths and 26 injuries, including 3 serious injuries. It also caused varying degrees of damage to 5 Tu-95MS "Bear" strategic bombers. The results of this attack were extremely impressive.
We cannot confirm the authenticity of this news, but what is certain is that after this attack, the Russian Aerospace Force began to evacuate multiple strategic bombers from Engels Air Force Base. Among them, about 4-6 Tu-95MS "Bear" were evacuated to the "Ukrainian" Air Force Base in the Amur region in the Far East (yes, it is ironic, but the base is called "Ukraine").
Engels Air Force Base is the headquarters of the 22nd Bombardment Aviation Division of the Russian Aerospace Forces. The division has a Tu-95MS "Bear" strategic bomber squadron and a Tu-160 "Jolly Roger" strategic bomber squadron. Continuous attacks have shown that Russian strategic bombers deployed at Engels Air Force Base are no longer safe, but the problem is that not all bases of the Russian Aerospace Force are suitable for deploying strategic bombers, especially the Tu-160 "Jolly Roger". Although this variable-sweep wing supersonic strategic bomber is technically obsolete, only Engels Air Force Base can provide it with better support.
Engels Air Force Base is only about 700 kilometers away from the Ukrainian border. In theory, strategic bombers taking off from the base can launch long-range cruise missiles to strike the entire territory of Ukraine as long as they are over the base. Of course, this is not actually the case. If you want to achieve a better strike effect based on the limited number of cruise missiles , you must find the weak areas of the Ukrainian air defense network, or Speaking of finding a safe air channel:
Ukraine’s air defense network with Western support is becoming stronger and stronger. The U.S. government just delivered two NASAMS air defense systems and 24 launchers to Ukraine a few days ago. The interception rate of the cruise missiles launched by the Russian army at Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in the “long-range precision strike” far exceeds the interception rate of the US military in local conflicts such as the Iraq War.
We only know now that the Ukrainian army used modified Soviet Tu-141 jet drones in its attacks on Engels Air Force Base and Diaghilev Air Force Base earlier this month. After removing reconnaissance equipment, replacing the warhead and other modifications, the Tu-141, an old and retired weapon, was transformed into a cruise missile. Ukraine now still has certain military industry R&D and production capabilities. Although most of the country's military industry was destroyed by the Russian army, if it can obtain support from other countries, Ukraine will still be able to produce usable cruise missiles. If the requirements for performance and reliability are not so high, what targets will the Ukrainian army hit by then?
Moscow is not far from the Ukrainian border, and the US government has made it clear that it does not support but does not oppose the Ukrainian government's self-developed long-range strike weapons.
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