Key Points – Following Ukraine’s successful “Operation Spiderweb” drone strike on June 1st, which reportedly damaged or destroyed numerous strategic bombers, questions have arisen about whether Russia has moved its remaining fleet to safer locations.
-While it would be a logical precaution, recent satellite imagery (June 3-4) of the Anadyr air base in Russia’s far east, provided by Planet Labs to Newsweek, does not show evidence of a dispersal of Tu-160s or other strategic bombers to that location.
-The June 1st attack, which OSINT confirms hit at least 11 Tu-22M3s and 8 Tu-95s, inflicted a significant blow on Russia’s irreplaceable Soviet-era bomber force.
Will Russia Be Forced to Move Bombers Away from Ukraine?
Ukraine’s strikes against Russia’s strategic bombers, called Operation Spider’s Web in Ukraine, were a success. Using over one hundred explosive-laded FPV drones piloted by a corresponding number of Ukrainian FPV pilots, Kyiv exacted revenge.
Those Russian bombers have lobbed glide bombs, hypersonic missiles, cruise missiles, and a variety of other munitions against civilian targets all over Ukraine.
Kyiv’s message, even as peace negotiations are nominally ongoing, was simple: we’ll bomb the bombers that bomb us. And it was an unmitigated success.
“The preparation took over a year and a half. Planning, organization, every detail was perfectly executed. I can say with certainty that this is an absolutely unique operation,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on his Telegram channel.
“In total, 117 drones were used in the operation – with a corresponding number of drone operators involved. 34% of the strategic cruise missile carriers stationed at air bases were hit. Our personnel operated across multiple Russian regions – in three different time zones. And the people who assisted us were withdrawn from Russian territory before the operation, they are now safe.”
Estimates of just how many bombers were hit or destroyed may very well be lower than what President Zelensky claims. But the losses bite deep nonetheless.
Emergency Movement?
There were initial reports that Russia had moved its strategic bombers farther afield in an attempt to keep them secure from a renewed Ukrainian strike against the Russian strategic bomber fleet, which inflicted a severe blow against the Kremlin. However, the final tally of those losses remains somewhat nebulous.
A recent piece from Newsweek, citing images taken by the European Space Agency’s Sentinel satellites on June 4, suggests that Russia has not scrambled its fleet of fighter jets away from Ukraine in the aftermath of Operation Spider’s Web.
“Satellite imagery provided to Newsweek by Planet Labs, captured of Anadyr [a Russian air base] on May 26 — prior to the audacious Ukrainian strikes — showed three aircraft lined up on the main apron. The image, while low quality, does not indicate the presence of the distinctively shaped Tu-160s, analysts said.”
“A separate image from June 3 showed four aircraft on the main apron of the base, but none of the aircraft — including the one that appeared since May 26 — appear to be the world’s heaviest operational bomber, experts told Newsweek.”
Still, following Ukraine’s highly unexpected and wildly successful attack, Russia would likely move its strategic bombers more frequently — and potentially farther afield — than it has in the past, a measure to keep the bombers out of harm’s way.
Some Losses, Some Mystery
Oryx, an open-source website that tracks Russian and Ukrainian losses in Ukraine, lists all visually-confirmed equipment losses on both sides. Several of the listed losses are part of Russia’s strategic bomber fleet. Specifically, Tu-95MS strategic bombers are listed as either damaged or destroyed, and 11 of Russia’s Tu-22M3 strategic bombers are also listed as damaged or destroyed.
There is one glaring absence from that list: Russia’s Tu-160 strategic bomber.
A Numbers Game
Concrete numbers about just how many Russian bombers Ukraine was able to destroy are hard to come by.
But, “Even just from the immediately visually confirmed destruction of around 8 Tu-95 bombers, a Tu-22M3, and several other aircraft likely including more Tu-95s and an A-50U AWACS, this is a stunning success for Ukraine’s special services, Justin Bronk of the Royal United Services Institute, a think tank, said of the recent Ukrainian attack.
“If even half the total claim of 41 aircraft damaged/destroyed is confirmed,” Bronk added, “it will have a significant impact on the capacity of the Russian Long Range Aviation force to keep up its regular large scale cruise missile salvos against Ukrainian cities and infrastructure, whilst also maintaining their nuclear deterrence and signalling patrols against NATO and Japan.”
“The LRA force likely had slightly over 60 active Tu-95s and around 20 Tu-160 bombers for launching Kh-101 cruise missiles, and the fleet had been heavily tasked throughout the war. The Tu-95 has not been produced for more than 30 years and production/modernisation of the Tu-160 is at a very limited scale, so replacing losses will be very challenging. The Tu-22M3 that Russia uses to launch anti-ship quasi-ballistic missiles into Ukraine has also not been produced since the 1990s and at least two had already been lost or shot down since 2022.”
Tu-160
The Tu-160, a swept-wing supersonic bomber somewhat akin to the United States Air Force’s B-1B Lancer bomber, made its debut during the latter part of the 1980s, during the waning days of the Cold War.
Thanks to the bomber’s swing-wing design, it boasted both a high payload capacity as well as a respectable top speed. And while that jet’s origin story lies firmly within the history of the Soviet Union, a raft of upgrades since then have managed to keep the bomber a valuable platform for Russia today.
Russia’s updated Tu-160M is a deep modernization of that Cold War-era bomber. Upgrades have included new radar and avionics, as well as new jet engines, mated to the Tu-160, designed to enhance both targeting capabilities and range and payload capacity.
“The program for upgrading the Tu-160 was launched under the president’s personal decision,” a 2024 press release from TASS, a Russian state-owned news agency, explained.
“Under the government contract concluded between the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Tupolev design bureau, the design documentation for the Tu-160M aircraft was fully digitized within a short period of time, the technique of vacuum welding of titanium products restored, and the production of airframe units was resumed. Rostec’s leading industrial enterprises in the field of metallurgy, aircraft design, engineering and instrument making revitalized their cooperation.”
Postscript
Why, one might ask, would Russia undertake a modernization of a Cold War-era bomber rather than go all-in with a newer platform that incorporates newer technologies?
Russia’s PAK DA bomber, a strategic bomber that incorporates some stealth technologies, comes to mind. That bomber seeks to emulate some of the characteristics of fifth-generation aerospace technology, in particular, a reduction of the jet’s radar cross-section, a measure of stealth capabilities.
That jet’s development had been particularly slow and torturous. Persecuting Russia’s grinding ground war in Ukraine has taken the air out of the sails of other non-priority projects, the PAK DA included. While Ukraine’s Operation Spider’s Web did not eliminate Russia’s long-range strategic bomber capability, it certainly puts pressure on the remaining bomber force. Russia will almost certainly take measures to keep that force safe in the future, even if it is not able to dedicate significant resources to growing the bomber fleet.
About the Author: Caleb Larson
Caleb Larson is an American multiformat journalist based in Berlin, Germany. His work covers the intersection of conflict and society, focusing on American foreign policy and European security. He has reported from Germany, Russia, and the United States. Most recently, he covered the war in Ukraine, reporting extensively on the war’s shifting battle lines from Donbas and writing on the war’s civilian and humanitarian toll. Previously, he worked as a Defense Reporter for POLITICO Europe. You can follow his latest work on X.
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Swamplaw Yankee
June 9, 2025 at 4:24 am
The item is over. What is next?
Next, is the Japanese ground radar satellite data that Ukraine urgently needs. Once established, a secure rapid data stream on all topology will change the pace of Ukrainian operations.
Next, is the Swedish much awaited gift of a 120 degree radar plane. Now, the F-16 pilot can become creative with the border air space.
The point for the inner beltway denizen. The need for Yankee technology is slowly shrinking. MAGA POTUS Trump suddenly can switch off the Yankee satellites and the Japanese system will still function.
The Yankee military needs Ukraine urgently to expose + train the current USA army in first level battle reality. Weeks in the Kherson Human Safari downtown will awaken the snoozing military brass. The USA needs to expose 1,000,000 men to the drone cauldron reality.
The USA needs to expose 100,000 men to 3-D print metal parts for old armour and tanks. The M-113 may be ancient but the 3-d metal printer role will awaken the slumbering transport top brass. It just goes on.
The allowance of creativity at all rank levels is the magical strength of the fighting Ukrainian fathers. Already experienced in other fields, older Ukrainian fathers have “coup d’oeil” and can self-initiate “Schwerpunkt” as if they were all structural engineers. -30-
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