Operation Spider's Web - Ukraine's drone strikes on Russian airfields

 

Breaking: Ukrainian drones are attacking two Russian strategic bomber bases thousands of kilometers from Ukraine.

There are reports on damage to aircraft and infrastructure.

Photo/video #1-2 show Olenya airbase in Murmansk Oblast about 2,000 km from Ukraine,
#3-4 Belaya in… pic.twitter.com/jWoR0Cd9uk

— Euromaidan Press (@EuromaidanPress) June 1, 2025

The more you read about this operation the more incredible it appears -  117 drones transported -by duped Russian drivers in special containers - to within close proximity to four widely dispersed Russian long-range aviation bases and then commanded - via the Soviet's own telecoms networks -  to go and seek out some of the Russian strategic bomber force, potentially wiping out up a third of it. A master-stroke of asymmetric warfare. According to Ukraine's SBU security service the 01 June 25 drone attacks on four of Russia's long-range aviation hit :

34% of strategic carriers of cruise missiles at the main airfields of the Russian Federation .

34% hit claim by Ukraine= ~44–48 aircraft damaged or destroyed. 

Estimated total Russian strategic bomber fleet: ~130–140 cruise missile-capable bombers.

 
Tu-95MS: ~50–60 total (22–27 active; some reports mention 45 older variants).

Tu-160: Fewer than 20 operational.

Tu-22M3: ~60 in service (40 recently observed at Olenya airbase).

Russian Bomber Losses from Ukrainian Strikes

Tu-95MS Strategic Bombers
Dec 2022 (Engels-2): At least 1 damaged
Apr 2024 (Engels-2): 3 bombers hit
Jun 2025 (Operation “Spider’s Web”): Included among 40+ aircraft hit (exact number unspecified)
Minimum confirmed: 5 x Tu-95M

Tu-22M3 Strategic Bombers
Dec 2022 (Dyagilevo): At least 1 damaged
Aug 2023 (Soltsy): 1 destroyed
Jun 2025 (Operation “Spider’s Web”): Included among 40+ aircraft hit (exact number unspecified)
Minimum confirmed: 2 x Tu-22M3

Many of the Tupolevs in the drone footage appear to have literally piles of rubber tyres distributed across their upper surfaces. Is this to tell US satellites they're unserviceable or similar?  If so, then the Ukranians have wasted their time on a few of these decrepit airframes.  Or do they disrupt radio waves or similar? 

Edit - it seems that the tyres are to break up the outline of the aircraft so that the drone can not recognise it as a target.....but then that doesn't make sense..these bases were 1000s of kms from Ukraine. They weren't expecting to be attacked by drones..

An assessment of  the losses as seen in the video footage was posted by Tom Cooper on his ACIG.INFO board

- 8 Tu-95MS, nearly all FMC-examples (or 'fully mission capable'). Including RF-94132/Voronezh, RF-94127/Vorkuta, RF-94257/Chelyabinsk (one of last two Tu-95MS' manufactured)... (two 'probables' are RF-94117/Izborsk, and RF-94120/Kozelsk). At least three loaded with Kh-101s (AFAIK, the Russians run out of Kh-555s).

- 13 Tu-22M-3: I would say: 2-3 haven't been flown in some time, but the rest is 'legitimate'.

- both of the A-50s which are old, stored airframes. This was a waste of effort.

Still, now it can be said that this is nearly '100% of FMC-part' of the Tu-95MS-fleet, and something like 50% of all the Tu-22M-3s 'still operational as of the last two years' (i.e. well beyond the '30% of the Russian bomber fleet', originally claimed by the SBU).

...and the destruction of (at least) some 6-12 Kh-101s is also 'great news', because the Russians have major problems just with trying to make these. So, this attack blew up 'quite a stock': something like 'half a month of air strikes on Ukraine'. 

summary above by Tom Cooper

A few additional observations regarding the recent strike on Russia’s strategic aviation assets may help clarify its scale and implications.

Our team currently assesses the operational strength of the Russian strategic bomber fleet to be approximately 70 to 90 aircraft. A… pic.twitter.com/wF6UPGCdTZ

— Tatarigami_UA (@Tatarigami_UA) June 3, 2025

latest issue Le Fana de l'Aviation June 2025 - the first Mirage delta

 

 On my other blogs the French aviation press gets good coverage,especially given that noted author Jean-Louis Roba writes regularly for both 'Avions' and 'Aerojournal'  -  time to devote more coverage to that other regular on French news stands, 'Le Fana de l'Aviation'. A preview of coverage reposted from Le Fana's own site...current issue features the Mirage I  - 'Dassault's master-stroke'. The first flight of a 'Mirage' with delta configuration took place on 25 June 1955. Engines were British Vipers.

editorial Air Britain's 'Aeromilitaria' 4/1975

 

Issue 4/75 " ..How many times have we all heard the statement "I'm only interested in " (fill in your own peculiar subject)? A quick look through any Air-Britain questionnaire brings to light members dedicated to a wide variety of highly-specialised subjects. Some even apologise for not having a highly-specialised interest! In the field of aviation history, one salient fact emerges. As time goes by, few people keep to their original narrow subject to the exclusion of everything else. Someone with no interest in World War One aviation can become intrigued by the background to those far-off days. Usually such lack of interest is due to the general feeling that the Royal Flying Corps and its contemporaries were amateurish organisations flying whatever aircraft they could lay hands on, as and when they could get into the air - a sort of "limp-handkerchief" technology (if it moves it's too windy to fly). When one looks closer at the RFC (and later the RAF) in World War One, the organisation required to maintain a very large air force in action is strikingly similar to that set up in World War Two. There were operational training units, flying training schools, specialised maritime, fighter and bomber schools and flying instructors schools. In the UK, there were coastal reconnaissance and defensive fighter squadrons as in World War Two and by the Armistice there was a sizeable equivalent of Bomber Command being organised at British bases. All these required a large number of aircraft and airfields and a major organisation in the shape of factories, acceptance and repair units and construction teams. Although airfield construction was not as elaborate as in World War Two, due to the lack of concrete runways and dispersals, many stations were of permanent character and a fair number of buildings of that era still exist to this day. Once one has accepted that the current organisation of an air force goes back sixty years, then one's interest tends to become retrospective. The theory has been put forward that such interest in the past is a result of nostalgia for remembrances of one's youth - which makes your editors very youthful-looking 80-year-olds. It is this potential change in interests which governs publications like AM. One does not throw away the parts which are not of immediate interest. One files them and in ten years time perhaps they become the basis for a new interest. We would like to think that some of the odder items may have started a few members off into pastures new. One of the fascinations of aviation history is that there are so many facets to a single subject which have all been concentrated into one lifetime. As aviation does not operate in a historical (or geographical) vacuum, interest can stray to other fields - military and naval history, for example. Unfortunately, we tend to lose people that way. Nevertheless, the diversions can add immeasurably not only to one's hobby but to the understanding of the background to recent history. So the moral is - keep your paperwork filed away, you never know when you may want it. And to those who want to know how one keeps track of it all for thirty years, please don't write to us as we have never found out. However, why should we always have to file paper? The next twenty years might see a revolution in information storage and distribution. After all, the Egyptians were using paper three thousand years ago so it is time someone thought of something different. They have. It's called microfilm..."

Virginia Beach Military Aviation Museum's Zero flies

 

" The Zero has flown! Guided into the air by Museum Chief Pilot Mike Spalding, our Zero took flight today for the first time since World War II. Watch out for more images and information in the coming hours, but for the moment - join us in congratulating the team at Legend Flyers, and in celebrating a key milestone for our collection!.."

9th AF P-47 -ebay photo find #123

 

PASSED BY THE CENSOR NORI7305. 

" ..THEY ARE PAVING THE WAY FOR INVASION. HAMMERING THE CHANNEL COAST DEFENCES IN DAY- LONG BOMBING RAIDS, THE U.S. NINTH AIR FORCE, UNDER BRIG-GEN. ERGUESADA, OF WASHINGTON, D.C., IS NOW PERFECTING THE TACTICS NECESSATY TO GIVE COMPLETE SUPPORT TO GROUND FORCES IN THE COMING INVASION. ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO SHOWS: A QUINTET OF THUNDERBOLT PILOTS OF THE 'US. NINTH AIR FORCE WHO ARE NOW HAMMERING AT HITLER'S COASTAL DEFENCES..."

LEFT TO RIGHT:

 CAPTS Ε.Η. SPRIETSMA, OF RIVERSIDE, ILL; 

 LT, PD. FLOYD. OF NEW BOSTON, OHIO 

 EARL A. CABE, of CANTON, NORTH CAROLINA ,

 LT. J.B. WESTWOOD LEWIS KANSAS 

 Lt M.C. Peterson Santa Monica Calif.