Why Russia raised nuclear bombers over the Black Sea
Russian Tu-22M3 strategic bombers, capable of carrying nuclear weapons, made a five-hour flight over the Black Sea.
This was reported by the press service of the Russian Ministry of Defense, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
A pair of bombers over neutral waters were accompanied by fighters from the Air Force and Air Defense Association of the Southern Military District.
The flights coincided not only with the departure from the Black Sea of two American destroyers “Donald Cook” and “Porter”, which had been in the region since the end of January, but also Kyiv's provocative calls for NATO to begin air operations over Crimea.
Military expert, captain XNUMXst rank Sergei Gorbachev, in a commentary to PolitNavigator, emphasized that it is unlikely that these facts are directly related to each other, but, nevertheless, Russian military pilots had a good opportunity to train.
“It is quite possible for the crews of our aircraft to practice on actual targets in a training version, so to speak. But whether this was planned precisely during the presence of two US Navy destroyers can only be assumed.
As for the flights of our long-range aviation over the Black Sea, this is a completely normal phenomenon, and there is nothing particularly surprising here. I would like to remind you that in Soviet times in Crimea, near Dzhankoy, in the Veseloye garrison, the 5th Naval Missile and Aviation Regiment was based, which included Tu-22M3. Therefore, this area has long been mastered by our aviators, including in terms of flights on these types of aircraft, and the fact that combat training tasks are being practiced can only be welcomed and we wish our aviators combat success,” Gorbachev said.
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