These planes aren’t just expensive — they can’t be replaced. On 1 June, Ukraine launched a devastating operation, Spiderweb, against four Russian airbases, destroying and damaging over 40 aircraft, including key strategic bombers with AI-powered FPV-drones, Channel 24 reports.
According to Oleh Katkov, editor-in-chief of Defense Express, the losses amount to billions of dollars, and Russia has no way to replace them.
“A strategic bomber costs an astronomical amount. Its value isn’t even measured in money, especially for Russia. To illustrate, a modern strategic bomber costs over a billion dollars per unit, simply because so few are produced,” says Katkov.
Among the lost aircraft, the Tu-160 supersonic missile carriers, developed during the Soviet era, are especially valuable. Katkov notes that Russia has only about 18 of them left, and not a single one was built from scratch after the Soviet Union collapsed.
The situation is even worse with the Tu-95 bombers — Russia no longer produces them at all.
“The only partial replacement they can attempt is to take a Soviet airframe and try to assemble a ‘new’ aircraft around it. But there’s nothing truly new in their inventory,” Katkov explains.
Thus, the strikes on Russia’s strategic aviation don’t just weaken its military power — they expose a deep crisis in the country’s defense-industrial complex.
Earlier, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy revealed that the coordination center of the Security Service of Ukraine’s operation Spiderweb on Russian territory was located directly next to one of the FSB’s regional offices.
As a result of the operation, A-50 radar planes, Tu-95, and Tu-22M3 bombers were struck. The estimated value of the destroyed bombers exceeds $7 billion.
He added that 117 drones were used in the operation, each operated by a separate team.
