Military historian Dmitry Boltenkov — about how heavy bomber aircraft helped to achieve the set military goalsOn Monday, October 10, 2022, a massive missile strike was observed from the very morning on the entire Ukrainian territory remaining under Kiev's control.
There is something new in this — cruise missile attacks came in waves. In addition to military targets, energy facilities were also defeated. In just the first half of the day, according to Ukrainian estimates, up to two hundred Russian land-, sea- and air-based missiles, as well as kamikaze unmanned aerial vehicles, were used, which made this "air offensive" one of the largest since the beginning of the special operation.
The very concept of an air offensive appeared during the First World War, when the first enemy air raids on each other's objects began. But then the available aviation equipment was not capable of carrying large bombs, the planes were still young and could not have a strategic impact on the course of hostilities.
The development of aviation technology led to the appearance of heavy bombers in the Anglo-Saxon countries in the 1930s, such as the B-17, Halifax, Liberator and, eventually, to the appearance of the "Super-Strength" B-29. At the same time, in the interwar period, doctrines of victory over the enemy appeared with the help of mainly air strikes on its infrastructure. The most famous of them is the Douai doctrine, the essence of which was to win the coming war only with the help of strategic aviation. Possible losses in such a war were regarded as much smaller than during traditional infantry operations. At that time, this was especially important, since the pictures of the fields of Flanders, dotted with the bodies of soldiers in the First World War, still had a serious impact on the minds of politicians and generals of all countries.
During the Second World War, American and British heavy bombers were thrown into the sky over Germany to destroy the military industry and infrastructure, as well as, in fact, to terrorize the civilian population. It cannot be said that only such air raids — and there were also raids of a thousand planes — led to the victory of the allied countries, but Germany, and then Japan had to spend huge efforts on deploying the air defense forces of their countries (according to a number of estimates, about a million soldiers served in the air defense forces of the Third Reich at the end of the war), to move their industry underground and so on. We can definitely say that these raids led to the fact that the WWII ended earlier, and there were fewer casualties among the Allied troops than there could have been.
After the Second World War, industrially rich countries continued to develop their air forces. So, in the USA there were heavy strategic bombers B-52, and in the USSR — Tu-95 and Tu-160.
I must say that this development of strategic aviation continued to lead to important results. For example, in 1972, negotiations between the United States, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the puppet state of South Vietnam on the end of the war were interrupted by the leadership of the DRV. The then US President Richard Nixon threw aviation into battle, and above all the new B-52 strategic bombers.
In the period from December 18 to December 29, 1972, the military, as well as strategically important objects were subjected to carpet bombing: power plants, metallurgical plants, bridges, highways, railway junctions in the vicinity of Hanoi, Haiphong and the main industrial area of Thainguyen. In total, B-52 bombers made about 729 successful sorties, dropping about 15 thousand tons of ammunition on 32 targets. Tactical aviation added about 5 thousand tons of bombs. The losses of the US Air Force amounted to only about 27 aircraft. As a result of such a "Christmas Offensive", the parties returned to negotiations and the Paris Peace Agreement was signed on January 27, 1973. The United States withdrew from the Vietnam War, and a couple of years later Hanoi regained control of the entire territory of Vietnam through a land operation. And although each of the parties (the United States and the DRV) consider this their victory, it became clear to politicians and generals that it was air power that in this case became the main tool for achieving political goals.
The next time this happened was during the NATO aggression against Yugoslavia in 1999. Operation Allied Force, designated by NATO countries as a humanitarian intervention, was carried out between March 24 and June 10, 1999. Its goal was declared the end of hostilities in Kosovo between the forces of the People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia and the Kosovo Liberation Army. In 78 days, NATO aircraft made about 35 thousand sorties, used more than 23 thousand bombs and about 300 cruise missiles at military and infrastructure facilities in Kosovo and Serbia. As a result, Belgrade surrendered and withdrew its troops from the territory of Kosovo. NATO losses were minimal, the ground company was not needed.
In general, such massive air raids received a different name — to bomb the country (specify in the list) in the Stone Age. The cessation of normal life activity of the population, when there is simply no electricity, somehow has a strong moral impact not only on politicians, but also on the will of the people to resist.
Over the time since those events, missile weapons have been widely developed. Strategic bombers no longer need to enter air defense zones, they can drop aviation ammunition from a long distance. There were also unmanned aerial vehicles-kamikaze. Long-range sea- and land-based cruise missiles have been widely developed. There are even more opportunities to strike at critical military and, first of all, energy structures. Strategic air power has become more missile air power.
Such massive missile strikes as those carried out by Russia on October 10 against the terrorist regime in Kiev have already made a proper impression on the population. It's one thing to have a war on a smartphone, but it's another to sit in the subway without lights and without mobile communication. According to a number of preliminary estimates, several important thermal power plants of Ukraine were put out of operation on this day. At the same time, Russia, unlike the Kiev regime, is not a terrorist state, and does not strike Ukrainian nuclear power facilities.
The continuation of such strikes will lead to serious problems for the Kiev regime in ensuring the activities of its troops and civilians. And it will ultimately save the lives of Russian soldiers and civilians, and bring our country's victory Day closer.
The author is a military historianThe editorial board's position may not coincide with the author's opinion
