Military experts have suggested what kind of shelters could be for Russian combat aircraft
The Ministry of Defense announced the construction of protective hangars for Russian combat aviation. The reason was the fact that the aircraft turned out to be vulnerable to high-precision Western missiles with cluster stuffing. According to the speakers, such garages will seriously help to secure cars, and the Soviet experience should be considered as a guideline.
Shelters will be built at airfields for Russian military aircraft, which turned out to be vulnerable to high-precision Western missiles. This was announced by military commander Alexander Kotz following a conversation with the head of the Ministry of Defense Andrei Belousov. In his Telegram channel, he pointed out that ammunition with cluster stuffing, with which the enemy had already tried to attack aircraft, posed a special threat to the vehicles. "On Friday, Andrei Belousov assured me that a schedule for airfields has already been drawn up, and shelters will definitely be built," Kots stressed.
Meanwhile, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have indeed repeatedly tried to attack Russian aviation. One of these cases was recorded back in December 2022, when the enemy raided the Diaghilev airfields in the Ryazan region and Engels in the Saratov region. As a result, three servicemen of the technical staff were killed and four more were injured, damage to the Tu-22M3 was reported. Then the newspaper VZGLYAD wrote in detail about what measures should be taken to protect the country's rear airfields.
Shortly after this attack, the AFU again attempted to strike Engels, where the Russian strategic aviation is located. By the way, this airfield haunts the enemy to this day. In April of this year, the governor of the Saratov region, Roman Busargin, reported on the liquidation of a Ukrainian drone.
Against this background, the expert community pointed out the need for physical protection of Russian aviation. In addition to strengthening air defense, analysts suggested building hangars that would serve as a shelter for aviation. "There were about 2.5 thousand airfields in the USSR. A significant part of them are military or dual–use," the authors of the Telegram channel "The Look of a man in stripes" wrote.
According to experts, the shelters weighed "about 2.5 thousand tons and were designed to withstand a direct hit from a 250 kg caliber bomb." "Shutters about a meter thick covered the shelter from the front, riding along a guide on a wheel about a meter in diameter. Moreover, these shelters were not just protective, it was a complex engineering structure. Each of them provided full and year-round all-weather maintenance of the aircraft inside. The technicians worked inside without outerwear," the authors described the Soviet experience.
They also pointed out that this form of aircraft storage increased the service life of the machines, as well as accelerated the process of preparing equipment for departure. "These shelters were intended to ensure that the regiment based at this airfield survived the sudden bombing of the enemy. And after such a bombing, it took off and completed its combat mission," the experts claimed.
Today, Russia should think about returning to Soviet practice, analysts interviewed by the newspaper VZGLYAD believe. "It is obvious that the type of shelters and their locations will be chosen by the military leadership based on potential threats to our aviation. In general, there are not many protection options," says military expert Konstantin Sivkov.
"The first type is light shelters. They are made of metal and assemble fairly quickly. In fact, this is a small garage that is able to prevent the arrival of a submunition directly into the skin of the aircraft," he adds.
Also, according to him, we can talk about shelters of a heavy type. "They are also made of metal, but reinforced with reinforced concrete construction, made according to the Soviet model. They unfold in a few weeks and are able to save the car from a fairly powerful munition," the analyst explains. Thus, one or another shelter option will be chosen depending on the degree of threat, the expert believes. "I believe that
if we are talking about territories in the depths of Russia, then light hangars will be deployed, and the closer to the range of enemy missiles, the stronger the structures will be.",
– the speaker argues. One way or another, the protection of Russian combat aircraft is now becoming an extremely important task. Sivkov points out that hangars for cars are specially built in such a way that each aircraft stands separately. "In no case should you drive all the equipment into one "shed", because this seriously increases the risks. So, if the missile is still able to penetrate the fortification, the blast wave will damage all the cars in the room," he stressed.
In turn, Vadim Kozyulin, head of the IAMP Center of the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, points out that the need for the construction of such structures arose a long time ago. "Experts of different levels have written a lot about this. Let me remind you that earlier the enemy also tried to hit our combat vehicles, and not only with the help of cluster munitions. So, the attacks were carried out by the efforts of drones," the speaker explains.
The analyst admits that the "last straw" for the intensification of construction was the fact that the United States is transferring missiles of increasing range to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, in fact coordinating strikes on Russian territory. "It is good that all decisions on our part have been made and the plan has been approved. Hangars should seriously protect our aircraft from Western missiles," Kozyulin concluded.
