Why are these bombers just sitting in the middle of a taxi way?

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Efficient_Sky5173@reddit

They are stationed because it’s a photo.

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New_Line4049@reddit

And because theyre covered in tyres.....

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Probably to make them harder targets. If you park in a designated parking spot its not that hard for someone to grab the GPS co-ordinates of that spot. With that anyone with access to GPS guided weapons has an easy time targeting those spots. If you park aircraft more randomly its harder to know exactly where to target to hit an aircraft rather than empty concrete. It also spreads the aircraft out further to minimise the risk of damaging multiple aircraft with a single weapon (either a big enough bomb to catch 2 in the explosion, just just hit one that peppers the other with shrapnel) Im guessing that airfield has no hardened aircraft shelters, or theyre all already full, so this is the next best thing they could come up with to mitigate risk.

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ketchup1345@reddit

I'm gonna take a wild guess. To spread them out. They have tyres on their wings to protect them from drone strikes.

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biscuitslap@reddit

The tyres are a old Yugoslav tactic, when the tyres are placed in specific places it can make the aircraft seem derelict from a satellite view despite it actually being fully operational,

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PredictiveSelf@reddit

Don't they put the tires on the aircraft to disrupt airflow on the wing in the event a strong gust of wind hits it while parked? Seems like tires might be more versitile than anchor points haphazardly placed whereever they might want to park the aircraft? Just a thought - happy to be corrected here.

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NassauTropicBird@reddit

It's 100% to confuse drones and automated recognition of aircraft.

When I first read that I thought surely the person was wrong but I've since read it from several sources.

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Frederf220@reddit

It's common for piles of dirt, hay, rocks to be covered in a tarp and tires to keep the tarp down. I could totally see difficulty in AI differentiating a plane and tarped dirt mound both covered in tires.

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NassauTropicBird@reddit

ROFL

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FollowingOk607@reddit

Excellent eyes.

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permagumby_001@reddit

How would tyres help with that?

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Afrogthatribbits2317@reddit

Originally supposed to mess with optical recognition guided missiles, where they train it on a bunch of images of say a bomber and when you give the missile a target of that bomber it will try to recognize it, but the tires are supposed to distort that.

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TheManWhoClicks@reddit

I wonder if by now the Ukrainians trained their drones on bombers with tires on them as well. Would make sense.

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sneijder@reddit

Did you miss this ?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1ld7ppre9vo

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TheManWhoClicks@reddit

Not at all. But those were manually flown right?

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Yurple_RS@reddit

Pretty sure they were flown manually, yeah.

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KeyGlum6538@reddit

They fly them manually generally afaik.

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TheManWhoClicks@reddit

Yeah so far. AI came up because of the tires on top of the bombers that supposedly are distracting their image recognition.

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hoppertn@reddit

Kinda like the squad of marines who snuck past AI security sentries by performing/acting non-human. One did barrel rolls, another got by in a large moving box. People are ingenious.

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CalvinHobbes101@reddit

A large box, moving, and giggling incessantly, whilst making occasional video game references.

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Extention_110@reddit

that was in 2012 bro i think we've advanced past that.

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JTrebs@reddit

Imma need to see the original lmao

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Extention_110@reddit

I'm not gonna lie, I looked for a solid 12 seconds couldn't find anything, lots found in 2023 though so I am probably wrong lol

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KeyGlum6538@reddit

Nah it was like 2012, it was only declassified recently which means it is years old at least.

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iowanawoi@reddit

FPV kamikazes

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Dry-Egg-7187@reddit

Either they just give the drone a coordinate to go to, or in the case of spider web they did train the drones on the same bombers without tires because said bombers in the Russian fleet were preparing for strikes so they didn't have tires on them

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cythrawll@reddit

i'd get a tarp and paint a cessna on it.

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pnkxz@reddit

A simple grey tarp would probably work too. What are satellites gonna do? Wait around for dusk so they can see the shadow?

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TheOriginal_858-3403@reddit

Or get a whole bunch of inflatable bombers and forget the tires. Inflate the planes, not the tires!

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Aggressive_Hat_9999@reddit

also if the drone ends up hitting the tire by accident it should soften the blow

I mean, its cheap and its free basically so why not try

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TheSaucyCrumpet@reddit

Soften the blow of a high explosive warhead?

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wileysegovia@reddit

These are lightweight drones with ten pounds of explosives on them. A tire could make the difference between scuffed paint and losing a pitot tube.

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Walbabyesser@reddit

Shaped charges suffer if triggered to far away from target (-> cope cages) so it might be they do something

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seang239@reddit

You’re underestimating what 10 pounds of explosive can do..

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wileysegovia@reddit

No, I agree with you. The best they're doing with these tires is chopping off one small end of the bell curve (situations where the explosive was too far to do much damage anyway, so the tire provided the last bit of protection.)

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deleted_by_reddit@reddit

[removed]

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TheSaucyCrumpet@reddit

Lol what?

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10art1@reddit

It could make the difference between obliterating the plane and merely blowing it to smithereens

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Immediate-Spite-5905@reddit

it makes Ivan Conscriptovich feel good

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Walbabyesser@reddit

Haahahaha! I see what you did there!

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DiligentCredit9222@reddit

They don't. But the Russians are telling their low ranking soldiers that they would totally help to calm them down at least a little bit.

Saying: "We can't do sh-t to protect our bombers" would lower their already low morale even further.

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Conte_Vincero@reddit

The real answer is nobody knows why they're there. Russia hasn't bothered to say why they do it, and so all we can do is guess.

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swift1883@reddit

In such a system, you better have a better answer than “there was nothing we could do about it”.

Or give Chernobyl a watch.

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EqualizerPG@reddit

The Russians seem to think so, videos and other satellite images seem to counter this though.

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skippythemoonrock@reddit

Drones carrying impact fused munitions like RPG warheads hit something soft that won't be as prone to setting off the fuse.

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Afrogthatribbits2317@reddit

Possibly helps, but not the main reason.

https://www.businessinsider.com/covering-aircraft-with-tires-like-russia-confuses-weapons-us-military-2024-9

https://www.twz.com/air/russia-covering-its-aircraft-in-tires-is-about-befuddling-image-matching-seekers-u-s-military-confirms

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EllyKayNobodysFool@reddit

The tires would also just burn non stop of it was an explosion and…. Not the best to leave burning tires on a plane.

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Remarkable_Baby_642@reddit

its a airforce design so that other countries dont know whats stored at these ports, these arent real bombers they painted on the taxi way. Hint shadows will never line up.

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BaronNeutron@reddit

These are called “photographs”

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AlHockeyCoach@reddit

Tired and needed a nap.

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Thommo-AUS@reddit

Hi.I think to avoid the bays that could be targeted by GPS guided weapons, being fixed locations.

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LPNTed@reddit

THIS is the answer. Bombing missions usually plan on striking the hangers/Bunkers with GPS munitions... let the GPS bombs hit the bunkers, the planes aren't there anyway. NOW OF COURSE. If this imagery is hours old, chances are the GPS coordinates can be updated to hit these airframes... maybe they will still be there.

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teddy_joesevelt@reddit

The US and Russia park almost all of our strategic bombers outside, and it's because that was the law. We agreed in the START treaty as well as other treaties during the Cold War to keep them outside so we could keep an eye on each other. If we can watch your planes we can see if you're getting ready to nuke us, and you can do the same. Russia recently abandoned that treaty but they haven't built a bunch of hangars yet and this was extensively covered in the Russian media after Ukraine's drone attack. So no, these planes are not normally parked in bunkers or hangars. But they may have been moved from their normal spots in the hope it would make them harder to find.

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MrFickless@reddit

Probably why the newer weapons have another sensor like radar/EO that’s used for the terminal phase.

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LPNTed@reddit

I'm not sure if something programmed to hit something that looks like a bunker can task switch to an airframe on the fly like that, but if it's our weapon and no one else's... I'm happy to be wrong.

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Oxytropidoceras@reddit

AGM-154C is specially designed for hardened targets and has an IR seeker for terminal guidance. AGM-158 is the same, it's designed with a penetrating warhead and has terminal IR guidance. LRASM is more for ships but it too has contrast seekers for terminal guidance. The SLAM-ER is another one.

Pretty much every standoff weapon used on a US aircraft has some form of terminal guidance, mostly using optical/IR sensors coupled with AI target recognition. Even the new HARMs (AARGM) do, they're just not designed for hitting hardened targets.

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LPNTed@reddit

Some of those weapons can even be controlled after launch, meaning the pilot can actively switch from a bunker to an aircraft.

I'd like to know how that decision process works.....but to be really honest.... that's probably way above my pay grade, and I'm fine with that.

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Oxytropidoceras@reddit

It's pretty simple, targets are pre-briefed so if they see that their munition is going to miss, they adjust. No different than how a targeting pod equipped aircraft would adjust the lasers aimpoint, except using man in the loop tech rather than laser tracking

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pjakma@reddit

You realise GPS is easily jammed?

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Oxytropidoceras@reddit

You realize most modern GPS guided weapons have INS backup or home on jam capabilities?

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pjakma@reddit

Also why things like optical image recognition targeting exists. INS is not terribly accurate.

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Oxytropidoceras@reddit

It's accurate enough that I wouldn't want to be targeted by an INS guided weapon

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pjakma@reddit

Depends on the distance. Error accumulates steady with distance traveled with INS. A drone that has traveled for hours, INS error could be hundreds of metres I suspect. Though, if combined with terrain recognition (optical or radio/radar) system or other NS to give fixes every now and then...

Astral navigation is a thing, for anything that reliably flies above the clouds.

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Ryno__25@reddit

This what Americans did.

On large airfields, aircraft only went into hangars for maintenance, and then they got moved around outside every 8 hours to avoid strikes using satellite imagery

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poggy39@reddit

Looks more like storage positioning than anything tactical.

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chris-za@reddit

They’re covered in tyres. It’s means safe to assume it’s a Russian airfield 😂

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backcountry57@reddit

Russia has a amazing ability to tackle a complex situation with ultra simple solutions

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DrNic714@reddit

Often they are parked away from structures and each other when whey are loaded.

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reduhl@reddit

It may be part of a nuclear anti proliferation treaty that got worked into regulations.

Basically have your weapon delivery system out for our satellites to see so we can count them.

You show me your weapons, I’ll show you mine and we can both agree we don’t need to make/ have more.

This is a pure guess.

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theboyfold@reddit

In the past it used to be a requirement to park bombers like this in the open: https://amuseonx.substack.com/p/no-russia-was-not-required-to-leave

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mightywarrior411@reddit

I literally read that as boomers the first time….

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Flandersar@reddit

So Maverick and Rooster can get away faster

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Happy_vibes16@reddit

Because they’d look pretty odd if they were standing

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BeachHut9@reddit

Are they real or plastic models?

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ITandFitnessJunkie@reddit

To be clear, OP, you’re watching a satellite video feed of the airbase and you took these screenshots?

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anactualspacecadet@reddit

To be clear this is google earth

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ITandFitnessJunkie@reddit

Makes no sense for OP to think they’re stationary vs. moving then.

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ABoutDeSouffle@reddit

With tires on their wings, they are parked.

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anactualspacecadet@reddit

Yeah thats whats so silly about this post lol

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dohzer@reddit

And why do they have sick leopard spots?!

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SquirrelBlind@reddit

Those are old tyres to "protect from drones"

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Metahec@reddit

You want to be the one to tell them to move?

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schmokinVapes@reddit

You can’t park there mate

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claudesoph@reddit

The planes are taking time to masturbate before they take off.

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discreetjoe2@reddit

The New START treaty between the US and Russia requires that strategic bombers be parked in the open so that they can be accounted for by satellite.

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Afrogthatribbits2317@reddit

That is incorrect and a widely spread misconception. Article X.2 of the New START treaty says "The obligation not to use concealment measures shall not apply to cover and concealment practices at ICBM bases or to the use of environmental shelters for strategic offensive arms." The treaty only requires aircraft to be visible to satellite imagery during destruction (ie: see the giant B-52 guillotine down in Arizona), and allows use of environmental shelters (essentially any shelter) for any form of nuclear weapons including bombers. There is no part of New START that requires displaying strategic bombers, for example all US B-2s are almost always in hangars due to sensitive coating and not visible to satellites.

Regardless, Russia isn't too interested in New START verification anyways.

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00owl@reddit

And as we saw, the entire world knew when the b2s were on a mission so hiding them isn't super important anyways

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driftingphotog@reddit

Russia suspended their participation in New START.

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discreetjoe2@reddit

True, but the only thing they actually stopped was the on site inspections by US representatives. For now at least they’re still abiding by the other terms of the treaty. They’re still keeping their bombers in the open in compliance with the treaty even after Ukraine used that vulnerability against them.

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Afrogthatribbits2317@reddit

No part of New START required that, see comment above.

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Mudlark-000@reddit

Those are taxiways, not runways. The aircraft are not blocking the ability to land/take off. Based on the tires spread on top of the aircraft in the second photo, they are likely spread to minimize damage from drone attacks.

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Long_Pomegranate2469@reddit

Those are taxiways, not runways.

Not to Harrison Ford.

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ScarHand69@reddit

OP said Taxi ways. They’re asking why they’re sitting in the middle of the taxi way vs. on any of adjacent spare pads.

Your reply is one of the most upvoted replies yet still doesn’t answer the question. Gotta love Reddit. Yes I know this reply will likely be downvoted

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anactualspacecadet@reddit

They’re probably taxiing to takeoff lmao

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dohzer@reddit

Why are the things in this satellite photo not moving like in a video!?

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anactualspacecadet@reddit

Yeah, OP definitely not firing on all cylinders for this one

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rastarn@reddit

None of them are likely to be serviceable anyway. At best, they are dwindling spares reservoirs, though for the most part, they were originally left in the open to make fleet numbers look bigger than they actually are.

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OracleofFl@reddit

Look at the lack of fresh rubber black marks on the runway. The marks that are there look faded.

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BuddyBronski@reddit

Exactly this. Russia frequently abandons in place rather than sending them to salvage or scrap.

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manniesaladoo@reddit

So Ukraine cannot torch them.

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s0ul_invictus@reddit

This is known as Force Dispersal. Further reading if you're interested:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dispersal_(military)

Note: I hope it's ok to post this link, if not I will remove it immediately, of course. It is not to be "low effort", but rather to provide OP with convenient sources for research if they wish to explore this topic further.

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Weary_Bat2456@reddit

Maybe one or both of them are moving? Maybe they were parked there temporarily?

Not sure what you want to get out of this?

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