Open-source intelligence indicates that russia has been concentrating a significant part of its strategic aviation at the Belaya air base, 85 km from the city of Irkutsk, Siberia. Being as much as 4,000 kilometers from Ukraine, it cannot be simply explained with the ongoing war effort. Satellite imagery in public access allows for an approximate estimate of russian bombers' number on the site.
As of May 7, 2025, as many as 42 Tu-22M3 aircraft were gathered at this airfield, accompanied by seven Tu-95MS and seven Tu-160 bombers. The breakdown was provided by the AviVector online community.
Read more: russia's Belaya Air Base in Siberia Sees Buildup of russian Tu-95MS and Tu-22M3 Strategic Bombers and Possibly Kinzhal-Carrying MiG-31 Aircraft
In addition, the presence of 26 MiG-31 aircraft was also recorded at Belaya. In this case, those may include not only the MiG-31K known as the carriers of Kinzhal ballistic missiles, but also standard MiG-31B/BM interceptors.
In addition, seven An-26, one An-12 and one An-124 transport aircraft were spotted there. Probably, some of these airlifts were used to deliver cruise missiles to the Belaya airfield, while others use the location as a permanent deployment base.
That said, the concentration of 42 Tu-22M3 bombers at Belaya is abnormal, as it's more than 80% of the russia's entire fleet of this type of aircraft in one time and space. Usually, only one of the three Tu-22M3 units is permanently deployed at this airfield, the 200th Guards Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment. This means the other two regiments allocated part of their fleet, weakening their presence across other territories of the country.
For comparison, here are some photos of the same Belaya airfield on May 5, 2025 from OSINT analyst MT Anderson. Just two days before, only nine Tu-95MS bombers and four Tu-160 could be seen there. Evidently, many if not all the new aircraft arrived in such a short span. Here's our overview from May 6.
From a broader perspective, shuffling strategic bombers in and out of Belaya air base is not too uncommon. Moreover, the numbers tend to go up and down quite often, though not at such scale. Presumably, the main purpose of these maneuvers is to mislead Ukraine and the West about the system according to which russian strategic aviation operates and use the unpredictability factor to increase chances of success in new strikes on Ukrainian critical infrastructure.
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