Defending against Neptune: why Russia places tires on bombers (photo)
The tires on the airplane are probably positioned to confuse the homing head of the Neptune. For strikes on ground targets, journalists say, a similar system to Storm Shadow was installed on the Ukrainian munition.
Satellite images showed that the occupiers had installed tires on Tu-95 bombers. The War Zone explained why they are doing this.
At the end of August, tires for at least 5 Tu-95s and 3 Tu-160s were spotted on strategic bombers. The authors point out that there is information about the modernization of the Neptune anti-ship missile system for strikes on land targets. As a result, the tires can confuse missile targeting at the terminal stage of flight, i.e. before the target is actually hit.
The publication claims that the Neptune was modified to strike ground targets using the DSMAC or ATR system, which is a thermal imaging homing system that searches for and captures a target based on a pre-loaded image. Thus, the missile’s homing head may not be able to find the aircraft among the preloaded images at the final stage of flight. Despite these concerns, the technology has a significant advantage: it is resistant to electronic warfare.
A Ukrainian official confirmed that the Neptune missile uses a sophisticated GPS guidance system to bring the munition to a specified location. Then the homing head turns on and searches for the target. At the same time, the same system is used by Western missiles Storm Shadow or SCALP-EG.
As a result, the new version of the Neptune is causing the Russian Armed Forces a lot of headaches, as many more targets will now be at risk of being destroyed. The range of the Neptune, as stated in the media, is 400 km. And installing tires on airplanes is a strange solution, because every time you use the plane, you have to take them off and then put them back on again. But at the same time, any fire or attack on an airplane with tires on top will mean a source of fuel, because tires are good fuel.
