Putin probably stationed nuclear bombers near Norwegian NATO border — for "Grom" nuclear exercises?

Created: 10/16/2022, 06:45 am

The Olenja military airfield near the Norwegian border already played a role in the Cold War, and now Kremlin boss Vladimir Putin is apparently stocking up on his arsenal there.

Olenya - The sky above the Olenya airbase in far north-western Russia was cloudless on October 7th.

The US satellite operator Planet therefore received razor-sharp images of the planes that Vladimir Putin apparently stationed just outside the Norwegian border.

Seven Tu-160 Blackjack nuclear bombers and four Tu-95 Bear-H are

now near NATO territory , according to a report by Norwegian fact-checking site

Russian President Vladimir Putin with a model of the TU-160 Pavel Taran strategic bomber in 2005. © IMAGO / ITAR-TASS

Ukraine war: Putin apparently increases arsenal at Olenya airbase

The Olenya air base was intended to serve as a springboard for the Tu-95 bombers against the United States during the Cold War of the then Soviet Union.

In September, during the Ukraine war, the military airfield on the Kola Peninsula briefly drew the attention of the world public again.

Israeli newspaper

published satellite images showing four Tu-160 aircraft and three Tu-95s in August and September.

The strategic bomber Tu-160 with the NATO code name "Blackjack" has an intercontinental range, flies at twice the speed of sound and can be equipped with both conventional and nuclear warheads.

Probably the largest bomber in the world covers up to 2,200 kilometers per hour.

Putin is now apparently stocking up on his arsenal in Olenya, because the satellite images verified by

already show seven Tu-160 nuclear bombers and four Tu-95 Bear-H at the military airfield.

"Two days later, another photo showed one of the Tu-160 bombers ready for take-off on the runway," the Norwegian fact-checkers report continued.

The planes, which are now located in the north-western region of Russia, are actually stationed at the Engels military airfield in Saratov Oblast, south-east of Moscow.

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War in Ukraine: Experts apparently confirm the use and training of strategic bombers

Neither the Norwegian Ministry of Defense nor the Office for the Protection of the Constitution initially confirmed the findings to

.

"Together with our national and international partners, we are continuously monitoring the situation," said Lieutenant Colonel and spokesman for the Norwegian Armed Forces Per Espen Strande.

The air force expert Lars Peder Haga is of the opinion that these are undoubtedly the Tu-160 and Tu-95 aircraft.

"Deploying and training strategic bombers is in itself a form of nuclear deterrence, so this [...] can be read as part of Putin's nuclear threats,"

quoted the expert and associate professor at the Norwegian Air Force School as saying.

According to Haga, the planes should possibly also take on rockets.

On the other hand, it could also be a relief of the Engels air force base, where the bombers are usually stationed.

This is near the Ukrainian border.

"The fact that the planes are based there is part of Putin's deterrence," believes expert and professor at the Institute of Defense Sciences Katarzyna Zysk.

The Kremlin chief wants to support nuclear deterrence and threats and make them credible.

She also noted to

that since 2007 the strategic bombers have been occasionally stationed in Kola.

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Strategic bomber Tu-160 was already used in the Ukraine war

A Tupolev Tu-160 strategic bomber with an Ilyushin Il-78 tanker aircraft and a Mikoyan MiG-31BM interceptor fly in formation during an exercise marking the 77th anniversary of the Victory over Nazi Germany in World War II (May 7). 2022).

© IMAGO/Vasily Fedosenko / ITAR-TASS

The strategic bombers are apparently also deployed in Ukraine.

Ukraine's General Staff said Tuesday (October 11) that Russian forces fired nearly 30 cruise missiles from Tu-95 and Tu-160 aircraft, damaging critical infrastructure in Lviv, Vinnytsia, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk and Zaporizhia Oblasts, such as the US war experts from the Institute for the Study of War think tank reported.

The Russian aircraft were used for the first time in an armed conflict in Syria in 2015.

Under the name "Grom" (in English: thunder), the Russian army conducts exercises of its nuclear forces every year.

In 2020, for example, Grom took place in December, and Putin postponed the 2021 exercises to February 2022 shortly before the start of the Ukraine war, which experts interpreted as a warning to the West.

The current activities at the Oljena military airport could point to the Russian nuclear exercise, military expert Haga

.

Professor Zysk also assumed that the deployment could be seen in connection with the upcoming exercises.

In September 2018, during exercises, there was an incident involving a Tu-160 bomber that was traveling in NATO's surveillance area near the Baltic States.

Belgian and German fighter jets intercepted the Russian supersonic bomber.