Posted on 10/01/2026 8:30:09 AM PDT by Red Badger

Russia said on Tuesday that a Tu-95 bomber crashed in one of its eastern regions.
At least six crew members died during the crash, which occurred during training, per state media.
The crash is a blow to Russia's nuclear bomber fleet, with Tu-95s now out of production.
One of Russia's Tu-95 strategic bombers crashed during a training flight in the Amur region, killing six crew members, the country's defense ministry said on Tuesday.
The plane was not carrying any ammunition, and a seventh crew member survived the initial crash and was hospitalized, the defense ministry added, per state media.
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
Aviation Ping..............😥
Until the B-21 comes online we are in the same situation. Our B-1/B-52/B-2 fleet is old and out of production.
(U.S. Air Force photo by Todd Schannuth, image altered for security)
I don’t understand how they can’t be put back into production.
They were built once, why not again. They are proven!
All of the tooling has been destroyed. Not to mention many of the engineers are no longer with us. Same reason NASA is struggling with their moon rocket. They don’t have the institutional experience/knowledge that went into building Apollo.
“I don’t understand how they can’t be put back into production.”
Tooling and expertise gone. $$$ to recreate.
Øbowel did the same to our F-22 production capabilities
My understanding that the old TU-95 has been around a long time. The Soviets may or may not have the old blueprints for that thing & to attempt to build a new version might give them an old plane with a lot of NEW expense....depending on how inflation works in the Soviet Union.
Irreplaceable? Well, that’s gotta suck.
Worse. NASA purposefully destroyed much of the Saturn tech data.
Isn’t the USAF name for the TU95 Bear, “Sitting Duck?”
It’s a machine it can be replaced, now weather you’d want to is another story.
I haven’t heard that before. It wouldn’t surprise me at all.
I wouldn’t think that an old prop-driven heavy bomber would be all that practical in today’s air combat environment. Probably still good for training though.
It’s a universally hated aircraft. The crew hates it. The people who live around it hate it. It’s just loud.
And like the B36 it stood no chance of entering enemy airspace deep enough to deliver a payload. Ridiculous WW2 era “strategic” bombers. Useful as teats on a boat.
Boar. Effing autocorrect.
In the above image of a B-21, there is a metallic “orb” in the photo directly behind the aircraft at the top of the photo. Look above the “V” of the refueling arm. The object is catching the sunlight so it isn’t a speck on the camera lense.
What is that?
Blowing it up to max appears to be some type of parachute..................or maybe they lost their gas cap............😆
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