Controversial detail about modified Neptune missile and why do Russians cover their aircraft with tires?

This is reported by Defense Express.

After the satellite images of the Russian strategic aviation base Engels near Saratov appeared, where Tu-95 and Tu-160 missile carriers were "protected" by car tires, the main question remained why this was done at all.

"Such a tool can be considered effective only very, very conditionally, and will only serve as additional fuel in a fire. At the same time, removing and reinstalling over a hundred tires on an airplane is a rather non-trivial task and takes a lot of time," the company writes. 

At the same time, the American publication The Drive acquired information from an unknown Ukrainian source that helps to explain the Russian so-called Air Force's choice.

It's all about the homing system

The Neptune upgrade for striking ground targets, according to unconfirmed sources, employs a thermal imaging homing system to detect and attack a target based on a preloaded image.

And the car tires installed on the aircraft can change the thermal signature of an object. Thus, when Neptune approaches the target, the homing head may not find the target's shape in its memory bank and "stop attacking."

Storm Shadow, Naval Strike Missile, and SLAM-ER missiles utilize this technology. Simultaneously, Neptune was created as an anti-ship missile with a radar-homing warhead.

It appears to be a much simpler effort to tweak it so that it can discriminate between targets and the ground. Furthermore, at the terminal area, the AGM-84 Harpoon Block II, which can hit ground targets, employs this type of guidance system.

"At the same time, reworking a missile for a new homing head means more than just replacing the unit itself, as it raises questions about the missile's mass centering, power supply systems, possible cooling of the GSN itself, redesign of the nose fairing, and so on. And the main issue is the availability of such a proven guidance system, or obtaining it from partner countries," Defense Express notes. 

Finally, the terminal guidance system may appear superfluous because, in many cases, a DSMAC-type guidance system is sufficient for cruise missiles when the missile scans the space below it in the optical, radar, or thermal range and compares it to a georeferenced reference image stored in memory. And it is the DSMAC, in conjunction with satellite and inertial navigation systems, that allows missiles such as the Tomahawk to hit stationary targets.

"And in the case of Russia's strategic bombers, we must understand that they do not move every hour. And the approximate pre-launch and flight time from the hypothetical launch areas of Neptune in the version for striking ground targets will be even less."

Of course, it has greatly improved its range, because the Engels is almost 650 kilometers away, while the basic anti-ship missile had a range of about 300 kilometers. Even if the unsubstantiated information regarding the new Neptune version's 400 km range is correct, it is still insufficient to strike the Engels with this missile.

• Previously, Newsweek wrote that Ukraine modernized Neptune missiles to use them for long-range strikes.