--- title: "Mass Drone Attack On Exposed Russian Bombers Puts Spotlight On Hardened Aircraft Shelter Debate" description: "New details continue to emerge about [Ukraine's unprecedented covert drone attacks]() on multiple Russian air bases, but the [full scale and scope]() of the resulting losses remain unclear. It is the latest global event to put a spotlight on an…" date: "2025-06-02" modified: "2025-06-02" authors: - name: "Joseph Trevithick" job_title: "Deputy Editor" link: "https://www.twz.com/authors/joseph-trevithick" url: "https://www.twz.com/air/mass-drone-attack-on-exposed-russian-bombers-puts-spotlight-on-hardened-aircraft-shelter-debate" categories: - "Air" - "Around The Globe" - "Counter-Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (C-UAS)" - "Drones" - "Europe" - "Land" - "News & Features" - "Russia" - "Ukraine" - "Unmanned" --- # Mass Drone Attack On Exposed Russian Bombers Puts Spotlight On Hardened Aircraft Shelter Debate ![Hardened aircraft shelters are up for debate as Russia experienced a major attack from Ukrainian drones.]() *Airman 1st Class Luke Kitterman* New details continue to emerge about [Ukraine's unprecedented covert drone attacks]() on multiple Russian air bases, but the [full scale and scope]() of the resulting losses remain unclear. It is the latest global event to put a spotlight on an [already fierce debate]() about whether the U.S. military should be investing in [more hardened aircraft shelters]() and other new fortified infrastructure at bases abroad and at home, [something *TWZ*]() has [been following closely](). What we just saw in Russia is a nightmare scenario that we have [been sounding the alarm]() on [for years now](), which broadly underscores [the growing threats posed by drones](). Readers can first get up to speed on what is known about the attacks, which were focused on trying to [neutralize Russian strategic bombers]() that are regularly used to [conduct cruise missile attacks]() on Ukraine, in our latest reporting [here](). Authorities in Ukraine say they attacked five bases with a total of 117 small and relatively short-range first-person-view (FPV) type kamikaze drones, destroying or at least damaging 41 aircraft. Andriy Kovalenko, an official with Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, has also said that “at least 13 Russian aircraft were destroyed.” These claims have yet to be independently verified and they should be taken as speculative at this time. https://twitter.com/mhmck/status/1929140859544404451 The drones were launched from container-like enclosures built to look like small sheds or tiny homes on tractor-trailer trucks. Questions remain about exactly how they were guided to their targets, but at least some of them were human-in-the-loop guided by operators using first-person-view 'goggles' or tablet-like devices. https://twitter.com/rshereme/status/1929381066504126842 From the imagery that has already emerged, a key aspect of the Ukrainian drone attacks was that the Russian planes that were targeted were parked out in the open. The fact that aircraft sitting on open flightlines are especially vulnerable, including to uncrewed aerial threats, is not new. “One day last week, I had two small UASs that were interfering with operations… At one base, the gate guard watched one fly over the top of the gate check, tracked it while it flew over the flight line for a little while, and then flew back out and left,” now-retired Air Force Gen. James “Mike” Holmes, then-head of Air Combat Command (ACC), [said in 2017](), now nearly a decade ago. “Imagine a world where somebody flies a couple hundred of those and flies one down the intake of my F-22s with just a small weapon on it.” At that time, [*TWZ* noted]() that it would be easier for an adversary to just attack parked planes in the open, offering a way to knock out large numbers of aircraft before they can even get airborne. Since then, we have [already had multiple opportunities]() to [re-highlight the ever-growing risk]() of something like this occurring to America's armed forces, including scenarios involving more localized attacks [on bases far from active war zones]() by [lower-end weaponized commercial drones](). The Russian military has been acutely aware of drone threats to air bases even before the all-out invasion of Ukraine in 2022. A mass drone attack on Russia's [Khmeimim Air Base outpost]() in Syria in 2017 was a watershed moment that [*TWZ* highlighted at the time]() as a sign of things to come. Regular drone attacks on Khmeimim in the late 2010s also prompted the construction of new hardened aircraft shelters there. ![]() *A satellite image showing the northwestern end of Khmeimim Air Base in Syria in 2022, including the row of hardened shelters that was built between 2018 and 2019. *Google Earth* The row of hardened shelters at [Khmeimim]() in Syria, which were built between 2018 and 2019, can be seen in this satellite image from 2022 on the apron to the left of the main runway. *Google Earth** Last year, Russia's Minister of Defense Andrey Belousov said that "a schedule for airfields has already been drawn up and that shelters will definitely be built” in response to Ukrainian drone and missile attacks, [according to]() independent Russian journalist Alexander Kots. The construction of new aircraft shelters, hardened and unhardened, had already been visible in satellite imagery of a growing number of air bases in Russia since late 2023. However, from what has been observed to date, the focus has been on better protecting [tactical jets at bases closer to Ukraine](). ![]() *Hardened aircraft shelters built in the past year at ussia’s Belbek Air Base on the occupied Crimean Peninsula are seen in this satellite image taken on May 17, 2025. *PHOTO © 2025 PLANET LABS INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. REPRINTED BY PERMISSION** Just recently, Belousov was shown a model of a hangar with [a Tu-160 Blackjack bomber]() inside as part of a presentation on new developments relating to prefabricated and modular structures for various military purposes. Whether or not the hangar model reflects an active project, or is a proposal or notional concept of some kind, is unclear. Tu-160s were among the aircraft types Ukraine explicitly targeted with its covert drone attacks this weekend. https://twitter.com/RALee85/status/1929395896174682396 Russia's construction of new aircraft shelters is part of an expanding global trend that has also been observed in [China, North Korea, and elsewhere](). https://twitter.com/Hurin92/status/1700043903750271316 https://twitter.com/vcdgf555/status/1730694349963616635 https://twitter.com/BasedQizilbash/status/1927755492194988227 The U.S. military does have hardened aircraft shelters at various bases, but has made very limited investments in building more since the end of the Cold War. Calls for new shelters, hardened or otherwise, [have been pointedly absent]() from U.S. military planning in recent years, at least publicly. Some American officials have [actively pushed back on the idea](), often citing the cost of building new hardened infrastructure, which is funding that could be applied elsewhere. The U.S. Air Force, for instance, [has been more focused on]() active defenses, such as surface-to-air missile systems, and expanding the number of [operating locations that forces could be dispersed to](), if necessary. “So, we will have the need for bases, the main operating bases from which we operate,” Air Force Gen. Kevin Schneider, head of Pacific Air Forces (PACAF), said at the Air & Space Forces Association’s (AFA) [2025 Warfare Symposium]() in March. “The challenge becomes, at some point, we will need to move to austere locations. We will need to disaggregate the force. We will need to operate out of other locations, again, one for survivability, and two, again, to provide response options." Those are requirements that “cost money” and force the Air Force to “make internal trades," such as “do we put that dollar towards, you know, fixing the infrastructure at Kadena \[Air Base in Japan\] or do we put that dollar towards [restoring an airfield at Tinian](),” Schneider added. There is [growing criticism]() that U.S. forces are being left increasingly vulnerable, including to drone attacks, by a lack of investment in hardened aircraft shelters and other new fortified facilities. A recent deployment of six of the U.S. Air Force's 19 prized B-2 stealth bombers to the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia, which wrapped up earlier this month, had offered a [new datapoint in the shelter debate](). Diego Garcia only has four specially designed B-2 shelters open, which are not hardened in any way, and the bombers were seen parked out in the open while on the island. More recently, a [detachment of F-15E Strike Eagles]() arrived on the island to [help provide force protection]() to other assets still there. ![]() *A satellite image taken in April showing the six B-2s deployed to Diego Garcia with the airfield's four shelters seen behind. *PHOTO © 2025 PLANET LABS INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. REPRINTED BY PERMISSION** "While 'active defenses' such as air and missile defense systems are an important part of base and force protection, their high cost and limited numbers mean the U.S. will not be able to deploy enough of them to fully protect our bases," a group of 13 Republican members of Congress had [written in an open letter]() to the heads of the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy in May 2024. "In order to complement active defenses and strengthen our bases, we must invest in 'passive defenses,' like hardened aircraft shelters and underground bunkers, dispersal of forces across both within a base and across multiple bases, redundant logistical facilities, and rapid runway repair capabilities." "While hardened aircraft shelters do not provide complete protection from missile attacks, they do offer significantly more protection against submunitions than expedient shelters (relocatable steel shelters). They would also force China to use more force to destroy each aircraft, thereby increasing the resources required to attack our forces and, in turn, the survivability of our valuable air assets," they added. "Constructing hardened shelters for all our air assets may not be economically feasible or tactically sensible, but the fact that the number of such shelters on U.S. bases in the region has barely changed over a decade is deeply troubling." In January, the [Hudson Institute]() think tank in Washington, D.C., released a report that underscores the points made above about the benefits that new hardened aircraft shelters offer in terms of reducing vulnerability and increasing the resources an enemy would have to expend. The authors of the Hudson report assessed that 10 missiles, each with a warhead capable of scattering cluster munitions across areas 450 feet in diameter, could be enough to neutralize all aircraft parked in the open and critical fuel storage facilities at key airbases like [Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni]() in Japan, [Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia]() in the Indian Ocean, or [Langley Air Force Base]() in Virginia. ![]() **Hudson Institute** The general points made here about the particular danger of submunitions from cluster weapons could also apply to drones with similarly sized warheads like the ones Ukraine just used in its attacks on Russia's air bases. Even fully-enclosed, but unhardened shelters could provide a modicum of additional defense against these kinds of threats. Last year, officials at two U.S. air bases – [Langley Air Force Base]() in Virginia and [Seymour Johnson Air Force Base]() in North Carolina – expressed interest in the possibility of adding nets or other similar physical defensive measures to existing open-ended, sunshade-type shelters to help protect against attacks by smaller drones. It's unclear whether there has been any movement since on actual implementation. Nets are [among the drone defenses currently used]() on [both sides of the ongoing conflict]() in Ukraine. ![]() *A graphic offering general details about the sunshade-type shelters at Langley that could now be in line to receive anti-drone nets. *USAF** Waves of still-mysterious drone incursions [over Langley Air Force Base]() in December 2023, which [*TWZ* was the first to report on](), remain a particular focal point for broader calls from Congress and elsewhere to better protect U.S. military facilities against uncrewed aerial threats. What happened at Langley is just one of a still-growing number of worrisome drone incidents over and around [U.S. military facilities](), [training ranges](), and [warships off the coast]() of the United States, as well as [critical civilian infrastructure](), in the past decade or so,[ many of which]() we [have]() reported [first](). Overseas [bases well outside]() of [established conflict zones]() that host American forces have been the site of concerning drone overflights in recent years, as well. There was also a flurry of reported drone sightings last year [over New Jersey and other parts]() of the United States, many of which quickly turned out to be spurious. However, the surge in public attention underscored a real threat, as Ukraine has now demonstrated in dramatic fashion. While Ukraine says its covert drone attacks on Russia took more than a year to plan, prepare for, and stage, they also underscore how the [basic barriers to entry]() for carrying out drone attacks, especially ones involving weaponized commercial designs, [have long been low]() in terms of cost and technical aptitude. The operation notably leveraged [ArduPilot](), described as an "open source autopilot system" that is freely available online. https://bsky.app/profile/lemonodor.bsky.social/post/3lqkmr7kuqc2s https://twitter.com/JimmySecUK/status/1929164667676479933 https://twitter.com/chr1sa/status/1929204022587674845 Drone threats are only to expand and accelerate in terms of sophistication, thanks in large part to advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning, as time goes on. Uncrewed aerial systems with rapidly improving autonomous navigation and targeting capabilities that do not require a human in the loop present particularly serious threats. Without the need for an active link to a human operator, those drones are immune to jamming and do not pump out radio emissions that can help provide early warning to defenders. They are also not limited in range to keep a connection with their controllers. Improving capabilities to autonomously find and prosecute targets are already emerging on one-way-attack drones, and this is something that can be expected to proliferate, as well. Autonomous drones that can target objects dynamic targeting without having to rely just on a fixed set of coordinates via satellite navigation like GPS, another signal that can be disrupted, will only make drone threats more complex and vastly harder to counter overall. *TWZ* has explored all of this in great [detail in this past feature](). [Swarming is another area]() that will make lower-end drones so much harder to defeat. [Working cooperatively as an integrated team]() at computer speeds allows drones to operate and react with extreme efficiency beyond the pace of the enemy's decision cycle. This, along with sheer mass and the resilience that goes with that, can quickly overwhelm defenses. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUg5GZqttkA "In general, the technology to field systems has far outpaced the technology to defeat those systems," Rear Adm. Paul Spedero, vice director for Operations, J3, Joint Chiefs of Staff, told members of the House Oversight Committee [at a hearing on drone threats]() in April. "It’s a much wider, broader, deeper market for drone application, for commercial and recreational purposes, so hence that technology has evolved very quickly from radio control drones to now fully autonomous drones that may or may not even rely on reception of a GPS signal, which would make it very challenging to intercept." Ukraine's covert drone attacks on Russia also underscore that these are increasing threats unbounded by basic geography. An adversary could launch uncrewed aerial attackers from 1,000 miles away or from an area right next to the target, or anywhere in between. There are many drone types that can address those mission needs, and affordably so. Those drones could be launched from the ground, [from ships at sea](), and/or from aerial platforms, including [other lower-end drones](). Complex attacks involving different tiers of threats approaching from multiple vectors at once only add to the complications for defending forces. https://twitter.com/Archer83Able/status/1858991147198410821 Despite all this, America's armed forces have also [continued to lag in the fielding]() of [counter-drone defenses]() for forces down-range, as well as bases and other assets in and around the homeland. Domestically, an often convoluted array of legal, regulatory, and other factors have presented challenges. On the sidelines of a U.S. military counter-drone experiment called Falcon Peak 2025 in October 2024, *TWZ* and other outlets [were notably told]() that lasers, microwaves, surface-to-air missiles, and guns were all off the table as options for neutralizing drones within the United States, at least at the time. https://twitter.com/Aviation\_Intel/status/1929186742805922077 https://twitter.com/Aviation\_Intel/status/1929188161265295386 The U.S. military does continue to [push for enhancements to the authorities]() it now has to protect its bases and other assets domestically against drone threats. As part of a new Pentagon-wide counter-drone strategy [rolled out last year](), U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) has a "synchronizer role" that includes making sure commanders [know what they are allowed to do now]() if drones appear around their facilities. Ukraine's drone attacks on Russian air bases this past weekend can only add to the already intense debate over investments in hardened aircraft shelters and other fortified infrastructure, as well as fuel calls for new counter-drone defenses, in general. The stark reality of what Ukrainian intelligence services have now demonstrated makes clear that uncrewed aerial threats, including to key assets deep inside a country's national territory, are well past the point of something that can be ignored. *Contact the author: joe@twz.com* ## Author Joseph is *TWZ’s* Deputy Editor, helping to oversee the site’s highly experienced and dedicated team, while also writing informative and impactful defense and national security content. He lives right in the thick of it in the Washington, D.C. area. ### Author social links [Twitter]() [Bluesky]()