Russia has decided not to use its massive military parade in the country’s capital, Moscow, to send a belligerent message on the “Victory Day” holiday. Marking the victory of the former Soviet Union (USSR) over Nazi Germany, May 9 was used exclusively for the parade of military vehicles. Even the planes didn’t take off.

The stance is important: Russian President Vladimir Putin avoided escalating the conflict. They even stopped showing the “doomsday plane” that could signal the government’s willingness and readiness to face a Third World War.

Since 1999, when Putin first came to power, the military parade has been symbolic of showing the world Russian power, so there were expectations that he would officially declare war on Ukraine – he calls it a “special operation against Nazism.”

What is a doomsday plane?

despite using II-80 as a testament to the power, Russia publishes little information about him.

This aircraft is a supermilitary device responsible for transporting the President of Russia and the main men of the Armed Forces in case of war in the country.

From there, they can manage a world conflict. It is a civilian vehicle used for travel, converted into a military device. Therefore, it is larger than warriors.

The Russian aircraft, which is estimated to be 64.7 meters long, 60.1 meters wingspan, and 15.9 meters high, will fly 9 thousand kilometers at full load.

It is an evolution of the Ilyushin II-80 Maxdrome developed by the USSR in the Cold War. It was developed throughout the 1980s, but only became operational in 1992 after the collapse of the Soviet bloc. Four more were built.

This aircraft is painted white to reflect the thermal energy of a nuclear explosion and has no passenger windows to shield them from glare after an explosion.

The aircraft has a large satellite structure that communicates with passengers and provides real-time information. There is also an antenna to communicate with Russian Navy submarines.

The doomsday plane has a probe for in-flight refueling, meaning it doesn’t have to stop to refuel.

There is even food and drink in the air that will last a few days.

The aircraft has a massive retractable antenna to control silos and intercontinental ballistic missiles. That is, it can perform long-range attacks.

Besides Russia, only one country has a small fleet of “doomsday planes”, the USA. American aircraft were also developed during the 1970s in the context of the Cold War and possible nuclear war.

The plane was stolen

Although Russia hid the information about the plane, it did not prevent one of the models from being stolen.

The lawsuit took place in December 2020. One of the planes was at the maintenance site when a group of robbers stole various communications equipment worth 1 million rubles (R$70,000 at the time) from the plane.

Shortly after, 12 people were arrested and interrogated by the Russian Police. Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said the theft was “an emergency that requires measures to prevent it from happening again in the future”.