Recent satellite imagery reveals more details of the unique measures Russia has taken in hopes of protecting its long-range bombers against Ukrainian attacks. Sattelites images reveal that Russia is placing tires on the upper surfaces of the aircraft in various patterns.
Why would you attempt to camouflage airplanes on an Airport with tires? Besides, the government agencies will get a much better resolution from their spy satellites than what you see in the pictures here, making it easy to spot planes with or without tires…
It’s paint. Not tires. There are pictures of these planes on a runway with the same colors. I really doubt they would take off with tires on the wing. It’s probably done to mess with drones that are manually flown into them.
I think the idea would be to take the tires off again before you take off.
If they were tires, they would be taken off before the plane started moving. Not when it gets to the runway.
D’oh!