https://nypost.com/2025/06/02/world-news/how-ukraine-pulled-off-its-stunning-pearl-harbor-attack-against-russia/
Impressive operational security and planning to execute this. Not sure it will have an immediate boost in the field, considering these planes were mostly to provide nuclear deterrence, not conduct bombing operations in Ukraine.
Game theorists, is this the ideal time to launch a preemptive first strike? Russia’s ability to retaliate has been weakened.
One of the interesting parts of “Paradise” on Hulu and “Mission Impossible: Final Reckoning” is the handling of nuclear arsenals in crisis. Apparently the “rational” thing to do is activate mutually assured destruction in the event that any country faces an existential crisis or loss of control of it’s nuclear arsenal.
Although the biggest threats remain submarines and ballistic missiles, in theory a first strike that took out the ballistic missile capabilities, combined with the general expense of maintaining the Russian submarine fleet in a full war environment may raise some interesting war game / game theory scenarios. Personally, the Russian air retaliation effort was always somewhat of a make weight once they fell behind on stealth technology.