VOICE-OVER:
This conclusion is
questionable. For example, in 1964 a total of 240 Bear bomber
passes were made over the reviewing stand in front of the Lenin
mausoleum. However, at that time technical reconnaissance assets
verified that the Soviet air force has hard-stand parking for only
160 of these aircraft, and estimates of airframe production based
on photographs of the extent of the Tupolev Design Bureau’s works
indicate that total production to that date was between 60 and 180
bombers.
Further analysis of
photographic evidence from the 1964 parade suggests that a single
group of twenty aircraft in four formations of five made repeated
passes through the same airspace, the main arc of their circuit
lying outside visual observation range of Moscow. This gave rise to
the erroneous capacity report of 1964 in which the first-strike
delivery capability of the Soviet Union was overestimated by as
much as 300 percent.
We must therefore
take anything that they show us in Red Square with a pinch of salt
when preparing force estimates. Quite possibly these four servitors
are all they’ve got. Then again, the actual battalion strength may
be considerably higher.