As much as I’d like to laugh as any Russian military stupidity, the aircraft in the picture doesn’t appear to have propellers attached, so it’s likely in some form of maintenance. Without the weight of engines and props, any strong wind over the wings is likely to move the plane around quite a lot. Putting tires on the wings disrupts the lift and helps keep the plane from moving around in storms.
That feels like a better explanation then the other theory that they are used for some form of anti-drone tech.
Would the tires do anything to protect them other than blunt the damage? Ignoring the fact that each tire conveniently has a bomb sized hole in each section?
I would imagine shrapnel would have an easier time going through a tire then through the exterior of the plane. And those bombs already do that.
Tires are very tough. Aircraft skin is very thin. I think tires would help reduce damage from shrapnel, but agree that weight and airfoil disruption is also a very plausible expansion.
Do you have any source on tires being used like this? Because sources that should know what they're talking about as far as Russian military maintenance procedures seem to have no idea why Russia would do this and suggest that this is something brand new only happening since the drone attacks.
My guess: You can remove the tires for flight, paint adds weight and I don't see the Russian army scraping off the current paint without fucking up the primer/anti corrosion layer.
most likely explanation: somebody's uncle owns a tire factory and is a good salesman.. or even more likely, somebody stole a bunch of military tires from the Army, and then sold them to the Air Force as an effective "drone deterrent"..