tonytales,
Many thanks for sharing this your very interesting personal experience, impressive.
As for the plane itself, IMHO it was recognized long ago (as soon as long-range A2S stuff appeared) that all those beasts (like Tu-95 and B-52) are just platforms to carry missiles without any requirements (anymore) to break (or squeeze through) the ADS. In this capacity they can serve until they can fly.
As for "morally obsolete", this straightforward translation indeed sounds funny (like any idiom that does not have a good equivalent in another language). Actually this means obsolete design, though hardware itself maybe quite new and robust. E.g., somewhere in the world there are still cars being produced with carburator engines, and for them this term is also applicable (in Rus lang.).