The Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said that a Ukrainian drone destroyed a Russian Tu-22M3 bomber a “few days ago.” The aircraft, which forms the mainstay of the Russian bomber fleet along with Tu-95 and Tu-160, costs US$100 million.
Speaking at an interview with a local Ukrainian publication on April 9, the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said, “A few days ago, our successful operations destroyed a Tu-22M3 bomber plane. Just as it landed, it was hit by our drone.”
These claims were also published by the official account of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense on the social media site X. However, neither the Ministry nor the AFU chief provided substantial evidence to back their claims.
Syrskyi did not specify when and where the attack took place. He also did not mention which drone was used in that alleged high-value attack and how much explosive it packed. However, a typical Ukrainian drone costs a few thousand dollars, as opposed to the US$100 million Russian bomber.
The claims are viewed as unprecedented because neither Russia nor war-tracking open-source intelligence (OSINT) accounts have reported the destruction of a fixed-wing aircraft by a Ukrainian drone in recent times.
Earlier, Russian officials announced on April 2 that a Tu-22M3 strategic bomber crashed in the Irkutsk region of southeastern Siberia due to a technical malfunction.
The EurAsian Times could not ascertain whether the Ukrainian claims and the Tu-22M3 crash are linked due to a paucity of information from Russia. However, the two incidents are unlikely to be related, given that Irkutsk, at about 4,000 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, is well out of range of any known long-range Ukrainian weapons.
Nonetheless, the Ukrainians have made several attempts at destroying the Tu-22M3 bomber. In April 2024, the Ukrainian government reportedly shot down a Tu-22M3 Backfire bomber belonging to the Russian Air Force using a Soviet-era S-200 air defense system. The attack took place about 300 kilometers away from the Ukrainian border.
In a separate incident, the Ukrainian Military Intelligence Service (GUR) claimed in July 2024 that a Ukrainian drone hit the Tu-33M3 bomber at Olenya Airfield on the Kola Peninsula. Similar claims were made in August 2023, stating that the Tu-22M3 Backfire swing-wing bomber based at Soltsy-2 was struck by a Ukrainian drone.
While the latest claim made by the AFU chief has not been confirmed by the Russian authorities at the time of writing this report, if true, it would be another big loss for the Russian Aerospace Forces (VKS) as the Tu-22M3 bomber is regularly tasked with firing lethal Kh-22 and Kh-32 cruise missiles on Ukrainian cities.
Along with the Tu-95 and Tu-160 strategic bombers, the Tu-22M3 is the mainstay of Russia’s long-range aviation. Given that Ukrainian airspace is saturated, long-range cruise missiles fired from the safety of Russian airspace are Moscow’s best bet to keep the Ukrainian military on edge.
Almost 56 years old now, the Tu-22M3 continues to be a very strategic asset in the Russian inventory and has received several upgrades to keep it as lethal as ever.
The Formidable Tu-22M3 Bomber
Designed by Soviet Naval Aviation for long-range marine anti-shipping purposes, it is a long-range strategic and maritime strike bomber designed to fly at supersonic speeds with variable-sweep wings.
It entered service in 1972, during the height of the Cold War. The production run ended in 1993, right after the Cold War ended with the disintegration of the Soviet Union.
The bomber came in many variants.
In 1972, the first significant production variant, Tu-22M2, was launched. It had a new undercarriage, twin NK-22 engines (215 kN thrust each), longer wings, and a completely redesigned area-ruled fuselage, increasing the crew to four.
The Tu-22M2 could reach a maximum speed of Mach 1.65 and was equipped primarily with anti-ship missiles, usually one or two Raduga Kh-22 anti-ship missiles, and long-range cruise missiles. After receiving more potent NK-23 engines, several Tu-22M2s were eventually renamed Tu-22M2Ye.
However, Russia did not stop there and upgraded the aircraft further.
The Tu-22M3 (claimed to have been destroyed by Ukraine recently) first flew in 1977, was introduced into operation in 1983, and officially entered service in 1989. It had new NK-25 engines with substantially more power, wedge-shaped intake ramps similar to the MiG-25, wings with greater maximum sweep, and a re-contoured nose housing a new Almaz PNA navigation/attack radar, and NK-45 nav/attack system, which provided much-improved low-altitude flight.
The aerodynamic changes to the aircraft ostensibly increased its top speed to Mach 2.05 and its range by one-third compared to the Tu-22M2.
The Tu-22M3 can carry a variety of weaponry, such as cruise missiles, anti-ship missiles, and bombs, and has a range of nearly 6,800 kilometers (4,200 miles).
Russia primarily developed the combination of the Tu-22M3 and Kh-22 missiles to attack US aircraft carriers from a range of 1000 kilometers, staying outside the defensive envelope of a carrier group.
Over the years, this aircraft has undergone several upgrades to increase its lethality. The latest Tu-22M3 is fitted with a new sighting and powerful computing system, SVP-24-22 Gefest, replacing the NK-45 Vakhta-2 complex. Around 10 modernized aircraft are in service, and all the approximately 57 Tu-22M3s currently in service are being upgraded.
Work on the Tu-22M3M commenced in 2016, following the completion of flight tests on the Tu-22M3 mid-life upgrade (MLU).
The Tu-22M3M has reportedly been furnished with artificial intelligence and new avionics, as per a TASS report. “The capabilities of this aircraft are impressive and considerably surpass all similar foreign rivals. This plane has artificial intelligence,” Russia’s Long-Range Aviation Commander Lieutenant-General Sergei Kobylash was quoted as saying in 2018.
Another TASS report in 2020 stated that the upgraded Tu-22M3M will get new communications systems based on the Su-57 fifth-generation fighter.
It quoted Rostec as saying: “The system has been developed using the communications platform created for the Su-57 fifth-generation fighter. As its main advantages, it is characterized by high reliability, speedy information transmission, a small weight, and energy efficiency. The technical solutions laid out in creating the system help promptly build up its technical functionality by upgrading the software.”
Additionally, the updated Tu-22M3M is to be armed with various missiles, such as the Kh-32, Kh-MT, and Kh-47M2 Kinzhal hypersonic aeroballistic missiles currently carried by MiG-31K. It also has a new computer, navigation system, and digital radar processing.
While the aircraft is now several decades old, it continues to see combat year after year. Different variants of this aircraft have been used in combat in the Soviet-Afghan War, the Chechen Wars, and the Syrian Civil War. They are also capable of conducting reconnaissance and intelligence-gathering missions.
On 15 April 2022, Tu-22M3 bombers were used to strike targets in Mariupol for the first time since the start of the invasion of Ukraine. In June 2022, Russia deployed its Tu-22M3 bombers to carry out airstrikes from the airspace of Belarus for the first time. At the time, Ukrainian Intelligence alleged that six Tu-22M3 bombers were used to attack Kyiv, Chernihiv, and Sumy regions by launching 12 Kh-22 cruise missiles.
There has been no looking back since. This bomber has been deployed to strike critical Ukrainian infrastructure regularly, and hence, Ukrainian drones have tried to target the aircraft.
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