On Tuesday, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that two Tu-22M3 bombers of the Russian Long-range Aviation performed a scheduled flight over the neutral waters of the Black Sea. The planes were in the air for about five hours.
In a real combat situation, of course, no one would send missile carriers alone on patrol. The same practice is often used in peacetime. Therefore, the Su-27 crews of the Air Force and Air Defense Association of the Southern Military District provided fighter escort for the bombers. Of course, our planes did not enter foreign airspace and strictly adhered to the international rules for organizing such raids.
I must say that the Russian missile carriers Tu-22M3, Tu-95MS and Tu-160 regularly appear in the sky over the waters of the Arctic, the North Atlantic, the Black and Baltic Seas, and the Pacific Ocean. Russia notifies interested States about all such flights through diplomatic channels. In addition, the routes of the "Dalnikov" are agreed in advance, they lie away from civil air routes and do not pose a threat to passenger liners.
Nevertheless, almost every such raid is accompanied by angry shouts from NATO members. Our pilots are accused either of crossing the airspace of their neighbors, or of maneuvering too aggressively, in the opinion of NATO. The West does not provide any evidence of such violations, so these reproaches do not cause a serious reaction from Moscow.
Long-range bombers are really formidable equipment. It was created to perform tasks in the operational zones of land and sea theaters of military operations. The Tu-22M3 missile carrier has been successfully coping with these functions for several decades. It is equipped with an in-air refueling system and has variable sweep wings. This allows the bomber to be used on long-distance routes, in a wide range of speeds and altitudes.
Its combat range is approximately 2,400 km . This is quite enough to fly to almost any Western European country. And given the possibility of refueling, the Tu-22M3 will reach the United States if necessary. Moreover, there is a powerful navigation system on the car. An automatic on-board system is actively involved in the control of the aircraft, which greatly simplifies the life of the crew.
The military, for good reason, nicknamed the Tu-22M3 the "ship eater". During the tests, the supersonic cruise missile X-22 launched from the Tupolev struck a hole with a diameter of 20 meters in the side of the target aircraft carrier. Powerful ammunition flies up to 500 km at a speed of a thousand meters per second. In addition, the missile can be equipped with a nuclear warhead. One Tu-22M3 carries three such ammunition on board. It is also armed with an X-15 cruise missile with a maximum range of 250 km and a speed of up to 6000 km/h. The bomb load of the Tupolev reaches 24 tons.
Yuri Gavrilov