Key Points – Russia’s Tu-22M “Backfire,” a supersonic, Soviet-era bomber, is being used as a standoff platform in Ukraine, launching cruise missiles from deep within Russian airspace to avoid potent Ukrainian air defenses.
-However, this strategy exposed a key vulnerability: the aircraft are prime targets while parked on the ground. Ukraine’s “Operation Spider’s Web” drone strike on June 1st exploited this weakness, with a German Major General assessing that over 10 aircraft, including Tu-22Ms, were damaged, impacting about 10% of Russia’s long-range bomber fleet.
-This highlights a new reality where even strategic assets are at risk from low-cost, close-range asymmetric attacks.
Adapted for the War in Ukraine, Russia’s Tu-22M Toils on
In the face of blistering Ukrainian air defenses, the Russian Air Force uses its bombers to deliver stand-off munitions far away from contested airspace.
Tupolev Tu-22M
Russia’s Tupolev Tu-22M is one of the Kremlin’s Soviet-era legacy bomber aircraft, designed to fly at supersonic speeds as part of long-range strike missions against a variety of NATO targets on land, as well as surface ships at sea, such as American Carrier Strike Groups or other points of strategic importance.
Thanks to a swing-wing design not dissimilar to the U.S. Air Force’s B-1B Lancer bomber, the Tu-22M boasts a large weapon capacity and high sprint speed. Coupled with the bomber’s in-flight refueling capacity, the bomber has a wide flight radius, in keeping with its role as one airborne component of Russia’s nuclear triad.
In Ukraine, a Different Type of Mission
As a part of the Kremlin’s ongoing war in Ukraine, Russia uses the Tu-22M as a long-range missile platform. Flying well behind the highly-contested front lines in Ukraine, the Tu-22M and Russia’s other long-range bombers drop air-launched cruise missiles as well as dumb bombs converted into stand-off glide munitions against Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure, including heating and electricity generation nodes.
Striking targets from faraway airspace allows Russia’s bombers—the Tu-22M included—to hold vast swaths of Ukraine at risk while also keeping the strategic bombers distant from the high-contested airspace near the front. While a boon to keeping bombers out of harm’s way, the strategy also reflects Russia’s own shortcomings, notably the dearth of success it has enjoyed in achieving air superiority.
Ukraine’s robust, though presently taxed, air defense networks, and in particular the security umbrella afforded by the American-made Patriot air defense system, as well as the IRIS-T, a German system, keep Russian bombers at bay, much to the chagrin of Russian commanders. Though no doubt frustrating for the Kremlin, their recent bomber losses at the hands of the SBU, the Security Service of Ukraine, must have been embarrassing to the extreme.
Fatal Flaw: Tu-22M Bombers Hit on the Ground
Ukraine’s recent Operation Spider’s Web, an audacious surprise attack against Russia’s long-range strategic aviation, was a rousing success. Using over a hundred FPV drones hidden in false compartments in shipping containers, Ukrainian drones swarmed toward Russian air bases. Using a combination of human pilots and artificial intelligence, many of the explosive-laded drones managed to successfully fly to their targets, Russian bombers, and explode.
Many of the Russian bombers were on alert, loaded with fuel, and ready to take off at a moment’s notice should incoming long-range Ukrainian weaponry be detected. What the Russians did not count on, however, was a much shorter-range strike from just outside airbases. The results have been striking.
“According to our assessment, more than a dozen aircraft were damaged, TU-95 and TU-22 strategic bombers as well as A-50 surveillance planes,” German Major General Christian Freuding said in a video Reuters watched before its wider release online over the weekend. The A-50 is a Soviet-era early warning and control aircraft, similar to the AWACS planes operated by the United States and other NATO countries.
“We believe that they can no longer be used for spare parts. This is a loss, as only a handful of these aircraft exist,” Major General Freuding said. “As for the long-range bomber fleet, 10% of it has been damaged in the attack according to our assessment.”
While that blow was significant, it was far from crippling — the majority of Russia’s long-range strategic bomber fleet is still very much intact, Major General Freuding said. “But there is, of course, an indirect effect as the remaining planes will need to fly more sorties,” the general added, “meaning they will be worn out faster, and, most importantly, there is a huge psychological impact.” The general added that a fifth Ukrainian drone attack on the Ukrainka airfield, a major Russian airfield near the country’s border with China, failed. It has not been the first Tu-22 loss for Russia in this war, however.
In August 2024, a Ukrainian drone strike hit Soltsy-2 airbase, a military installation in Russia’s Novgorod region. The strike destroyed a single Tu-22M bomber. The attack was a small-scale foreshadowing of the much larger Operation Spider’s Web strikes. It was hailed as more a propaganda victory for Kyiv’s embattled forces than a strategically significant strike. It did prove, however, that Ukraine possessed the ability to strike far beyond its borders, at the heart of Russian long-range combat aviation.
Tu-22M: What Happens Next?
Russia’s use of the Tu-22M, as well as other strategic bombers, as long-range, stand-off strike platforms is an interesting case study of how Cold War-era platforms are being applied to the battlefields in Ukraine of today: well out of harm’s way, the bombers can launch munitions at Ukraine with impunity thanks to the robust network of air defenses on the ground. They’re also most vulnerable when parked on the tarmac.
The fact that Ukraine leveraged this weakness — preparing against a far-distant attack rather than one from just over the airbase fence — speaks volumes to the future role of FPVs on a modern battlefield.
About the Author: Caleb Larson
Caleb Larson is an American multiformat journalist based in Berlin, Germany. His work covers the intersection of conflict and society, focusing on American foreign policy and European security. He has reported from Germany, Russia, and the United States. Most recently, he covered the war in Ukraine, reporting extensively on the war’s shifting battle lines from Donbas and writing on the war’s civilian and humanitarian toll. Previously, he worked as a Defense Reporter for POLITICO Europe. You can follow his latest work on X.
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