Russia’s Tupolev Design Bureau has long cranked out some oldies-but-goodies when it comes to long-range bombers. One bomber that can trace its lineage to the Cold War era but has found renewed—lethal—purpose in the Ukraine war is the Tu-22M3. In fact, it is one of the most common long-range bombers that Moscow has deployed against the Ukrainians.

This long-range supersonic bomber is a masterful bird that is meant to obliterate targets at sea, and on land, using guided missiles and bombs.

In fact, the Tu-22M3 (“Backfire,” according to its NATO designation) is so good at blasting Ukrainian targets that the Ukrainian defenders scored their first Tu-22M3 kill in April 2024. In other words, this much-used Russian bomber has been so good at its job that it took an astonishing two years for Ukraine’s NATO-supplied air defenses to down one of these birds.

According to multiple sources, the Tu-22M3 was downed only after it had launched its lethal payload, resulting in a crash as the Tu-22M3 returned to its base in Russia.

Sending Serious Signals to Washington with Dual-Use Systems 

One of the primary weapons that the Tu-22M3 has carried into battle during the Ukraine war has been the fearsome Kh-22 cruise missiles. The Kh-22 is an important weapon for Russia because it can carry either a nuclear warhead or a conventional one. Indeed, the Russians have repeatedly demonstrated their willingness to escalate to nuclear warfare by using dual-capable systems against the NATO-backed Ukrainians. This was most recently demonstrated by Russia’s successful strike against the Ukrainian city of Dnipro with the Oreshnik hypersonic weapon that could have been equipped with nukes.

Moscow is sending strong signals to the West. Although, it doesn’t sound like anyone in the West is paying attention.

Ukraine’s NATO backers have urged the Ukrainians to try to clip the Tu-22M3s’ wings before they take off from their airfields in nearby Russia. Beginning last August, Ukrainian drones began going after these devastating Russian long-range bombers while they were still on the tarmac at their airbases.

According to British intelligence (which certainly has a vested interest in making this claim), the Ukrainians did destroy one Tu-22M3 in a Ukrainian drone strike on a Russian airbase in Novgorod in August 2023. This has never been confirmed (whereas the April 2024 shootdown of the Tu-22M3 has been confirmed by multiple sources).

Underestimate Russia at Your Own Peril

Like so many systems that have found incredible success in the killing fields of Ukraine, the Tu-22M3 is an old platform. Its first prototype was launched by the Soviet Union in 1977. In 2018, the Russians completely modernized their fleet of Tu-22M3s to increase its “tactical effectiveness and … operational radius,” according to Reuters.

Made of heat-resistant steel and a combination of other alloys, such as titanium and magnesium, the variable-swept low wings make this bird a fast, maneuverable, accurate, and hard-to-kill platform, despite its age. The 2024 Military Balance Report by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies assesses that the Russian Air Force has around fifty-seven Tu-22M3s.

No matter what weapon systems NATO gives Ukraine, and regardless of how many (at most they’ve got two) of these Tu-22M3s the Ukrainians have shot down, the Russians are steadily grinding the Ukrainians down on land and in the air. And the Tu-22M3 “Backfire” has lived up to its name and legacy. So, while the Americans build their wünderwaffe, the Russians will continue building their older systems to be “good enough” to defeat their adversaries on Team NATO. 

Brandon J. Weichert, a National Interest national security analyst, is a former Congressional staffer and geopolitical analyst who is a contributor at The Washington Times, the Asia Times, and The-Pipeline. He is the author of Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower, Biohacked: China’s Race to Control Life, and The Shadow War: Iran’s Quest for Supremacy. His next book, A Disaster of Our Own Making: How the West Lost Ukraine, is available for purchase wherever books are sold. Weichert can be followed via Twitter @WeTheBrandon.