Combat aircraft

For two years, Russia’s Long-

Range Aviation supported

Moscow’s military campaign in

Syria. Combat Aircraft looks at

how Tupolev Tu-22M3, Tu-95

and Tu-160 strategic bombers

have hit targets across the

war-torn country.

REPORT Tim Ripley

Tu-22M3s, once

thought likely to

be consigned

to the history

books, have

seen extensive

combat action

over the past few

years. They are

now set to be not

only retained, but

upgraded.

Dmitriy Pichugin

real-time video surveillance of their

targets from Israeli-designed but Russian-

assembled ‘Forpost’ unmanned aerial

systems (UAS). Russian combat jets such

as the Su-34 ‘Fullback’ were used to good

e ect for pre-strike reconnaissance to help

build a picture of the target area. In turn,

forward air controllers helped with the

 nal phases of the attacks.

Long-range regeneration

The then Soviet Union was one of the

pioneers in establishing strategic bomber

forces, and the term Long-Range Aviation

 rst appeared in 1940. The Cold War set

o an arms race to develop strategic

bombers capable of delivering nuclear

weapons on targets at great ranges. It

gave rise to the venerable Tu-95 with

its huge contra-rotating Kuznetsov

turboprops, as well as the swing-wing

families of supersonic ‘Back res’ and

‘Blackjacks’.

The end of the Cold War saw hundreds

of Russian bombers cut up for scrap or

left to rot as the Soviet Union unraveled.

When Vladimir Putin became Russian

President in 2000 he set in train a series of

military reforms to overhaul the country’s

lumbering and increasingly obsolete

armed forces. This soon gathered

momentum and began to impact on

Russia’s heavy assets, which were re-

orientated from their old nuclear mission

H

IGH ABOVE THE Euphrates

Valley, a formation of six

Russian Tupolev Tu-22M3

‘Back re-C’ supersonic

bombers cruised towards

the last so-called Islamic

State (IS) stronghold in Syria, around the

town of Abu Kamal. One after another,

the aircraft took turn to disgorge their

payloads of six FAB-500-62 1,102lb

(500kg) unguided bombs in rapid

succession, obliterating everything

below them.

The whole evolution was  lmed from

the cockpits of Sukhoi Su-30SM ‘Flankers’

that were accompanying the strikers.

Once the ‘Back res’ had delivered their

deadly cargo, they turned to make the

long journey home.

During November and December 2017,

Russian Tu-22M3s made this foray over

eastern Syria on at least 14 occasions

to pound what remained of IS, helping

enable Syrian government troops and

their allies to take Abu Kamal and a

string of towns along the Euphrates.

The bombing surge against Abu Kamal

was the culmination of a two-year-long

campaign by the Russian Aerospace

Forces’ (VKS) Long-Range Aviation

command. It was a campaign that

involved all of its main bomber types:

the Tu-22M3, the Tu-95MS ‘Bear’ and the

Tu-160 ‘Blackjack’, and saw the combat

debut of two types of air launched

cruise missiles (ALCMs) — the Kh-101

and Kh-555. The Kh-101 was  rst used

on November 17, 2015 when deployed

from a Tu-160, and subsequently from

a Tu-95MS on the same date one year

later. The Kh-555 also made its debut on

November 17, 2015, from both a Tu-95MS

and a Tu-160.

In perhaps the most signi cant

development, the Russian bomber and

missile strikes were co-ordinated with

RED STAR BOMBERSRED STAR BOMBERS

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