Russian Tu-22M3 Long Range Bombers Simulate Strikes on NATO Targets

The Russian Aerospace Forces have deployed Tu-22M3 long range bombers to simulate strikes on enemy targets as part of the ongoing Russian-Belarusian Zapad 2025 military drills, with the attacks launched “with the aim of disrupting the control system and destroying critical facilities.” The Russian Defence Ministry reported regarding the operations: “The crews of Russian Aerospace Forces’ Tu-22M3 long-range bombers carried out an air strike with practical bombing, destroying targets at one of the training grounds during the Zapad 2025 joint strategic drill.” The ministry added that combat experience gained in the Ukrainian theatre was taken into account during the simulated attacks. The exercises have taken place at a time when the U.S. Air Force has deployed its own strategic bombers, namely nuclear capable B-52H aircraft, for exercises in Europe.

The Tu-22M3 was produced from 1989-1997, at approximately the same time as the American B-2 stealth bomber, and is lighter and shorter ranged than the intercontinental range Tu-160 and Tu-95MS in the fleet. The aircraft have played significant roles both in counterinsurgency operations in Syria, and more recently in the Russian-Ukrainian War, with Ukrainian Air Force Command spokesman Yury Ignat having singled out the capabilities of their Kh-22 cruise missile, which he revealed had proven nearly impossible to intercept. Ignat in December 2023 stated that since the escalation of hostilities between Russia and Ukraine in February 2022, Russian Tu-22s had fired approximately 300 Kh-22 and Kh-32 missiles at targets across Ukraine, and that Ukrainian air defences had not been able to intercept a single one. He had previously stated in January: “I emphasise that it is impossible to shoot down Kh-22 missiles with the means we have in our arsenal,” highlighting the missile’s sheer speed as the reason.

The Russian Aerospace Forces in the late 2010s expanded its Tu-22M3 fleet by bringing a small number of bombers out of storage, with these aircraft being modernised to the Tu-22M3M standard. Ukrainian strikes on Russian bomber bases on June 1, which destroyed multiple Tu-95MS bombers, as well as delays to the development of the PAK DA next generation bomber, have raised the possibility that the Tu-22M3 will be relied on more heavily in future, and that more of the aircraft will be brought out of storage. While the intercontinental range PAK DA is being developed as a successor to both the Tu-95MS and the Tu-160, the medium range Tu-22M3 has no direct successor, raising the possibility that it could continue to serve longer than Russia’s other two bomber classes. The aircraft are expected to continue to be modernised, including with the integration of an air launched variant of the Zircon hypersonic cruise missile which is currently under development.