- Ukraine says it has shot down a Russian Tu-22M3 supersonic jet.
- This is the first time that Ukrainian forces have managed to shoot down one of the bombers.
- Here’s everything you need to know about the Tu-22M3 and how Ukraine says it shot it down.
Ukrainian intelligence announced Friday that it had shot down a fearsome Russian Tu-22M3 bomber for the first time as it launched a combat mission in Ukraine.
The Tu-22M3, which has the NATO code name “Backfire,” is a “long-range supersonic missile carrier bomber,” according to the website of its manufacturer Tupolev.
The Soviet-era plane, made from aluminum, titanium and magnesium alloys, as well as “high-strength and heat-resistant steels”, made its maiden flight in 1977, the most recent version having entered service in 1977. 2018.
It is designed to eliminate sea and land targets using guided missiles and aerial bombs.
Tupolev describes the Tu-22M series of aircraft as a “conventionally designed aircraft with a low, variable-sweep wing.”
A week-long ambush
Image appearing to show the Tu-22M3 plane after its crash. Vladimir Vladimirov
Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine’s defense intelligence (HUR), told BBC Ukraine that the Tu-22M3 carried Kh-22 missiles, which he said “perhaps caused the most destruction” in Odessa, in southern Ukraine.
The Kh-22 missile was initially designed to target ships and is capable of carrying a nuclear or conventional warhead.
Budanov added that his forces were ready to confront the bomber. “For a week we were, so to speak, in ambush. We were waiting for it to reach the right line,” he said.
HUR said the operation led to “the first successful destruction of a strategic bomber in the air during a combat mission during Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine.”
A video circulating on social media appears to show the bomber in flames and falling from the sky.
Despite the Russian claim that the bomber crashed, the British Ministry of Defense said in a report on the Russian-Ukrainian war on Saturday that “it is almost certain that reports of the use of an S-200 (SA-5) missile are accurate and that this was another successful Ukrainian action against the Russian Air Force.
He added that it was “very likely that Russia has suffered at least 100 fixed-wing combat aircraft losses to date.”
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