[2] In 2024, the Russian Air Force had 57 aircraft in service, according to the 2024 Military Balance report by International Institute for Strategic Studies.

A response to the XB-70, it was to have a cruise speed of 3,200 km/h (2,000 mph), requiring a major research effort in order to develop the requisite technologies.

Tupolev, whose expertise was with bombers, offered the Soviet Air Force (Voyenno-Vozdushnye Sily, VVS) a massively updated version of the Tu-22.

[8] The Air Force and Tupolev, in order to save face regarding the Tu-22's operational deficiencies and to stave off criticisms from the ICBM lobby, agreed to pass off the design as an update of the Tu-22 in their discussions with the government.

Their effort was successful as the government approved the design on 28 November 1967, and decreed the development of the aircraft's main weapon, the Kh-22 missile.

The existence of the aircraft was a shock to US intelligence as Nikita Khrushchev, who had been the Soviet premier up to 1964, was adamant that ICBMs would render the bomber obsolete.

The result was a new swing-wing aircraft named Samolyot 145 (Aeroplane 145), derived from the Tupolev Tu-22, with some features borrowed from the abandoned Tu-98 project.

[13][needs update] On 11 May 2020, it was reported by TASS, citing anonymous sources in the military-industrial complex, that a test launch of a new hypersonic missile, not belonging to the Kh-32 family, was conducted from a Tu-22M3M.

[19] The two prototypes Tu-22M(0) were delivered to Long Range Aviation's 42nd Combat Training Centre at Dyagilevo air base, near Ryazan, in February 1973.

[20] In June that year, the aircraft were demonstrated to Soviet government officials, destroying tanks and armoured personnel carriers.

During the exercise, naval Tu-22M2s conducted anti-ship operations by mining parts of the Baltic Sea to simulate an amphibious landing.

It was deployed December 1987 to January 1988, during which the aircraft flew strike missions in support of the Soviet Army's attempt to relieve the Mujahideens' Siege of Khost.

Capable of dropping large tonnages of conventional ordnance, the aircraft bombed enemy forts, bases and material supplies.

Working alongside 30 newly arrived MiG-27s, the aircraft also flew missions aimed at relieving the besieged city of Kandahar.

[32][33] On 9 August 2008, a Russian Tu-22MR reconnaissance aircraft was shot down in South Ossetia by a Georgian air defence Buk-M1 surface-to-air-missile system during the 5–day Russo-Georgian War.

[citation needed] On 14 July, six Tu-22M3 bombers operating from airfields in Russia delivered another massive strike on the newly detected IS facilities in the areas east of Palmyra, as well as in Al-Sukhnah, Arak, and the T-3 oil pumping station in the province of Homs.

[55] On 15 April 2022, the Ukrainian Defence Ministry stated Russia had used Tu-22M3 bombers for the first time since the start of its invasion of Ukraine, to strike targets in Mariupol.

[56] It had earlier been reported that FAB-3000M-46 dumb bombs had been reactivated in Russia for use with Tu-22M3 bombers to strike targets at the Azovstal iron and steel works plant that became the last bastion for Ukrainian troops in the besieged city of Mariupol.

[57][58] On 11 May 2022, a video emerged on social media showing a Russian Aerospace Forces Tu-22M3 bomber launching two Kh-22 missiles at targets somewhere in Ukraine.

None have been shot down by Ukrainian forces, although it is suggested that Russia has been targeting areas where there are no MIM-104 Patriot or SAMP/T missile batteries.

[69][70] On 19 April 2024, a Russian Tu-22M3 crashed near Stavropol, over 450 km of distance from the nearest Ukrainian controlled territory as of the time of the event.

Russian authorities claimed the aircraft crashed in Krasnogvardeysky District due to a technical malfunction, killing one crew member, with another missing.

[71][72][73][74] HUR drones struck the Olenya air base in Murmansk Oblast, some 1,800 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, damaging two Tu-22M3s.

[80][needs update] During 1999, India reportedly signed a lease-to-buy contract for four Tu-22M aircraft for maritime reconnaissance and strike purposes, which were to enter IAF service in 2001.

Data from Frawley,[140]General characteristics Performance Armament The Kh-55 (AS-15 Kent) long-range cruise missile was tested on the Tu-22M[144] but apparently not used in service.