The Tupolev Tu-28 (NATO reporting name Fiddler) is a long-range interceptor aircraft introduced by the Soviet Union in the 1960s.

Contemporary interceptors, such as the Yakovlev Yak-28P, were able to cover a radius of just a few hundred kilometers[1][4][5] flying from northern Soviet bases like Talagi and Savatiya;[6][7][8] the newly developed surface-to-air missiles had even shorter range.

[1] Considering both, the sheer numbers required to defend a 5,000 km air front[nb 2] were economically impossible to maintain.

The PVO requirement called for a supersonic aircraft with enormous fuel tanks for both a good patrol time and long range, a capable radar, and the most powerful air-to-air missiles possible.

[1][2][5] The Tu-128 had a broad, low/mid-mounted swept wing carrying the main landing gear in wing-mounted pods, and slab tailplanes.

Western experts, unaware that the bulge on the belly carried testing instruments, mistook it for a large ventral radar for a mixed interceptor/AWACS role.