Russian Air Force Tu-22M
Backfire Damaged In Runway Overrun Accident During Zapad 2017 Exercise In
Western Russia
Sep 15 2017 - By
David Cenciotti
A Russian Air Force bomber skidded off the runway in
western Russia.
On Sept. 14, 2017, a Russian
Air Force Tu-22М3 RF-94233 / 20 “RED” suffered an incident when it
overran the runway at Shaykovka airfield, in western Russia. On the very same
date a flight of six Backfire bombers flew a mission over the Baltic Sea that,
according to our sources, was probably aimed at simulating a naval attack on
the Baltic Fleet.
The ADEX (Air Defense Exercise) was part of the larger
“Zapad 2017,” the anti-terror military drills (with purely defensive aims
according to the Russian MoD) taking place in Belarus and three regions in the
western part of Russia from Sept. 14-20 and involving about 12.7K troops
(including 7.2K of Belarusian troops, about 5.5K Russian troops and 3K of them
– on the territory of Belarus), about 70 aircraft and helicopters, up to 680
pieces of military hardware including about 250 tanks, up to 200 guns, MLRSs
and mortars as well as 10 warships.
The Tu-22 is a Soviet-era supersonic, swing-wing,
long-range strategic and maritime strike bomber. It was developed during the
Cold War and, with a range of about 6,800 kilometers and a payload of 24,000
kg, it is still considered a significant threat to many latest generations
weapon systems: a fast platform to launch cruise missiles, conventional or
nuclear weapons in various regional war scenarios.
Especially when it carries the Raduga
Kh-22 (AS-4 ‘Kitchen’) long-range anti-ship missile, a 13,000-lbs a
missile with a range of 320 nautical miles, the Tu-22 can be “useful” to aim at
aircraft carriers and to pursue an anti-access/area denialstrategy.
Along with launching
air strikes on ISIS in Syria from mainland Russia (and Iran,
in 2016), Tu-22s are particularly frequent visitors over the Baltic Sea
where they often perform routine training flights, some times escorted by Su-27
Flanker aircraft, flying in international airspace without
transponder, without establishing radio contact with any ATC agency: their
presence there is taken pretty seriously as they carry out their mock attacks
at day or night,
flying at very high (or
even supersonic) speed, making lives difficult for the NATO
interceptors supporting
the Baltic Air Policing (BAP) from the airbases in Lithuania and
Estonia, that are scrambled to ID and shadow them.
Back to the runway overrun incident, the four crew
members escaped the aircraft safely, as the reports and photos seem to confirm.
Source: theaviationist.com
Tupolev Tu-22M: Details
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