China Buys Tu-22MB Bomber Production Line from Russia

Jeff Head said:

Saw this today. What do you think? Another red-herring story? Or the real thing?

Interesting development if true.

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when ever you read news like this first check russian sources like

UAC or United aircraft corporation that is an official source

others are Rosoboronexport


you can switch russian or english to do a good search

or simply Lenta.ru or RIA novosti




or tupolev official source



however it seems there is not such sale though.

You can wait a few days if it is real you will get the news but it seems it is not real

Jeff Head said:

Saw this today. What do you think? Another red-herring story? Or the real thing?

First I had heard about the PRC already having six of them. Anyone else hear of this?

The TU-22M is a very dangerous weapons system to this day. The US used the F-14 and Phoenix Missile to counter for carriers. The F/A-18F and the latest AMRAAM missiles have the same capability.

The Russians were prepared to deploy one or two regiments of these aircraft against each carrier. Will China build that many?

Interesting development if true.

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There have been talks about China and Tu-22M as far back as the 1990's but so far all has been proven as false.

The design of Tu-22M is not only old but lacks greatly in terms of expansion potentials, hardly something China would still wants.

MwRYum said:

There have been talks about China and Tu-22M as far back as the 1990's but so far all has been proven as false.

The design of Tu-22M is not only old but lacks greatly in terms of expansion potentials, hardly something China would still wants.

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Tu-22M is getting old, true in fact in 2017 PAKDA is supposed to fly and start replacing it along side Su-34, but in terms of capability as a cruise missile carrier it is a very advanced aircraft with no analogue in the world with exception of Tu-160 or B-1B.

To say something that China would not want, well it is faster and more capable than any Tu-16 version built in China or Russia.

But i doubt Russia will sell it, it is like the US selling B-1Bs to France or England, these are weapons only for the nation that designed them

MiG-29 said:

Tu-22M is getting old, true in fact in 2017 PAKDA is supposed to fly and start replacing it along side Su-34, but in terms of capability as a cruise missile carrier it is a very advanced aircraft with no analogue in the world with exception of Tu-160 or B-1B.

To say something that China would not want, well it is faster and more capable than any Tu-16 version built in China or Russia.

But i doubt Russia will sell it, it is like the US selling B-1Bs to France or England, these are weapons only for the nation that designed it

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Considering what China needs for a bomber airframe, just a cruise missile launcher and "dasher" that is the Tu-22M, is not enough, or waste of money if you ask me...despite its shortcomings the H-6 is suitable for more than just cruise missile platforms.

Bomb trucks with JDAMs, cruise missile launch platform (conventional or nuclear) with long loitering endurance, that's the thing for today's and tomorrow's bombers.

Yeah, I don't really think the PLAAF needs a low-level supersonic bomber for 'dashes' against maritime targets. They already have the J-20 for that. I'd guess that the J-20, with its stealth and possible supercruise, will be far more survivable and have a much better sortie rate than any Tu-22, nullifying the higher payload advantage of the Tu-22.

Now, the Tu-160? I can see that having a niche role PLAAF arsenal. The Tu-160 would give them a rapid-reaction, global, precision strike capability against lightly defended point targets, such as Somalian pirate camps. Would be a little bit of overkill, but the Tu-160 would be the perfect plane for the job.

i think this is even less likely than the much talked about Su-35 and Lada deals.

tphuang said:

i think this is even less likely than the much talked about Su-35 and Lada deals.

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i agree. after being burned by that Il-76 contract and watching how the indians got tortured by that gorshkov aircraft carrier the chinese are probably very wary to buy any russian weapons systems. the only thing i could think of that PLA would want to purchase is the S-400 SAM but that the russians dont want to sell.

Not another one of these reports!!

Okay okay okay...
So lets get too details and confirmation before locking this up.
Remember six bombers is still a small enough number too be both received and not yet be seen. if they are based in a more rural air station.
I am not ready too buy it yet. Particularly if they could get production.

tphuang said:

i think this is even less likely than the much talked about Su-35 and Lada deals.

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I tend to agree...but with Aviation News running with it, and with the story being about buying the entire production line and the technology transfer...it is a completely different flavor than just buying a few of the aircraft. And this would be the TU-22M3, which began service in 1983 and was upgraded regularly thereafter, so the production line would include all of the latest enhancements for the aircraft the russians continue to fly today.

I believe the TU-22M, as probably upgraded by the PLAN, would be a heck of a standoff maritime aircraft for the PLAN. Very fast and able to employ varying sorts of advanced cruise missiles very quickly.

IMHO, much more capable of delivery and survival than the older, slower Badger rebuilds. The Backfire, even in the 80s, had some pretty good EM capabilities and upgrading those for this platform would make them all the more a threat.

It is capable of Mach 2, has a 1,500 mile radius range without refueling, has a rotary launcher in its bomb bay for six missiles and can carry up to four more on hard points on its wings, service altitude of 45,000 ft, and can (of course) also carry various bombs (both free fall dumb bombs as well as precision gudied smart munitions as well). Nothing to sneeze at particularly if China had all the equipment, technology and expertise to build their own.

Russia still has about 90 of these in its air force (as of 2010) and sixty of them in its naval services (also as of 2010).

As one poster said, it would be like a PLAN B1-B.

Anyhow, it is likely to prove false, but was worth posting because of the source and the nature of the story IMHO.

Time will tell.