Tupolev Tu-22M Backfire: Russia's Swing-Wing Bomber

摘要

The Tupolev Tu-22M Backfire first came to public notice in the late 1970s during US-Soviet Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT 2) in which there was heated debate as to whether the aircraft was capable of reaching US territory. An agreement was eventually signed in June 1979, after the Tu-22M had been acknowledged as being non-strategic. Russia agreed not to station aircraft in Arctic regions (close to US territory), to remove the in-flight refuelling system and to restrict the rate of production to no more than 30 aircraft annually.