Russia's 52 Backfire Bombers Are Idle. Why Aren't They Hitting Ukraine?

It's possible the Backfires are out of missiles.

A Tu-22M in 2010. Via Wikimedia Commons

Two months after the Ukrainian state security agency smuggled a thousand short-range attack drones across Russia and blew up 11 or 12 Russian air force bombers at four air bases, one of the main targets of the raid—the air force’s fleet of swing-wing, twin-jet Tupolev Tu-22M Backfire bombers—is just as vulnerable to as it was right before the June 1 raid.

The Ukrainian Operation Spider Web destroyed four Tu-22Ms and three Tupolev Tu-95 bombers at Belaya air base, 2,700 miles from Ukraine. Drones also harried Olenya air base, 1,200 miles from Ukraine, burning four or five Tu-95s but sparing the Tu-22Ms at the base.

In the weeks following the attacks, the Russian air force repositioned the remaining 44 Tu-95s as well as the undamaged fleet of 16 Tupolev Tu-160 bombers, sending the giant, jet-propelled planes to a pair of bases in Russia’s Far East, both 3,500 miles or farther from Ukraine.

The air force did not reposition the Tu-22Ms. Open-source intelligence analyst AviVector spotted 43 Backfires at Belaya on July 19. Two weeks later on July 31, there were 34 of the twin-engine, supersonic bombers at Olenya, implying the 52 active Tu-22Ms are shuttling between the two bases.