The Backfire Bomber

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[Music] [Music] in 1970 Western intelligence becomes aware of a new Soviet long-range bomber flying at twice the speed of sound it is the truffle of tu-22m backfire a nuclear bomber capable of striking targets deep in the heartland of the United States Sagi the central arrow and hydrodynamics Institute in Moscow is the Russian equivalent of NASA it has a range of wind tunnels of varying sizes subsonic to hypersonic in the 1950s its comprehensive test facilities were committed to finding ways of propelling aircraft faster before Joseph Stalin died in 1953 he placed great emphasis on the development of a Soviet intercontinental strategic bomber force the mischief Bureau attempted to respond to Stalin's pressure for a jet bomber to match the American b-47 and b-52 but large Soviet jet engines were not well enough developed at the time to give the necessary range even so Western experts believe that Soviet bears and Bisons were a direct threat to the United States at soggy and in the meiosis chip and tupolev design bureau Soviet experts recognized the problems of matching the Americans they were well aware of the limitations of Soviet jet technology tupolev had achieved intercontinental range with the tu-95 bear by using turboprops rather than pure jets but even though the bear was the fasted propeller-driven aircraft in the world it was still almost a hundred miles an hour slower than the b-52 [Music] if the Soviet Union was to compete as a genuine intercontinental bomber power the problem of combining high speed and long range would have to be solved [Music] in late 1956 America's first supersonic bomber appeared it was the convair b-58 hustler with a delta wing and for general electric jet engines that gave it a combined thrust of more than 60,000 pounds it was by no means a strategic weapon it's range was only two and a half thousand miles but it could fly twice as fast as the b-52 it was a sophisticated aircraft from a country with a broad base of high technology comparatively Soviet technological development seemed crude and narrow hardly touching the life of the ordinary Soviet citizens in October 1957 the Western world was shocked when the Soviet satellite Sputnik was rocketed into orbit not only was it launched before an American satellite but it was eight times heavier than the one America was planning to put into orbit these foot big launch forced the world to reevaluate the Soviet missile program if a Soviet rocket could launch a satellite surely it could deliver a nuclear warhead into American territory America responded immediately by accelerating its own missile programs [Music] Soviet foreign minister Gromyko met with US Secretary of State Dulles in Washington among topics they discussed was first jobs offered to the us to bring satellites and pilotless missiles under international control [Music] at the same time a project was underway that would challenge American aerospace technology to the limit it was the xb-70 program to develop an intercontinental bomber that could cruise for great distances of three times the speed of sound such an aircraft could not be touched by any known defense system if it worked the skies above the Soviet Union would be opened at the end of the 1950's the uneasy balance between the Soviet Union of the West was disturbed in Cuba on the 16th of January 1959 Fidel Castro's forces seized power from the government of Fulgencio Batista within hours of the take over the United States formally recognized the new Cuban regime a few months later in September a Soviet tu-114 airliner arrived in New York after a nonstop flight from Moscow bringing Nikita Khrushchev for a tour of the United States in a whirlwind two weeks the Soviet premier demonstrated his volatility for testing at his exclusion from Disneyland and bluntly affirming the possibility of a nuclear war at Camp David his mood appeared to calm and he discussed such things of the future of Berlin with President Eisenhower Khrushchev position had been strengthened by a successful Soviet moon rocket launch just before his arrival in America and it was strengthened further still on May the 1st 1960 when a Soviet surface-to-air missile brought down a high-flying American u-2 spy plane the pilot Francis Gary Powers was put on trial in Moscow amid great publicity Powers was convicted of espionage and Khrushchev was able to take the full advantage of what was a diplomatic disaster for the United States nikita khrushchev now had an ally in power just off the coast of the United States and when John Kennedy was elected to the presidency in November 1960 he faced an international situation that was becoming extremely difficult as well as Cuba Kennedy inherited from Dwight Eisenhower the festering problem of Berlin and the run of Soviet propaganda victories leading up to Kennedy's election was not about to end just three months after the new president's inauguration came momentous news the Soviet Union had put the first man into space and brought him back alive Yuri Gagarin had orbited the earth in a 10,000 pound satellite called Vostok the Red Square May Day Parade in 1961 was different from those of the past this one had a definite space motif and an air of great celebration Yuri Gagarin was the guest of honor he watched the launch of a rocket balloon and a series of space-related display [Music] again Western powers were false to cope with the fact that Soviet rocket technology had beaten them to another major achievement in space [Applause] Yuri Gagarin described by the Soviet Union at the time as a married industrial technician became an instant national hero and a symbol of Soviet achieve [Music] the may day news from Cuba was no better for the West just a week after the abortive Bay of Pigs invasion Castro formally announced that Cuba was a socialist nation and that there would be no more elections the ties between Castro and Khrushchev were becoming firmer [Music] after Yuri Gagarin's triumph the American space program needed to prove its credibility on May the 25th commander Alan B Shepard became the first American in space his capsule traveled only a fraction of the distance covered by Gagarin but unlike a Garin Shepard was able to maneuver in flight when he landed in the Atlantic Ocean near the Bahamas he was in excellent condition America had the second man in space on July the 21st captain Virgil Grissom became the third the mission went well but was not a complete triumph before the capsule to be pulled out of the water a hatch blew off and its sank John Kennedy made his intentions in space clear he wanted Americans on the moon [Music] at the soviet aviation day display in moscow in 1961 the West watched with interest to see what would be unveiled it was known in the West that first off favored intercontinental ballistic missiles over long-range bombers but no one was really sure how far Soviet bombers had developed once again our guardians achievements was celebrated and there was a fly past by a massive bundle but whistle intelligence had known about the bounder for three years and it was no surprise there were several different fighters including early versions of the mig-21 one with a rocket assisted takeoff system Western observers were confused by large effective looking aircraft they assumed to be bombers possibly with supersonic potential they were thought to be product of the Yakima bureau but in fact they were designed by Cooper under the tupolev established the pattern for the Soviet design bureau when he set his up in 1922 he was one of the most honored and revered figures in the Soviet aircraft industry famous for the design and construction of large aircraft in the 1920s and 30s in the 1950s his design bureau produced two of the Soviet Union's most successful large bombers his commercial aircraft were also remarkable especially the tu-104 jet airliner this is an aircraft from the family that caused surprise among Western observers at aviation day in 1961 because of its size the assumption was made by many experts that it was a supersonic bomber but it was actually the prototype of a fighter interceptor the largest in the world of the [Music] to begin with there was a great deal of confusion about its name it was developed from the TU 98 but eventually it entered service as the TU 28 the United States Department of Defense referred to it as the TU 1 to 8 NATO gave it the codename Fidler [Music] it was 90 feet long a span of it swept wings with 60 feet fully loaded it weighed 88,000 pounds it's two engines had about 27,000 pounds of thrust each and top speed was 1,100 miles an hour later versions carried two missiles under each wing one infrared and one radar [Music] the primary task of the fiddler was to intercept enemy strategic bombers reaching them as far as possible from their target and destroying them before they could launch their standoff missiles [Music] for such a large aircraft it carried a very small crew only a pilot and a navigator Fiddler's were still active in the middle 1980s some of them returning the Arctic on the lookout for any NATO intrusions into Soviet airspace while there was a confusion at the 1961 Soviet aviation day about whether or not the t28 was a supersonic bomber there was no doubt about another aircraft that made its public debut on the same day the tu-22 blinder was the first Soviet bomber genuinely capable of supersonic speeds it could only sustain them for short periods of time but it still caused the sensation among Westerners at the aviation day fly box [Music] work on the blinder began in 1955 it was intended to replace the subsonic badger but to have a much more sophisticated ability to penetrate enemy defences it was capable of speeds just under a thousand miles an hour so it was not really comparable with the American hustler which was much faster like the me assistive bounder the blindest performance was disappointing but it was by no means disastrous at first Western authorities overestimated its ability but the Soviet Air Force did not only about 250 were built which is a very small production run by Soviet standards the blinders top speed was almost one-and-a-half times the speed of sound and its maximum range was less than 4,000 miles this meant its maximum combat radius including a short supersonic dash was less than 2,000 the range of Soviet jet bombers have always been disappointed by the early 60s there was still no genuine intercontinental Soviet jet common somehow Soviet engine designers had not been able to match America in producing engines that developed both power and range [Music] the blinders engines to collie s of turbo jets giving a combined thrust of more than 60,000 pounds where unusually positioned compared with other large pupal if aircraft they were housed in short pods sitting side by side on top of the rear fuselage the fact that these engines could not deliver long range was offset to some extent by developments in weapons technology when effective long-range air launched missiles became available the importance of bomber range diminished slightly as a result the lifespan of the blinder and even the subsonic badger were extended blinders were modified to carry a supersonic nuclear missile with the nature codenamed kitchen the kitchen was stored in a recess in the blinders weapons bay it was shaped like an aircraft about 37 feet long with a wingspan of 10 feet it could carry a 200 kilo town nuclear warhead [Music] in spite of their disappointing performance blinders have had a long career serving with the Rayleigh Air Force and the Soviet Navy and ironically it was precisely the disappointing performance of this aircraft that led to the development of a far superior one the first Soviet supersonic bomber to really scare the West the tu-22m backfire in 1961 world tension over Berlin was heightening every week thousands of refugees from the eastern sector of the city were flooding into the West officials said they were suffering from tears loose panic fear that the door would slam in their face there was strong rumors circulating that Russia would seal the border between East and West Berlin in Moscow premier Khrushchev announced a massive increase in the Soviet defense budget in America President Kennedy announced an almost identical one discussions between the major Western powers failed to find a solution to the Berlin problem and Khrushchev accused Kennedy and other Western leaders of paying lip service to the idea of disarmament in August 1961 the tourists panic experienced by East Germans was suddenly justified the door was slammed in their faces it began with barbed wire on August the 14th then a wall constructed with great speed from prefabricated blocks of concrete was raised across the city East German soldiers armed with machine guns stopped any movement between East and West 50,000 East Berliners could not go to their jobs families were literally divided overnight [Music] it was too much for some people desperate attempts were made to cross from east to west this woman became a rope in a tug of war between West Berliners and East German border police [Music] in the end the Westerners won [Music] other East Germans made desperate dashes of the barbed wire on top of the wall many failed but some made it through a month later Doug huh Michelle the secretary-general of the United Nations died in a plane crash in a speech in ha Michels honor President Kennedy made an appeal for peace to the leaders of a world dangerously close to nuclear conflict the decision is ours never have the nations of the world had so much to lose or so much to gain together we shall save our planet well together we shall perish in explain say that we can and say that we must and then shall we learn the eternal thanks of mankind and as peacemakers the eternal blessing of God a year later the cuban missile crisis erupted aerial photographs showed the development of soviet missile sites in Cuba America set up a naval blockade and insisted that the Soviet Union withdraw all weapons in the United Nations Adlai Stevenson summarized the American view of Soviet action we now know not content with dr. Castro of the field II not content with the destruction of Cuban independence not content with the extension of Soviet power into the Western Hemisphere not content with a challenge to the inter-american system and to the United Nations Charter has decided to transform Cuba into a base for communist aggression into a base for putting all of the Americas under the nuclear gun after a week of intense negotiations Khrushchev back done he agreed to dismantle the Cuban bases and ship all offensive weapons back to the Soviet Union it was a turning point in his career his relationship with the People's Republic of China broke down he worked hard to reinforce ties with Egypt but suddenly in October 1964 his period as Soviet leader was over after 11 colorful years in which he changed the face of Soviet international relations and the times amazed and frustrated the international community he was removed from office the newspaper Pravda called Chris jobs leadership one of harebrained scheming and hasty decisions divorced from reality he was accused of promoting his own cult of personality it was replaced as party secretary by leonid brezhnev known to Western diplomats as the red in the gray flannel suit alexei kosygin took over as Soviet premier the international community was surprised by the change but expected Brezhnev to continue a policy of peaceful coexistence with the West one of Brezhnev's major legacies from Joseph was the rift with China Christoph's hardline with the People's Republic had led to a situation which threatened to split world communism first off was also the first Soviet leader to denounce Stalin but within six months Stalin was being praised again in Moscow [Music] the General Dynamics f-111 was the legacy of the Kennedy administration which ended in November 1963 with john f kennedy's assassination the swing-wing fighter bomber was a multi-purpose cost saver and it's variable geometry technology was of great interest to Soviet intelligence the KGB and Soviet aviation experts watched the troubled development of the f-111 it was a major departure from past American fighter and bomber strategy but the Soviet Union was also interested in the f1 Elevens variable geometry technology variable geometry was particularly attractive to Soviet designers because it allowed an aircraft that could fly at twice the speed of sound to also have good takeoff and landing performance this was vital on the four surfaces of many Soviet airfields so far Soviet aircraft designers had failed to build a supersonic long-range bomber that was a real threat to the west the tu-22 blinder not only had disappointing range its wing was designed for high speed and it had poor takeoff and landing performance it needed long airfields which limited its usefulness in Soviet conditions throughout the 1960s the best Soviet aviation brains and technology worked to develop a bomber that could combine high-speed long-range and good low-speed performance Sagi the central Aero and hydrodynamics Institute developed two variable geometry plan forms one was virtually identical to the f1 unleveled with the wings swinging from the wreath the other was a compromise with only part of the wings moving [Music] Soviet aviation technology made great advances in the 1960s in July 1967 there was a perfect opportunity to show them off to the world 1967 was the fiftieth anniversary of the revolution that established the Soviet state a great airshow was held at Domodedovo outside Moscow military and diplomatic guests from all over the world were invited to attend as observers it was a spectacular exhibition a tupolev blinder flew past and fighters performed formation aerobatic [Music] every so often the audience was given tantalizing glimpses of new aircraft military and civilian the great crowd watched the skies not knowing what to expect next on the ground and in the air the surprises kept on coming military transport aircraft bigger than any others in the world disgorged amazing amounts of men and equipment towards the end of the show a group of enormous fighter aircraft blasted across the field they were forerunners of the mig-25 that would soothe through Western fighter designers into panic [Music] but in all this richness of aviation achievement there was still no new supersonic bomber this is the tupolev tu-22m when nato first became aware of early versions in 1969 they gave it the codename backfire at the time it appeared to be the long-range supersonic bomber the Soviets had been striving for for 15 years for some time the backfire was thought by Western experts to be a new version of the blinder modified with swing wings tupolev certainly referred to it as the tu-22m which usually indicates a modification since the tu-22 was the blinder the assumption was reasonable [Music] in fact the tu-22m was not a modification it was a completely new aircraft for administrative and financial reasons it was more convenient for the tupolev bureau to assign it an M designation than to treat it as a new design [Music] but the first version known to nato as back fire aid was not a major improvement over the blinder extensive redesign had to be carried out before the backfire be went into production [Music] when the backfire entered service with the Soviet Air Force and Navy in the early 1970s it carried a refueling probe in the nose and was believed to have enough range to reach North America but the Soviet Union insisted that it was not a strategic intercontinental bomber they said it was meant for tactical use in Europe and Asia and had a range of less than 1,500 miles in the strategic arms limitation talks between America and the Soviet Union in 1975 the backfire became a major issue Soviet denials of the backfires intercontinental range were met with skepticism Soviet negotiators agreed to remove the refueling probe and the backfire was exempted from classification as a strategic weapons delivery system [Applause] the refueling probes on backfire B is where removed but many Western experts believe they could be replaced at any time the backfire is a formidable weapons system it can carry more than 26,000 pounds of bombs internally nuclear or conventional it can also carry two kitchen long-range air-to-surface missiles under the fuselage and a variety of other weapons mounted under the wings in the late 70s there was discussion in military circles about Soviet attitudes to a war in Europe it was clear that the Kremlin could use the backfire to strike NATO's nuclear resources all the railheads harbours and airfields that supported its conventional forces it should also be used for similar strikes into China for many years the backfires range was calculated and debated by Western experts so was the question of whether or not it was really a strategic bomber original American estimates but it's ranged far above the modest figure proposed by the Soviets in 1975 but since then these estimates have gradually reduced [Music] the calculation of range depends on many things the speed of the mission its altitude and the weight of weapons carry latest estimates give the backfire radius of action of about 2,000 miles with a nominal internal bomb load [Music] the backfire is a large aircraft its maximum takeoff weight is almost 280,000 pounds it is a true supersonic bomber but it's not capable of reaching the magic mak to twice the speed of sound [Music] [Music] for a bomber the backfires engine placement is strange most bombers reserved the fuselage to carry fuel and the bomb load the backfire is designed more like a fighter than Obama with its engines and intakes occupying fuselage space this means that when the backfire is carrying heavy weapon loads it has to reduce fuel and therefore its potential range drops Soviet designers have always tried to build aircraft that can land on rugged airfields the backfire is an exception it needs smooth high-grade surfaces [Music] the backfire was designed with variable geometry to give good performance at high and low speeds but in spite of the swing wings its takeoff speed is high it lands at about a hundred and seventy miles an hour with the help of wing flaps and slats in post-soviet Russia the backfire has come full circle 20 years ago it was an object of fear in the West inflicting information intensified its threatening image now it's up for sale a tu-22m3 appeared at Farnborough in 1992 in the first phase of an international marketing effort as possible to the backfire the bone of contention of the salt talks in 1975 could soon be flying for a Western power [Applause] on the 23rd of December 1974 a spectacular American bomber taxied out for its first flight it was the rockwell b-1 [Applause] the b1 was intended to be a replacement for the Boeing b-52 which at that stage had been in service for almost 20 years the b-52 was a high-altitude bomber capable of high subsonic speeds because it had been in service for so long Soviet strategic defense systems were almost completely geared to counter its threat the b1 was designed to attack at supersonic speeds and it was designed to approach a target at low level it would be able to penetrate Soviet airspace under defensive radar systems flying so low that surface-to-air missiles would be useless against it [Music] at that time Soviet air defense fighters were also designed for high-altitude interception and were not equipped to detect and attack low-level targets the v1 was intended to be a genuine supersonic strategic bomber with intercontinental rape it was exactly what the Soviet Union had been attempting to develop for 20 years [Applause] the B ones implications for the Soviet air defense ministry were devastated they demanded a completely new approach to defense systems on the ground and in the air America could not be allowed to gain such a strategic advantage without some Soviets attempt to match it word began in the tupolev Bureau to develop the long-awaited Soviet intercontinental supersonic bomb no one in America had any idea that such a development was taking place the news would not filter through until 1979 and by then another crucial development had occurred [Music] in June 1977 President Jimmy Carter canceled the b1 program and diverted funds to cruise missile development but when Ronald Reagan was elected he ordered the production of a hundred b1 B's a less complex slower version of the b1 [Music] the b-1b was rolled out of Rockwell's Factory in Palmdale California on September the 4th 1984 it was very different from the b1 it retained the B ones variable geometry wing but new construction materials had reduced its radar cross-section it was a genuinely stealthy aircraft [Music] in November 1981 a poor-quality American reconnaissance photo taken over a man's gay flight test center revealed a bomber that looked remarkably like the b1 it had variable-geometry wings and a long slender fuselage but it was very large indeed 20% larger than the b1 B in fact it was larger than the aircraft the b-1b was intended to replace the giant Boeing b-52 NATO gave it the codename blackjack the Soviet Union at last had its supersonic strategic bomber the Soviet designation for the blackjack is the tupolev tu-160 its wingspan in the straight position is 182 feet almost exactly the same as the b-52 but it's 20 feet longer and the maximum takeoff weight estimated by American Air Force officials is five hundred and ninety thousand pounds 100,000 pounds more than the b-52 the blackjack is an expensive and complex aircraft far too expensive for a trainer version to be built but this aircraft is a trainer for blackjack crews [Applause] it's a tu-134 a basic commercial airliner the news section has been rebuilt and fitted with all the controls and electronics of the blackjack [Music] the blackjack became operational in 1988 in the spirit of perestroika the Soviet Air Force invited the then American Secretary of Defense Frank Carlucci to examine one at close quarters Carlucci and his senior military aide were allowed to spend 15 minutes inside a blackjack asking detailed questions about its performance and getting quite a lot of answers at the end of the inspection the Secretary's opinion was that the blackjack was a very effective piece of military equipment there's no doubt about the truth of the signature history the blackjack can fly at more than twice the speed of sound propelled by four vast turbofan engines of 50,000 pounds thrust each its unrefueled combat radius is estimated by medical officials to be 3,200 miles far greater than that of the backfire and of the b-1b [Music] when Frank Carlucci inspected the blackjack in 1988 the Soviet Air Force intended to produce 30 aircraft a year by the early 1990s but since then of the breakup of the Soviet Union and the collapse of the Russian economy has cast doubt on the future of all Russian hi-tech military aircraft [Music] it's ironic that the Soviet Union labored so long to develop a genuine supersonic intercontinental bomber only to collapse soon after aid entered service [Music] coming up next on the Discovery Channel travelled to Egypt for the restoration of the Great Sphinx on beyond mm then on the living planet host David Attenborough explores the world's oceans [Music] [Music]

Info

Channel: Phil Cipher

Views: 543,819

Rating: 4.67063 out of 5

Keywords: Wings of the Red Star, The Backfire Bomber, Tu-22M

Id: tEcqwm-mbPk

Channel Id: undefined

Length: 45min 3sec (2703 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 05 2017

Reddit Comments

Finally found it. This show got me into aviation and history back in the mid nineties and it still holds up.

There are plenty more but this is the one I could never find. RIP sir Ustinov.

👍︎︎ 2 👤︎︎ u/t33po 📅︎︎ Dec 11 2017 🗫︎ replies

That thumbnail just makes me go "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAA"

👍︎︎ 1 👤︎︎ u/SwedishWaffle 📅︎︎ Dec 11 2017 🗫︎ replies