A strategic bomber is a medium- to long-range penetration bomber aircraft designed to drop large amounts of air-to-ground weaponry onto a distant target for the purposes of debilitating the enemy's capacity to wage war. Unlike tactical bombers, penetrators, fighter-bombers, and attack aircraft, which are used in air interdiction operations to attack enemy combatants and military equipment, strategic bombers are designed to fly into enemy territory to destroy strategic targets. In addition to strategic bombing, strategic bombers can be used for tactical missions. There are currently only three countries that operate strategic bombers: the United States, Russia and China.
The Ilyushin Il-28 is a jet bomber of the immediate postwar period that was originally manufactured for the Soviet Air Forces. It was the Soviet Union's first such aircraft to enter large-scale production. It was also licence-built in China as the Harbin H-5. Total production in the USSR was 6,316 aircraft, and over 319 H-5s were built. Only 187 examples of the HJ-5 training variant were manufactured. In the 1990s hundreds remained in service with various air forces over 50 years after the Il-28 first appeared. The only H-5s in service currently are approximately 80 aircraft which operate with the Korean People's Air Force. The Il-28 has the USAF/DoD reporting name "Type 27" and ASCC reporting name "Beagle", while the Il-28U trainer variant has the USAF/DoD reporting name "Type 30" and NATO reporting name Mascot.
The Tupolev Tu-4 is a piston-engined Soviet strategic bomber that served the Soviet Air Force from the late 1940s to mid-1960s. The aircraft was a copy of the American Boeing B-29 Superfortress, having been reverse-engineered from seized aircraft that had made emergency landings in the USSR.
The Tupolev Tu-22 was the first supersonic bomber to enter production in the Soviet Union. Manufactured by Tupolev, the Tu-22 entered service with Long-Range Aviation and Soviet Naval Aviation in the 1960s.
The Tupolev Tu-160 is a supersonic, variable-sweep wing nuclear-capable heavy strategic bomber and airborne missile platform designed by the Tupolev Design Bureau in the Soviet Union in the 1970s. It is the largest and heaviest Mach 2+ supersonic military aircraft ever built and second to the experimental XB-70 Valkyrie in overall length and top speed. As of 2024, it is the largest and heaviest combat aircraft, the fastest bomber in use and the largest and heaviest variable-sweep wing airplane ever flown. The Tu-160 is operated by the Long Range Aviation of the Russian Aerospace Forces.
The Myasishchev M-4 Molot was a four-engined strategic bomber designed by Vladimir Mikhailovich Myasishchev and manufactured by the Soviet Union in the 1950s to provide a Long Range Aviation bomber capable of attacking targets in North America.
The Tupolev Tu-95 is a large, four-engine turboprop-powered strategic bomber and missile platform. First flown in 1952, the Tu-95 entered service with the Long-Range Aviation of the Soviet Air Forces in 1956 and was first used in combat in 2015. It is expected to serve the Russian Aerospace Forces until at least 2040.
Soviet Naval Aviation was the naval aviation arm of the Soviet Navy.
The Tupolev Tu-22M is a supersonic, variable-sweep wing, long-range strategic and maritime strike bomber developed by the Tupolev Design Bureau in the 1960s. The bomber was reported as being designated Tu-26 by Western intelligence at one time. During the Cold War, the Tu-22M was operated by the Soviet Air Forces (VVS) in a missile carrier strategic bombing role, and by the Soviet Naval Aviation in a long-range maritime anti-shipping role. As of 2021, there were 66 of the aircraft in service.
The Tupolev Tu-14, was a Soviet twinjet light bomber derived from the Tupolev '73', the failed competitor to the Ilyushin Il-28 'Beagle'. It was used as a torpedo bomber by the mine-torpedo regiments of Soviet Naval Aviation between 1952–1959 and exported to the People's Republic of China.
The Raduga Kh-15 or RKV-15 is a Russian hypersonic aero-ballistic air-to-ground missile carried by the Tupolev Tu-22M and other bombers. Originally developed as a standoff nuclear air-to-ground missile similar to the U.S. Air Force's AGM-69 SRAM, versions with conventional warheads have been developed.
The Tupolev Tu-2 was a twin-engined Soviet high-speed daylight and frontline bomber aircraft used during World War II. The Tu-2 was tailored to meet a requirement for a high-speed bomber or dive-bomber, with a large internal bomb load and speed similar to that of a single-seat fighter. Designed to challenge the German Junkers Ju 88, the Tu-2 proved comparable and was produced in torpedo, interceptor and reconnaissance versions. The Tu-2 was an effective combat aircraft and it played a key role in the final offensives of the Red Army.
MKB Raduga is a Russian aerospace company, concerned with the production of various missile-systems and related technologies. It is headquartered in Dubna, Moscow Oblast. Formerly a division of the Mikoyan-Gurevich design bureau, it was spun off as a separate OKB in March 1957.
The Xi'an H-6 is a twin-engine jet bomber of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF). The H-6 is a license-built version of the Soviet Tupolev Tu-16 and remains the primary bomber aircraft of the People's Republic of China.
The Raduga Kh-26 KSR-5 was a long-range, air-launched cruise missile and anti ship missile developed by the Soviet Union. It was essentially a scaled down version of the Kh-22 'Kitchen', built to be carried by the less capable Tu-16.
Long-Range Aviation is a sub-branch of the Russian Aerospace Forces responsible for delivering long-range nuclear or conventional strikes by aircraft. The Russian Long Range Aviation and its now-dissolved Ukrainian counterpart were both previously part of the Soviet Air Forces, before it was split into the Air Forces of its many successor states, most notably the Russian Air Force and Ukrainian Air Force. Those branches were tasked with long-range bombardment of strategic targets with nuclear weapons.
Ostrov is a Russian Aerospace Forces air base in Pskov Oblast, Russia located 7 km southeast of Ostrov and 57 km south of Pskov. It was subordinate to the Baltic Fleet and was a nuclear bomber facility with 15 very large revetments on the east side of the airfield and about 30 small revetments on the west side. As many as 63 Tupolev Tu-16s were based here. A US intelligence analysis in 1984 identified a normal complement of 52 Tu-16 aircraft at Ostrov. The base hosted the Russian Navy's 444th Center for Combat Employment and Retraining of Personnel Naval Aviation.
The Kh-28 was the first Soviet anti-radiation missile for tactical aircraft. It entered production in 1973 and is still carried on some Sukhoi Su-22s in developing countries but is no longer in Russian service. Use of the Kh-28 was restricted by its weight, limited seeker head, bulk and fuelling requirements, and it was superseded by the smaller, solid-fuel Kh-58 in the early 1980s.
The Raduga KSR-2 was a Soviet cruise missile developed to replace the KS-1 Komet. It was developed in 1958 and entered service in 1962. The missile was normally armed with a conventional high-explosive warhead, although it could be fitted with a one-megaton nuclear warhead.
The Raduga KS-1 Komet, also referred to as AS-1 and KS-1 was a Soviet short range air-to-surface missile, primarily developed for anti-ship missions. It was carried on two aircraft, the Tupolev Tu-4 and the Tupolev Tu-16.
