The Ukraine war became the first one to see Tu-22M3 medium-range strategic bombers as missile carriers and platforms for firing off Kh-22 cruise missiles. At the same time, it's the fifth war in which these aircraft are used for more common "bomb delivery" missions, dropping dumb munitions on stationary targets.
The list starts with the Soviet Union's Afghan War in 1980-1988. This war may have influenced the tactics of application of Tu-22M3 in Ukraine. Although there are more factors, of course. For example, there was training for Tu-22M3 crews during the "Zapad-2021" drills on destruction of conventional enemy groups.
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Summarizing all available data from open sources, we can see the following picture. The idea of using strategic bombers as an excessive tool in a "local conflict" became fixed on the year five of hostilities. When it turned out that in the burning hot climate, army and tactical aviation planes were not able to take on board the standard combat payload. On the other hand, Tu-22M3 (or its "older brother" Tu-22M2) can take on board up to 12 tons of unguided aerial bombs without any problems.
The "debut" for bombers of the Tu-22M family was the Pandshera operation of 1984, when the Kremlin planned to eliminate Ahmad Shah's group. For this operation, the russians concentrated more than 300 combat aircraft, including a squadron of Tu-16 and six Tu-22M2, one aircraft per 12-15 enemy combatants. Tu-22M2s worked in pairs, usually carrying a load of 64 aerial bombs weighing 250 kg each, but occasionally also took on board bombs with a weight of 3,000 kg.
For the pilots of these strategic bombers to better navigate in unfamiliar terrain, the Soviet military placed radiation reflectors along the flight path. The task for the Tu-22M3 was to defeat the enemy manpower, and they did not cope with it. Because the carpet of 64 bombs weighing 250 kg usually fell in the wrong place, while the massive FAB-9000 bomb was not well suited for such missions.
The next time Kremlin went back to using Tu-22M3 during the war in Afghanistan was in November 1988. The russians needed these bombers to cover the withdrawal of units of the 40th Army. Especially since at that time almost half of the tactical and army aviation was relocated to the "mainland".
A total of 16 Tu-22M3 aircraft from two squadrons of the 185th Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment (which was stationed in Poltava at the time) were involved. They picked this very air regiment because it had already practiced bombing with the Tu-22M3 at that time and was overall the most prepared to use this type of bombers.
In December, 16 Tu-22M3 aircraft of the 402nd Aviation Regiment arrived from Orsha as a replacement.
Initially, the Tu-22M3 had the task of "shooting sparrows with a cannon" – to hunt down rocket launchers, which at the time regularly bombarded Kabul. But over time, the crews of these bombers received a purely terrorist task to launch bomb strikes "by coordinates" in order to intimidate the local population, which supported the enemy. Groups of 8 or 16 aircraft took off for the task, the "standard kit" was two FAB-3000 aerial bombs, but carrying FAB-1500 on suspension nodes was also practiced.
We should also point out the conditions of "work" of the crews on Tu-22M3 (or their "older brothers" Tu-22M2) bombers. Because this largely explains the behavior of the Kremlin's aerial terrorists in the sky over Ukraine in 2022.
Formally, the Kremlin never admitted that it was using strategic aviation for the war in Afghanistan: "it's not us, it's the Afghan Air Force is working." Accordingly, the pilots of strategic bombers did not have the status of war veterans but received all the bonuses and benefits of the mentioned status. At the same time, their living conditions were barely comfortable: the planes were based at airfields in Central Asia, and they quite often had to sleep in winter uniforms.
Tu-22M3 and Tu-22M2 pilots understood well that they could be shot down during a "combat mission": quite often sorties took place near the border with Pakistan, which even then had French Crotale air defense systems and F-16 fighters. In fact, Pakistan did actually take down 11 Soviet planes during border incidents (and the Kremlin could not do anything about it). That's why the pilots on the strategic aircraft always took an AKS-74U and the "survivor's pack" with them on each flight; escorting by fighters and jamming planes during missions was mandatory.
They really understood that they were "doing something wrong". And the reason is, for example, they were not good at dealing with journalists. When asked, they either responded curtly "our motherland ordered us to do this", or simply sent them away. Meanwhile, they continued their "combat work" aimed at intimidating the civilian population. Because "the motherland ordered" them to do so.
This leads to the conclusion that the behavior of the Kremlin's aerial terrorists in the war against Ukraine has "institutional" foundations that date back to the Soviet Union's war in Afghanistan.
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