PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - China buys the Tu22M3 Backfire production line?
Old 31st Dec 2012, 16:40
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LowObservable
 
Join Date: Jan 2004
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This one keeps popping up.

Proven design or not, it would be a huge deal getting it back into production. Supposedly the last was delivered in 1998, but even if that is true, it was probably the last trickle out of a production line that had been dying by inches since the end of the USSR. The "nobody makes parts that even look like that any more" problem would be serious. And it really needs its own weapons, unless someone can explain the logic of launching a subsonic cruise missile from a supersonic platform.

AV-MF, back in the day, was formidable - but it could launch a regiment-strength attack and coordinate with cruise missiles from surface ships and subs.

For the Chinese, the H-6K Super Badger + a serious cruise missile program would be a better investment.
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