Russia intensified its air strikes against ISIS following confirmation that an onboard bomb explosion caused the Metrojet flight to cras...
Russia intensified its air strikes against ISIS following confirmation that an onboard bomb explosion caused the Metrojet flight to crash over Sinai, in Egypt on Oct 31.
For the first time, Russian Aerospace Forces deployed its strategic bomber fleet to destroy ISIS targets in Syria. The Tu-160, Tu-95MS and Tu-22M3 long-range strategic bomber aircraft carried out massive air strikes with air-launched cruise missiles and bombs at the ISIS targets.
Twelve Tu-22M3 long-range bombers carried out strikes at the ISIS terrorist facilities in Raqqah and Deir-ez-Zor provinces.
The Tu-160 and Tu-95MS launched 34 air-launched Kh-55 cruise missiles on 14 targets located in Aleppo and Idlib.
The Tu-22M3 bombers within one sortie, which lasted for 5 hours and 20 minutes, covered 4510 km, while strategic bombers Tu-160 and Tu-95MS were in the air for 8 h 20 min and 9 h 30 min respectively, covering 6566 kilometers each.
The Tu-22M3 long-range bombers carried out 2 joint airstrikes on ISIS objects in the eastern part of Syria from Mozdok airfield. One of these strikes was carried out at night.
Russian fighter-bomber fleet is already operating from the Hmeymim airbase, situated close to border with Turkey. The deployment employs Su-34, Su-24 and Su-25 ground attack jets along with Su-30SM air defense fighters to carry out air strikes.
Russia plans to deploy more jets to Hmeymim airbase as a part of a new operation plan, according to which 25 long-range bomber aircraft, 8 SU-34 bombers and 4 SU-27SM fighters will be deployed to augment airstrikes in Syria.
Russia is also bolstering its space based reconnaissance over Middle Eastern region to increase the efficiency of detecting enemy facilities and the accuracy of determining target coordinates. Ten spacecraft have been assigned to conduct imagery and radar reconnaissance, including civilian-purpose spacecraft.
The swing wing supersonic Tu-160 Blackjack powered by four Samara NK-321 turbofans, can carry a 40 tonne weapon payload and is analogous to the U.S. Air Force B-1 Lancer bomber. The swing wing Tu-22 can carry a 24 tonne payload and is powered by two Kuznetsov NK-25 turbofans.
The Tu-95 is powered by four Kuznetsov NK-12 turboprop engines, each driving contra-rotating propellers, and can carry 11 tonne weapon payload.
