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Old 08-20-2007, 09:36 AM   #7 (permalink)
entropy
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Quote:
Originally Posted by wabpilot View Post
I would be very suprised if any of the Bear As or even Bear Ts exist. The Bears that do still fly are the Bear D, E and F. They are used for ELINT, MR and ASW. The Bear H could possibly be flyable to launch cruise missiles, but I seriously doubt it. It would be a death trap. Besides, the VMF has struggled to keep their Backfires flyable. And the Backfire is a much better cruise missile carrier.
I have this from Tank-Net about missile/bomb capable bombers.

Quote:
Exactly 64 Tu-95MS BEAR-H bombers. Of two different types, the Tu-95MS6 and the Tu-95MS16. The latter used to be capable (it still is, really, they just removed the hardpoints) of carrying 16 Kh-55SMs, but one of the arms limitations treaties reduced it. The aircraft are getting upgraded to Tu-95MSM standard, armed with Kh-555 CALCMskis, Kh-101 "stealth" CALCMskis, and Kh-102 ACMskis.
The Tu-22M has a lot shorter range than the Bear.

All Backfires will be transferrer to Dalnaya Aviatsija (long-range aviation).
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