Russia Deploys Su-35 Air Superiority Fighters to Escort Tu-22M3 Strategic Bombers Over the Baltic Sea

The Russian Aerospace Forces deployed Su-35 long range air superiority fighters to escort a pair of Tu-22M3 strategic bombers for a flight over the Baltic Sea on April 20. The Tu-22M3 is one of the longest ranged combat aircraft in the world, with the Su-35 being unable to accompany the aircraft throughout the duration of its flight, instead taking turns with Su-30SM fighters to perform escort duties. The Russian Defence Ministry stated that the long-range bombers’ flight was scheduled and occurred in airspace over the neutral waters of the Baltic Sea, with Wester sources reporting that fighters from six NATO member states, including France, Sweden, Finland, Poland, Denmark and Romania, were all scrambled to monitor the Russian flight.

The involvement of Su-35s in escort operations closely follows the delivery of a new batch of the aircraft to the Russian Aerospace Forces, which was announced on April 17. The Su-35 has been more intensively combat tested in air-to-air engagements than any post-Cold War era fighter type, with reports from November 2025 having indicated that fighters had forced the Ukrainian Air Force’s newly delivered F-16 and Mirage 2000 fighters to operate exclusively at low altitudes in airspace far behind the frontlines. Although the fighter is considered to enjoy significant superiority over European fighter types, particularly after integrating the new R-77M air-to-air missile from mid-2025, its ability to provide an effective defence against top performing U.S. fighter types, in particular the F-15EX and F-35, has been brought to serious question. The rapid proliferation of the F-35 across Europe, where it has consistently outperformed local fighter types in various tenders, has resulted in an increasingly unfavourable balance of power in the air for Russia. 

The Tu-22M3 was produced from 1989-1997, approximately the same time period as the U.S. B-2 stealth bomber, and provides a lighter and shorter ranged counterpart to the intercontinental range Tu-160 and Tu-95MS bombers. Ukrainian military sources have singled out the capabilities of the bombers, and specifically their Kh-22 cruise missile, which have proven nearly impossible to intercept. The Russian Aerospace Forces in the late 2010s expanded its Tu-22M3 fleet by bringing a small number of bombers out of storage, with these aircraft being modernised to the Tu-22M3M standard. European NATO members notably lack any combat aircraft with comparable anti-shipping capabilities, ranges, or weapons carrying capacities as the Tu-22M3, with the aircraft simultaneously playing central roles in both deterring NATO, and in combating Western and Ukrainian forces in the Ukrainian theatre. 

The Tu-22M3 fleet from the mid-2010s began to be equipped with the new Kh-32 anti-ship missile, an enhanced derivative of the Kh-22 that benefits from upgraded guidance and electronic warfare countermeasures systems, an extended engagement range of up to 1,000 kilometres, and a faster Mach 5 speed. Its development reflects a longstanding prioritisation of investment in developing highly capable long range anti-ship weaponry to asymmetrically counter U.S. carrier groups and other NATO surface assets, which has become particularly important in the post-Soviet era due to the decline of the Russian surface navy. Although plans to modernise the Tu-22M3 fleet to the M3M standard, or to develop the new Tu-22M4 bomber, have been terminated due to budget shortages, the integration of the Kh-32 significantly improves the aircraft’s combat potential.