Soviet Strategic Aviation in the Cold War

by Yefim Gordon

Born in the 1930s, the Soviet Air Force's long-range bomber arm (known initially as the ADD and later as the DA) proved itself during World War II and continued to develop in the immediate post-war years, when the former allies turned Cold War opponents. When the strategic bomber Tu-4 was found to be too 'short-legged' to deliver strikes against the main potential adversary - the USA, both Tupolev and Myasishchev OKBs began the task by creating turbine-engined strategic bombers. By the Khrushchev era in the mid/late 1950's the Soviet defense industry and aircraft design bureau set about adapting the bombers to take air-launched missiles for use against land and sea targets. In 1962 the DA fielded its first supersonic aircraft - the Tu-22 Blinder twinjet, which came in pure bomber and missile strike versions. The Brezhnev years saw a resurgence of strategic aviation with the Tu-22M Backfire 'swing-wing' supersonic medium bomber entering service in the mid-1970s followed in 1984 by the Tu-95MS Bear-H and Tu-160 Blackjack which were capable of carrying six and 12 air-launched cruise missiles respectively. Soviet Strategic Aviation in the Cold War shows how the DA's order of battle changed in the period from 1945 to 1991. Major operations including the air arm's involvement in the Afghan War, the Cold War exercises over international waters in the vicinity of the 'potential adversary', and the shadowing of NATO warships are covered together with details of Air Armies, bomber divisions and bomber regiments, including their aircraft on a type-by-type basis. More than 500 photos, most of which are previously unpublished in the West, are supplemented by 61 color profiles, color badges, and line drawings of the aircraft and their weapons, making this an essential reference source for the historian and modeler alike.

272 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Yefim Gordon is arguably the world's leading Russian aviation researcher. Born in 1950 in Vilnius, Lithuania, he graduated from the Kaunas Polytechnical Institute in 1972 as an engineer/electronics designer. He has been a resident of Moscow since 1973, when, as a hobby, he started collecting photographs and books on the history of Soviet aviation; this has now developed into a major archive. Since the 1980s he has been a professional aviation journalist and writer, with over 50 books published on Soviet/Russian aviation in Russian, English, Polish and Czech, as well as close to 100 magazine features and photo reports. He is also an accomplished photographer, with countless photos published in the Western press; the current edition of Jane's All the World's Aircraft features more than 50 of his photographs

Reviews

[Jeffrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lavishly illustrated with lots of rate photographs, this is a detailed history of the Soviet Union's strategic (nuclear) bomber force. It is at its best when poking into seldom explored corners of the force's history, like the early bomber that was an exact copy of a stolen US B-29, or the story of dropping the "Tsar Bomba" 50 MT test weapon. But it bogs down (at least for me) in lots of details about which unit was stationed where for how long, which is of interest to the completist historian but not necessarily to the casual reader interested in military history. It may not hold your interest for long, but while it does it's very worthwhile.