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Naval Tu-22M service designation


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Another possible dead end quest....Are there any photos of the various naval Tu-22s with the "MAF ROSSII" inscription?  I have found a photo of a Tu-95 with that navy inscription, but no 22s.  Can anyone lend help?

 

Many thanks in advance!

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I would be happy to help, but I'm not clear what marking you're referring to. I can't figure out what MAF is. Can you upload or link to the aircraft you saw with it? If it had Naval markings, would it maybe be a Tu-142 rather than a Tu-95?

 

I did some quick digging. I do not know what MAF is, but the naval forces are the VMF. I found Tu-142s wearing the VMF marking, but none of Tu-22s. It seems like they either wear VVS or VKS more currently. Is there a timeframe you're looking for? Which version of the Tu-22M are you looking for?

 

Second edit:

It looks like the Tu-22s were transferred from the Navy to the Airforces in 2011. Prior to that, I think we get into an era where the tails were marked only with red stars. I am pretty sure that marking the service branch is a more modern thing, and its born out by searching up pictures of older Tu-22M2 from the Soviet period. So I am leaning pretty heavily towards there being no VMF markings on Tu-22s.

Edited by Specter1075
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Not having a Cyrillic keyboard, I just typed western characters for what I understand as "Morskogo Aviatsiya Flota, or Maritime Aviation Fleet.  The plane I mentioned is probably a 142, but in haste just typed 95.  I again lost that particular pic, but found another with the previous B/VMF, but can't post the link.  It was in bing images of Tu-142.  You are correct that some 22s regiments were transferred to other air forces, but some remain in the AVMF.  I would think the older planes like the 22 and 22M, of which some were still in service into the early 2000's, would only have bort numbers without any navy designation.

I believe your contention that 22M3s probably also have no such designations is correct,  but since some 142s do, I was hoping that some might, but as my photo searches have been futile this far....

 

Thanks!

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Specter, looks like I was under a misapprehension; it seems all the Tu-22s were transferred to the new VKS in excess of ten years ago.  So, I would just be interested in those in VMF service until then.

 

Cheers!

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