June 21, 2026
Important details about the crash of the Tu-22M3 heavy bomber have emerged, raising one huge problem with these aircraft, which is why they will continue to crash constantly, or stop flying altogether, and there is still no solution to this problem
russian media are publishing new details about the recent crash in the Irkutsk region of the russian federation of a long-range heavy bomber Tu-22M3, known to Ukrainians as a carrier of the Kh-22 supersonic cruise missiles. In particular, it is reported that the crash occurred during flights at the training ground (probably during training), when one of the engines failed.
During the flight back to the airbase, the second engine failed, and the plane gradually lost speed and crashed, although the official reason for the crash was not announced. In fact, such an explanation raises one big problem for all Tu-22s, namely their engines.
The fact is that the Tu-22M3 is equipped with two NK-25 turbojet engines. These engines were developed back in the 1970s, and their production was completed 30 years ago in 1996. That is, all Tu-22M3s that are currently flying use engines that were manufactured more than 30 years ago.
Because of this, all existing NK-25 engines have considerable wear and tear from decades of operation. Repair and maintenance of these engines are also complicated, as the stock of spare parts and the replacement engines themselves is not infinite, but limited to what was produced before 1996.
It is highly likely that it was due to the wear of the NK-25 engines and related units that they began to gradually fail on board the Tu-22M3, as a result of which it crashed. It should be noted that the recent crash of the Tu-22M3 is far from an isolated incident.
It is worth recalling that over the past two years, a total of three Tu-22M3 bombers have crashed in the Irkutsk region: one in August 2024, one in April 2025, and now another one in June 2026. In 2024 and 2025, it was officially announced that the cause of the crash was “technical reasons”.
It is not announced in more detail what exactly were the technical reasons that led to the crash of the heavy bomber. However, it can be assumed that the engines and/or their associated systems were the cause. Also, from recent cases, we can recall that in 2019, one of the Tu-22M3s made a hard emergency landing precisely because of the failure of the NK-25 engine.
The problem with the lack of new NK-25 engines and the wear of old ones has been known in russia for a long time. One of the options for solving this problem was to resume production of the NK-25. However, this is a very complicated and expensive process that will take decades.
The complexity of the process can be seen in the example of the resumption of production of NK-32-2 engines for the Tu-160 strategic bombers, which took 10 years. The restart of production of these engines took place in 2016. But even after the resumption of production, NK-32-2s are produced in minimal quantities.
As another option, it was proposed to replace the NK-25 engines on the Tu-22 with the aforementioned NK-32-2s installed on the Tu-160. Such a replacement was intended to be provided for in the new modification of the Tu-22M3M, where, in addition, it was planned to replace 80% of the electronics, expand the range of weapons and add an in-flight refueling boom.
However, the deadlines for the modernization of the Tu-22M3M were completely missed. It was planned to bring 30 Tu-22M3s to the level of the Tu-22M3M by 2021-2022. However, it is already mid-2026, and nothing has been heard about the Tu-22M3M. Moreover, up to this point we have just seen two test Tu-22M3M bombers – one made in 2018, the second in 2023 and, unlike the first, received a refueling boom.
It should be noted that there were no reports of even an attempt to install NK-32-2 engines on board these two test Tu-22M3Ms. This in turn means that they are still flying on the old NK-25 engines, and in the coming years they are unlikely to fly the NK-32-2, even in a test format.
Given that they are produced in minimal quantities, the NK-32-2 turbojet engines are primarily needed by the russians for the modernization of the Tu-160M and the implementation of an attempt to build several new such bombers based on the hulls inherited from Soviet Union).
Given all of the above, it can be assumed that russian Tu-22M3s will continue to regularly crash for “technical reasons”, and after a certain period of time, if the problem with the engines is not resolved by then, they may stop flying altogether. Defense Express reported earlier, that since 2022, russia might have lost more than 70% of its combat-ready Tu-22M3 bombers and we counted how many could still remain.
A best-case scenario would have all of them crash and burn into mafia cities and kill their crews to boot.
Dont know about fan blade metalurgy, but any stress fracture, on 30 year old blades, cant be good.