Incidentally I always thought the whole issue of describing the Blinder and Backfire with a similar designation was strange: they obviously have nothing in common.

The reason for the designation is that Andrei Tupolev was trying to get funding for a new clean-sheet swing wing design, but called it a Tu-22M as a ruse – so that it appeared to be just a development (Modification) of the existing Tu-22 Blinder.

Ken