Designed by Sergei Yeger with the experience gained from the wartime Tu-2, the Tupolev Tu-14 'Bosum' was a jet torpedo bomber for service with Soviet Naval Air Fleet although it had originally intended to compete with the Il-28 was the USSR's principal light jet bomber. Like the Il-28, the Tupolev offering was a twin-engined (various prototypes were built with a trijet configuration) straight wing design which unfortunately did not receive sufficient interest by the VVS and thus was relegated to a land-based medium bomber for naval forces. In this role it was capable of carrying up to two Type 45-36-A torpedoes or a conventional payload. Given the lesser priority given to naval aircraft, however, the Tu-14 was only built in very small numbers although they did serve as far as 1961 with various units converted to secondary duties remaining even until the 1970s.

The Tu-14 was preceded by various prototypes starting with the Type 73 and Type 78 trijets until the definitive Type 81 flew on 13 October 1949 entering service as the Tu-14, the only major production version which was later redesignated Tu-14T when it was decided to convert it into a torpedo bomber. A Tu-14R camera equipped reconnaissance variant was also designed but did not enter production.