First modernised aircraft capable to carry the new long-range Kh-55 conventional cruise missile was delivered to the Russian Air Force in April 2008 a follow-up contract for modernisation of three more aircraft is estimated to cost RUR3.4 billion (US$103 million). The aircraft reportedly received a capability to use conventional weapons, but was not upgraded with new avionics as previously planned. Modernization Modernization of existing models įirst overhauled and partially modernised aircraft was accepted into Russian service after testing in July 2006. Production was authorized in 1984, beginning at the Kazan Aircraft Production Association (KAPO). The prototype was photographed by an airline passenger at a Zhukovsky Airfield in November 1981, about a month before the aircraft's first flight on 18 December 1981. Work on the new Soviet bomber continued despite an end to the B-1A and in the same year, the design was accepted by the government committee. The Tupolev design, named Aircraft 160M, with a lengthened blended wing layout and incorporating some elements of the Tu-144, competed against the Myasishchev M-18 and the Sukhoi T-4 designs. In 1972, the Soviet Union launched a new multi-mission bomber competition to create a new supersonic, variable-geometry ("swing-wing") heavy bomber with a maximum speed of Mach 2.3, in response to the US Air Force B-1 bomber project. The first competition for a supersonic strategic heavy bomber was launched in the Soviet Union in 1967. Plans include 50 new Tu-160M bombers and upgrading 16 existing aircraft
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In January 2022 the first serial built aircraft had its test flight, with two planned for delivery in 2022 from 10 on order. The Tu-160M modernization program of existing models has begun with the first updated aircraft delivered in December 2014. The Tu-160 active fleet has been undergoing upgrades to electronics systems since the early 2000s. As of 2016, the Russian Air Force's Long Range Aviation branch had 16 aircraft in service. Įntering service in 1987, the Tu-160 was the last strategic bomber designed for the Soviet Union. As of 2022, it is the largest and heaviest combat aircraft, the fastest bomber in use and the largest and heaviest variable-sweep wing airplane ever flown. It is the largest and heaviest Mach 2+ supersonic military aircraft ever built and second to the experimental XB-70 Valkyrie in overall length. The Tupolev Tu-160 ( Russian: Туполев Ту-160 Белый лебедь, romanized: Belyj Lebeď, lit.' White Swan' NATO reporting name: Blackjack) is a supersonic, variable-sweep wing heavy strategic bomber designed by the Tupolev Design Bureau in the Soviet Union in the 1970s. Tupolev Tu-160 Aleksandr Novikov in flight over Russia, May 2014
View a machine-translated version of the Russian article.
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