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• Tupolev Tu-160 Blackjack Strategic Bomber
• Tu 160 Blackjack Bomber

Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) has issued a statement about the maiden flight of what it calls “the first experimental example of a deeply modernized Tu-160M created on the platform of the in-service Tu-160” strategic bomber (NATO codename “Blackjack”). The flight occurred on February 2 from the airport of the Kazan Aviation Plant named after Gorbunov (local acronym KAZ, formerly Kazan Aviation Industrial Organization or KAPO) and lasted for 34 minutes. KAZ is a part of Tupolev, itself a UAC member. Headed by Anri Naskidyants, the crew from Tupolev’s flight test-base in Zhukovsky reported that the aircraft attained a maximum altitude of 1,500 meters (4,920 feet) and behaved well.

A newly built Tupolev Tu-160 long-range heavy strategic bomber – the first one since 1992 – was rolled out of the hangar as Russia resumes production of the world’s largest operational bomber that NATO designates as Blackjack. Su-34 (Su-32) Bomber Flanker Su-27M (Su-35) Super Flanker Su-35 4 Generation Flanker Su-37 Terminator Tu-22 Blinder Tu-22M Backfire Tu-160 Blackjack: Aero L-159 ALCA AMX International AMX Dassault/Dornier Alpha Jet Dassault Mirage III Dassault Mirage F1 Dassault Mirage 2000 Dassault Rafale Eurofighter Typhoon Panavia Tornado Saab J 35 Draken.

“During this flight, the crew performed all necessary checks to do with the renovated systems and equipment that had been installed as part of the deep modernization effort. According to crew reports, the flight was uneventful, all systems and onboard equipment functioned normally,” read the UAC statement. It went on to say that the bomber has received a number of new systems, including flight controls and navigation equipment, communications and electronic countermeasure systems, and radar, which have resulted in a significant increase in its combat efficiency.

The two low-resolution images available on the corporate website depict an aircraft on takeoff and landing whose airframe is mostly painted with green-yellow primer while having a number of white parts likely taken from unserviceable Tu-160s. However, neither the statement nor the pictures, provide sufficient information to tell whether the aircraft comes with a rebuilt or newly-manufactured airframe.

Secrecy shrouds the ongoing large-scale Tu-160 modernization and production restoration effort, which began in 2015, when defense minister Sergei Shoigu instructed UAC to resume the type’s manufacturing, while promising an order for 50 new aircraft, sometimes referred to as the Tu-160M2. Later, President Putin mentioned an already-placed contract for 10 bombers for delivery in 2021-2026 with more to come. Two years ago he visited the plant in Kazan to witness the maiden flight of the aircraft 8-04 “Piotr Deinekin,” which was an example of the “Tu-160M1+” subtype, which was accepted by the Russian Air and Space Force (local acronym VKS) in December 2018. It became the 17th Tu-160 in the VKS inventory and seventh Tu-160M with extended functionality and weapons arsenal.

The maiden flight of the Tu-160 prototype occurred in December 1981. At a gross weight of 275 tonnes (606,260 pounds), the type still represents the world’s largest-ever combat jet. Four 25-tonne-thrust NK-32 afterburner-equipped turbofans can accelerate it to Mach 2.0 and give a range of over 12,000 km (6,500 nm), extendable through aerial refueling.

The type remained in production in Kazan until the mid-1990s. Using pre-manufactured parts, the plant completed the aircraft named “Alexander Molodchiy” in 2000 and “Vitaly Kopylov” in 2008. At that time, then-UAC president Alexei Fedorov claimed: “From now on, KAPO will perform only repair and modernization on Tu-160s and Tu-22M3s built earlier.” At that point, Tu-160 production stood at 36 units, of which a number had been lost in crashes, cannibalized for parts, or cut up under disarmament treaties with the U.S.

In times of rising geopolitical tensions, the remaining Tu-160s have been involved in the air campaign against the Islamic State, firing Raduga Kh-555 and Kh-101 long-range cruise missiles at targets in Syria, and they are back in the forefront of the Russia-U.S. confrontation. On January 31, NORAD “positively identified two Tu-160 'Blackjack' Russian bombers entering the Canadian Air Defense Identification Zone” as they flew from a base in Russia across the Arctic Ocean on a combat training mission that lasted for 16 hours. In reply to this, NORAD Commander General O’Shaughnessy commented on Twitter, “Our adversaries continue to flex their long-range weapons systems and engage in increasingly aggressive efforts, to include the approaches to the United States and Canada.”

Tu-160 missile carrier bomber (NATO codification: Blackjack) is designed to destroy targets in remote geographic areas and deep in the rear of continental theaters of operations. It is the largest supersonic aircraft and variable geometry wing aircraft in the history of military aviation, as well as the world’s heaviest combat aircraft having the highest gross take-off weight among bombers. For its power and grace, Tu-160 was unofficially named “White Swan”.

Tu-160 is an integrated low-wing configuration aircraft with a variable-swept wing, tricycle landing gear, all-flying tailplane and fin.
High lift devices include slats, double-slotted flaps, spoilers and flaperons are used for roll control. Four engines are mounted in pairs in nacelles in the belly.
Two compartments to accommodate the payload are located in tandem (one after the other). The main materials of the airframe are titanium, heat treated aluminum alloys, steel alloys and composite materials. Tu-160 is equipped with a receptacle of the in-flight refueling system of a hose-cone type.

Tupolev Tu-160 Blackjack Strategic Bomber

• In particular, a flight for closed-course distance of 1000 km with payload of 30 tons was performed at an average speed of 1,720 km/h.
• In total, 44 world records are set on Tu-160

Work for intercontinental strategic multimode missile carrier aircraft equipped with long-range cruise missiles was started in Tupolev Experimental Design Bureau in the early 1970s.

Tu 160 Blackjack Bomber

Tu-160 aircraft prototype was piloted by test pilot B.I. Veremey during its maiden flight on December 18, 1981. In October 1984, tests of the first production aircraft began. In April 1987, Tu-160 was first supplied to combatant forces of the long-range aviation in the Ukraine. By 2000, 36 Tu-160 aircraft had been produced.
In 2015, a decision was made to restore the production of Tu-160 strategic missile carriers at the Kazan aviation factory named after S.P. Gorbunov. In 2017, a new Tu-160 strategic missile carrier aircraft was built. The first flight of the aircraft was on January 25, 2018.