Technical Specifications Specification Tu-160 'Blackjack-A' Powerplant: four 245.18 kN (55,140 lb st) Trud/Samara NK-32 afterburning turbofans Dimensions: length 54.1m (177 ft 6 in); height 13.1m (42 ft 11 in); wing span 65° sweep 35.6m (116 ft 9½ in); wing span 35° sweep 50.7m (166 ft 4 in); wing span 20° sweep 55.7m (182 ft 9 in).
Photo of Russia - Russian Air Force Tupolev Tu-160 (RF-94102) taken in Kubinka, Russia on 2020-09-01 by Dmitry Terekhov of AirTeamImages.com.
Tupolev TU-160 Blackjack. Origin Russia Type long-range strategic penetration bomber and missile platform Max Speed 1.079 kt / 1.243 mph Max Range 14,000 km / 8.699 miles.

The Tu-160M2, as part of a deep modernization, received new flight and navigation equipment, an on-board communication complex, a control system, a radar station, and an electronic countermeasure complex. In addition, it was planned to arm the Tu-160 family aircraft with Dagger hypersonic missiles. The newly constructed planes and those created on the basis of Tu-160 bombers taken from the Aerospace Forces will not differ from each other, but technically they received different markings in the military department: Tu-160M ??for modernized combatant units and Tu-160M2 for those built from scratch.

On January 25, 2018, the Russian Ministry of Defense officially announced the contract for the modernization of 10 Tu-160 strategic bombers to the Tu-160M2 standard, to be fulfilled by the Kazan-based S.P. Gorbunov Aviation Plant belonging to the Tupolev Aviation Company, and with the aircraft to be delivered by between 2023 and 2027. The ceremony was marked by a test flight of the first thusly modernized aircraft, named Pyotr Deynekin after the Russian Federation’s first Air Forces’ Chief of Staff.

Note: One of 36 Tupolev Tu-160 Blackjack and the only 'White Swan' which is preserved and can be visited at the Poltava Museum of Heavy Bomber Aviation Marcin R. Karch Tupolev Tu-160 Blackjack.

The order was just the beginning of the modernization and expansion of the Tu-160 bomber force, as the MOD plans to obtain 50 Tu-160M2s by 2035. While some of these aircraft will have been modernized machines either built in the Soviet era or completed in more recent decades using incomplete fuselages constructed already in the 1980s, the rest will be brand-new aircraft. Since the Long-Range Aviation currently operates only 16 Tu-160 bombers, including 5 upgraded Tu-160M1, all of which are based at the Engels airbase near Saratov as part of the 22nd Heavy Bomber Aviation Division, the proposed expansion of the fleet means the Tu-160 will displace the Tu-95MS as the most numerous strategic bomber in Russian service.

The prototype of the strategic missile carrier Tu-160M2 would rise for the first time in the air from the aerodrome of the Kazan aircraft plant in February 2018. This was reported on 09 November 2017 by a source in the Russian military-industrial complex. 'The aircraft with factory number 804, made from the Soviet reserve, will be rolled out of the final assembly shop of the Kazan aircraft plant and transferred to the flight test station in November of this year. It is planned that in February of next year he will make the first flight from the airfield of this enterprise,' he said. the interlocutor of the agency. He clarified that this 'will be a combat vehicle capable of performing the same tasks as those of the 16 Tu-160s in service.' 'The 804th machine will later be upgraded to the Tu-160M2 variant,' the source added.

Tupolev 160 Blackjack (also commonly known as the White Swan) is the world’s largest combat supersonic aircraft and the largest variable-sweep aircraft ever built. The strategic bomber’s maiden flight was on December 18th, 1981. It entered service in 1987. Its max. takeoff weight us up to 275,000 kg. The max speed is over 2,000 km/h. The aircraft carried up to 40,000 kg of ordnance including nuclear bombs and strategic cruise missiles. Its practical range with max ordnance exceeds 10,000 km.

Russia will renew the production of its Tu-160 (Blackjack) supersonic strategic bomber and missile carrier, Russian Defense Minister Gen. Sergei Shoigu said 29 April 2015. 'Today it is already necessary to solve the task of not only maintaining and modernizing long-range aviation, we must also produce the Tu-160 missile carrier,' Shoigu said during a visit at the Kazan Aviation Plant. The updated aircraft will be designated Tu-160M2. The Tu-160M2 differs from its antecedent in the sophisticated avionics and weapons suites earmarked for it. Essentially, it will be a new airplane with the old look.

At the beginning of the nineties, the enterprise retained for construction of four serial Tu-160s. Subsequently, two of them were used, whereas the fate of the other two remained uncertain until 2016. Then it was decided to use the assembled structures in the construction of the newest Tu-160M2. The existing backlog was returned to work, and there were reports of real results. On 11 July 2017, the unfinished airframe of the aircraft with the serial number '804' was transferred to the final assembly shop. In the near future the glider will receive all the necessary units and units, on-board equipment, etc. After the completion of the assembly, the first Tu-160M2 will be handed over for testing. The further fate of the last of the remaining stocks was not yet clear. All other bombers of the new type will be built anew.

During the MAKS-2017 airshow, Deputy Defense Minister Yury Borisov announced the current schedule for the Tu-160M2 program. At the beginning of the next 2018, the first flight of the newest machine is planned. Subsequently, she will have to pass all the necessary tests, the results of which will carry out the necessary work. Serial production of new missile carriers is yet to begin in 2021. Each year the industry will have to hand over 3-4 aircraft to the armed forces. In total, it was planned to purchase about fifty bombers.

The first flight of a new modification of the strategic bomber Tu-160 can be held in 2019, Commander Air Space Forces (VKS) Russia Viktor Bondarev told reporters 02 March 2016. 'I think that in 2019 the aircraft has already modernized and playback will start to fly,' - he said, answering a question about the prospects for the resumption of production of the Tu-160.

In 2015 the decision was made to resume the production of Tu-160 in a modernized version - the Tu-160M2 - and move to the finalization of a new generation bomber PAK DA at a later date. The Russian Defense Ministry reported that the serial production of Tu-160m2 was due to start in 2023. The Russian plan was to buy at least 50 of these machines.

In 2015 the decision was made to resume the production of Tu-160 is a modernized version of the completion of the transfer and the new generation bomber PAK DA at a later date. The Russian Defense Ministry reported that serial production was due to start in 2023. This FSI Russian plan to buy at least 50 of these machines.

PAK DA bombers, based on the Tupolev Tu-160, were expected to enter into service in 2023. Some say that the aircraft could be equipped with hypersonic weapons. The plane was also expected to be fitted with some equipment from the fifth-generation PAK FA fighter. In early February 2016, the Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation Yuri Borisov said that the modernized Tu-160 will have completely different characteristics compared with existing aircraft in this series. According to Borisov, the preparation of the industry to the production of upgraded bomber went according to plan.

United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) would begin technical re-equipment of the Kazan aircraft construction plant named after Gorbunov during 2016 to produce upgraded missile carriers Tu-160. This was announced by the president of KLA Yuri Slusar. 'The modernization of the plant as the project has already started in 2016 - this is where we end up on the four draft design and obtain the conclusion of state expertise and begin to do activities technical upgrading,' - said Slusar. He said one of the goals of the project was to get an aircraft factory at a higher technological level.

Technical re-equipment willcover about 40% of the equipment of workshops main production: aggregate-assembly and storage-stamping. The cost of upgrading the plant would amount to tens of billions of rubles in 2016-2020, respectively, which is comparable with the launch of new production aircraft.

The Missile carrier Tu-160M2 retains the external appearance, but the 'stuffing' is a completely new,

Tu-160 Blackjack (tupolev)