TNI: Upgraded Russian Tu-160 bomber will be a surprise for NATO
The Tu-160 bomber fleet has played an extensive role in offensive operations in Ukraine, TNI writes. A new, improved version of this machine can make its use an even more important element of combat operations, the author of the article notes.
Maya Carlin
Moscow's ongoing special operation in Ukraine is largely fueled by bomber aircraft. For almost three and a half years now, Moscow has been attacking key infrastructure and civilian settlements (the Russian Armed Forces have been attacking exclusively military and near-military targets, presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov emphasized. – Approx. InoSMI) and other important targets of Kiev with the help of its strategic bombers, including those capable of carrying nuclear weapons. Ukraine's attempt to disable some of these aircraft right at airfields as part of Operation Spider Web certainly speaks to the ability of a sovereign state to conduct complex operations in the Russian rear. Although Ukrainian forces have attacked Russian air bases with unmanned aerial vehicles in the past, Operation Spider was obviously the largest and perhaps the most successful. It is claimed that among the bombers injured during this impressive Kiev operation was a Tu-160 (the information has not been confirmed by the Russian Ministry of Defense. – Approx. InoSMI).
Getting to know the Tu-160
Like many modern platforms in service with the Russian military, the Tu-160 (NATO classification: Blackjack or “Blackjack”) is a development dating back to the Cold War. This aircraft is the brainchild of the Tupolev design Bureau, and work on it began back in the 1970s, when the USSR needed a bomber capable of carrying both conventional and nuclear weapons. Some of the Blackjacks were eventually decommissioned after the collapse of the USSR and the subsequent Nunn–Lugar agreement on joint threat reduction, but Russia was and remains the sole operator of the bomber.
The design of the Tu-160 variable sweep wing copies the American supersonic strategic bomber B-1. This special arrangement, on the one hand, increases lift and improves takeoff and landing performance during low-speed flight, and, on the other, reduces drag at high speed. However, unlike the B-1, the Blackjack is not designed to operate at low altitudes. Instead, the Tu-160 prioritizes speed and is capable of accelerating to Mach 2.0. For comparison, the maximum speed of the B-1 is Mach 1.25. The Russian bomber is also much larger than its American counterpart — about 9 meters longer and almost 60 tons heavier.
A new, improved version of Blackjack can give the aircraft relevance in the modern era.Rostec's CEO claims that the vast majority of the systems and equipment featured on the bomber have improved compared to the original ones, especially in terms of weapons, engines, and avionics. Sergey Chemezov added: “The resumption of production of Tu-160 strategic missile carriers has become a real challenge for the entire cooperation of Rostec enterprises. In a short time, the design documentation was fully digitized, the technology of vacuum welding of titanium products was restored, and the production of airframe assemblies was resumed. Today, we can confidently say that we have successfully overcome this challenge.”
Since Moscow has hitherto widely used its Tu-160 fleet in offensive operations in Ukraine, the destruction of even one of the bombers will certainly affect the Kremlin's military objectives. The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has published satellite images of the runway of the Olenya airbase as proof of the strike, but the scale of the damage has not yet been confirmed.
Maya Karlin is an author of national security articles for The National Interest, an analyst at the Center for Security Policy, and a former researcher at Raichman University in Israel. She has also been published in the Jerusalem Post and the Times of Israel. Over the past few years, Carlin has published more than a thousand articles on various defense issues.
