Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu highly appreciated the resumption of production of Tu-160 strategic bombers at the Kazan Aviation Plant (KAZ). He visited this place during his visit to the capital of Tatarstan.
The head of the Russian Defense Ministry instructed KAZ to re-establish the production of the legendary "White Swans" in 2015. And the company coped with the task.
"What we talked about five or six years ago has been done. This is our common victory, " Sergei Shoigu said.
During the inspection of the workshops, the minister was informed that KAZ had promptly fulfilled the order of Russian President Vladimir Putin to restore the electron beam welding installations. This made it possible to produce welding, annealing of the main power elements of the structure, without which it would be impossible to revive the production of missile carriers. And already in December 2020, the new deeply modernized Tu-160M was removed from the slipway and transferred to the final assembly shop.
Sergei Shoigu climbed into the cockpit of this aircraft, where he was told about the combat potential of the new strategic bombers. Compared to its predecessors, it has increased significantly.
Earlier, RG wrote that the new fuel-efficient NK-32-02 engines increased the flight range of the modernized bomber by almost 1000 kilometers.
Also, the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation was shown the drones "Altius-RU" and "Outpost", produced at KAZ.
After that, Sergei Shoigu checked the execution of the state defense order by the Kazan Helicopter Plant. Here he visited the cockpit of the Mi-8MTV-5M. The new car has a number of advantages compared to previous models. For example, it is possible to perform night flights in a group using night vision glasses. And all foreign components of the helicopter have been replaced with domestic ones.
Oleg Koryakin (Kazan)
