After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine received most of the fleet of Soviet Tu-160 strategic bombers. More than half of the vehicles of the Ukrainian Air Force (VVS) were disposed of in the late 1990s. The United States explained the reasons for the destruction of the Ukrainian Tu-160: it prevented the transfer of technology of Soviet bombers to China, The Military Watch magazine writes .
The publication emphasizes that the Ukrainian Air Force received a fleet of 19 Tu-160 bombers, which were superior to the American B-1B Lancer aircraft. There was a risk of transferring Soviet aircraft to China. So, Ukraine handed over to the People's Republic of China a prototype of the Su-33 aircraft and an unfinished cruiser "Varyag", which allowed to strengthen the strategic capabilities of the People's Liberation Army of China (PLA).
The authors of the publication note that the Tu-160 could increase the power of China's long-range aviation, which was based on a modernized copy of the Soviet Tu-16 aircraft. Moreover, the purchase of aircraft would give Chinese specialists the opportunity to study the design of the Tu-160 to create a copy of the bomber. This could lead to the creation of the largest bomber aviation unit in the world, suggests The Military Watch.
"The United States and its European allies have attempted to prevent Ukraine from signing a sale agreement by providing the cash-strapped Kiev government with funds to dispose of its fleet of bombers, and not to sell them to China," the newspaper writes.
The destruction of the Ukrainian Tu-160 made it possible to avoid strengthening the Chinese Air Force. The authors of The Military Watch emphasize that this has set back the development of China's bomber aviation "decades ago".
Most of the Tu-160s that were inherited by the long-range aviation of Ukraine were disposed of as part of the American Nunn-Lugar program. Eight aircraft were transferred to Russia in exchange for the supplied gas.
Earlier, an expert on combat aviation, Dario Leone, spoke about the advantages of the Soviet Tu-160 over the American B-1B Lancer. In an article published in The National Interest, Leone noted that the Tu-160 is a full-fledged multifunctional bomber.
Daniil Irinin
