Russia Ready To Launch New Tu-160M Bomber Next Month: Dubbed White Swan, Brings Strategic Missile

Illustration of Russian bomber Tupolev Tu-160. (Wikimedia Commons/Mil.ru/Ministry of Defence/Vadim Savitsky)

JAKARTA - A completely new Tupolev Tu-160M ​​strategic missile-carrying bomber, nicknamed the 'White Swan' by Russian military pilots will make its debut along the runway of the Kazan Aviation Enterprise (part of the Tupolev Aircraft Company) on In December, a source in the domestic aircraft manufacturing industry told TASS on Monday.

"The aircraft in the hangar are readymade and refueled. Before the end of this year, the Tu-160M ​​will definitely glide along the runway. The flight is not planned," the source was quoted as saying November 29.

The new strategic missile bomber has a "flexible" test date depending on which management will attend the event, he said. TASS has no official confirmation of this information.

Separately, United Aircraft Corporation chief Yuri Slyusar said on July 30, the Tupolev Aircraft Company was working on assembling a completely new Tu-160M ​​bomber "built from scratch."

He also said the Tupolev aircraft company was finishing work on producing a second plane rebuilt from the old Tu-160 bomber.

Illustration of the Russian Tupolev Tu-160 bomber. (Wikimedia Commons/Anna Zvereva)

The Tu-160 (NATO reporting name: Blackjack) was a Soviet and Russian supersonic variable-wing strategic missile-carrying bomber. Together with the Tu-95MS bomber, it is the mainstay of the Russian Air Force's long-range aviation. The Tu-160M ​​is designed to strike enemy targets in remote areas with nuclear and conventional weapons. The Tu-160M ​​is the heaviest supersonic military aircraft in the world to date.

Reportedly in 2015, Russian officials made the decision to resume production of an upgraded version of the Tu-160 bomber. In early November 2020, the upgraded Tu-160M ​​strategic missile-carrying bomber with the new engine NK-32-02 made its debut flight from the Kazan Aviation Enterprise aerodrome.

As the United Aircraft Corporation reports, during the bomber's flight, specialists tested the general aircraft systems and onboard radio-electronic equipment installed in the upgrade framework and checked the operation of the new NK-32-02 engine.

In 2020, the Tu-160M ​​bomber was listed among the most significant military aircraft achievements in the world by the United States-based magazine Aviation Week & Space Technology.