Russia’s New Tu-160M Strategic Bomber to Enter Trials Soon

Russia’s newly-built Tupolev Tu-160M White Swan will make its debut run along the runway of the Kazan Aviation in December.

"The aircraft is in a hangar readymade and fueled. Before the end of this year, the Tu-160M will surely make a run along the runway. A flight is not planned," a source in the domestic aircraft-building industry told TASS on Monday.

Yuri Slyusar, head of United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) revealed in July that Tupolev, the parent company of Kazan, was working on assembling a completely new Tu-160M "built from scratch." He also said that it was wrapping up the work to manufacture a second plane rebuilt from an old Tu-160 bomber.

The Tu-160 is a Soviet and subsequently a Russian supersonic variable-sweep wing strategic missile-carrying bomber. The Tu-160M is designated to strike enemy targets in remote areas with nuclear and conventional weapons. It is the world’s heaviest supersonic military aircraft to date. A Tu-160M equipped with NK-32-02 engines performed its debut flight in November 2020. UAC specialists tested its general aircraft systems and onboard radio-electronic equipment mounted in the course of its upgrade and checked the operation of its NK-32-02 new engines.

A year ago, Deputy Defense Minister Alexei Krivoruchko told state media that the Air Force’s fleet of Tu-160s would grow more than 50% in the next seven years.