By Kris Osborn, President, Warrior
(Washington DC) Russia’s Tu-160M bomber and the US Air Force’s B-52 are both decades-old classic bombers, yet continued modernization efforts and upgrades have made the B-52 an almost entirely new plane that it was in the 1960s. The historic bomber is surging into the future with a new engine, communications system, internal weapons bay and new generation of computing. The aircraft is being armed with new weapons, carries a larger and more lethal payload and will soon be firing lasers and launching drones.
Can Russia’s upgraded Tu-160M Blackjack strategic bomber keep pace? Some might be inclined to wonder if upgrades have enabled the aircraft to remain impactful, survivable and relevant for years to come. How has Russia upgraded and maintained its Tu-160M compared to ongoing U.S. efforts to maintain and improve the famous B-52.
Unlike the Vietnam-era classic B-52, the Tupolev Tu-160 first entered service in the Soviet era during the 1980s. Russia’s Tupolev looks a little more like the large, elongated B1-B bomber able to carry a massive payload, bringing the max take-off weight up to 300 tons.
How might Russia’s large and heavily upgraded 1980s era Tu-160 Blackjack strategic bomber align with the US Air Force’s classic B-52, as both aircraft have been substantially modernized and upgraded to fight and remain relevant in a modern threat environment?
Soviet Blackjack
In one sense, they emerged in very different timelines, as the Soviet Blackjack arrived in the 1980s, more than two decades after the B-52. Yet the bombers are similar in mission scope and Concept of Operation.
The B-52 has surged into the future with paradigm-changing upgrades in almost a continuous fashion through the decades, yet Russia’s Tu-160M stopped production in 1995 and then restarted about 10 years ago in 2015. Putin’s rationale for re-starting the BlackJack was reportedly due to a need to bridge a bomber “gap” as the Russian Air Force awaits the arrival of the new PAK DA stealth bomber. Certainly the Russian military does not want to operate with a bomber “deficit” moving into a modern threat environment.
Tu-160M upgrades
The Tu-160M is a modernized variant of the original bomber, adding new navigation system and autopilot technologies. The Blackjack is also armed with as many as six Kh-55SM ground-attack cruise missiles, each capable of carrying a nuclear or conventional warheads, according to an interesting essay from Kyle Mizokami in Popular Mechanics. The warheads, as described in his essay, can either be a 200 kiloton thermonuclear warhead or conventional high-explosive fragmentation warhead.
Russia reportedly plans to produce as many as two Tu-160Ms per year to add as many as 10 new airplanes by 2027
The Janes report says Russia’s Rostec plans to produce roughly two new Tu-160Ms per year to reach a total of 10 aircraft between 2023 and 2027.
A report in Janes explains the Russia’s Rostec will also build a Tu-160M2 phase which will include a NVI.70 radar, digital class cockpit, anti-jamming equipment and an upgraded NK-32 engine.
Russia clearly seeks to maintain an active and capable bomber fleet, yet the Tu-160M bomber suffers many of the same challenges likely to be encountered by the B1-B and B-52. Simply put, Russia’s legacy bomber does not have the stealth required for today’s environment.
While it does have a slightly rounded fuselage, which could give it some advantage, a super large, non-stealthy bomber such as the Tu-160M will likely need to be restricted to permissive environments as it would likely be extremely vulnerable to NATO air and ground attacks
Kris Osborn is the President of Warrior Maven – Center for Military Modernization. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a highly qualified expert in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Masters Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University.
