Will Russia’s Emerging PAK-DA New Strategic Bomber Rival the US B-21?

Here is what we know.

Charlie Gao [2]

As the United States proceeds with research and development on the B-21 “Raider” project, Russia is also developing its own next-generation strategic bomber. Called PAK-DA, which stands for Перспективный авиационный комплекс дальней авиации, or Prospective Aviation Complex for Long Range Aviation, the PAK-DA is expected to replace all current strategic bombers in the Russian Air Force by the next decade. With regards to strategic bombers, the Russian Air Force has an analog to most American aircraft but the B-2 Spirit. It’s unsure whether the PAK-DA will attempt to fill the same role the B-2 Spirit has been used for in the USAF from the information publicly available.

As of the latest predictions [3], which were made in May 2018, the PAK-DA is expected to fly by 2025–2026 and enter serial production by 2028 or 2029. Per tradition, the PAK-DA will receive a “Tu-” designation, as the majority of work conducted for it was done by Tupolev Design Bureau. This stands in contrast to the PAK-FA, which is now known as the Su-57. Both aircraft are products of Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation, which rolled together almost all Russian aircraft producers into a single conglomerate.

Recommended:Air War: Stealth F-22 Raptor vs. F-14 Tomcat (That Iran Still Flies)[4]

Recommended:A New Report Reveals Why There Won’t Be Any ‘New’ F-22 Raptors[5]

Recommended:How an ‘Old’ F-15 Might Kill Russia’s New Stealth Fighter[6]

Similar to other modern aircraft programs, the dates for the initial service and prototyping of the PAK-DA have continued to be pushed back. While the prototype was originally slated to take off in 2019 (As announced in 2014), Tupolev’s director revised this to say that the rollout of the first prototype was expected around 2021–2022 [7]. Currently, the UAC head says the prototype PAK-DA for flight tests will be produced around mid 2020. Tupolev is currently busy with the production of the new Tu-160M2, which recently is completing flight trials, so it suggests that the PAK-DA is still in a very early stage of development. Sources have stated that reduced scale mockups of the PAK-DA in composite and a full size mockup in wood have been constructed. The Tu-160M2 has been stated as a reason that the PAK-DA has been delayed, as the modernization took up a lot of Tupolev’s resources.