Russia Upgrades 80s-Era Tu-160 Bomber to Support New Stealth PAK DA

By Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization

(Washington DC) Russia’s upgraded Tu-160M Blackjack strategic bomber could be 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.

Rebooting the Tu-160

While the production line was stopped in 1995, Putin decided to restart the line as recently as 2015 to add upgraded bomber platforms to the Russian arsenal.

The idea, as described in a Janes report, was to offer a bridge to offset delays with Russia’s new PAK DA stealth bomber.

“The aircraft can carry up to six Kh-55SM ground-attack cruise missiles, each with a 200 kiloton thermonuclear warhead, or Kh-555s armed with a conventional high-explosive fragmentation warhead,” writes Kyle Mizokami, who covers defense and security issues for Popular Mechanics.

Moving forward, Russia plans to acquire as many as 50 Tu-160M aircraft and is modernizing 16 more to meet “M” standards. Upgrades to the 160M have been arriving in several phases, with the new Tu-160M1 variant, will include a new navigation system and autopilot technologies.