Scout:
New production versions of Russia’s Tu-160M2 Blackjack supersonic strategic bomber are scheduled to enter production in 2022. The Russian Air Force is expected to order between 30 and 50 of the new version of the venerable Soviet-era cruise missile carrier. The original Tu-160 was the Soviet Union’s last strategic bomber program before its 1991 collapse.
“We are concluding R&D work in 2021 and starting from 2022 we are beginning the serial production of these machines,” United Aircraft Corporation president Yuri Slyusar said in an interview with Rossiya-24 TV Channel according to the Moscow-based TASS News Agency [3]. “We are discussing the exact figure with the customer. I believe their number will range from 30 to 50 machines.”
The bombers will likely be built in batches of two to three per year in Kazan. Unlike many of Russia’s other high profile defense projects, the Tu-160M2 is very real and very capable. “It’s a perfectly capable bomber with upgrades,” Michael Kofman, a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center’s Kennan Institute—an expert on Russia’s military—told The National Interest. “It makes complete sense and indicates that the PAK-DA [stealth bomber] [4] is a pipe dream while the real plan is Tu-160 modernization. It also shows that Russia is committed to maintaining the air leg of its nuclear triad”…
