Date Posted
29 April 2008
Kazan' Aircraft Builders to Transfer Several More Bombers to Air Force
The Kazan' Aviation Production Association will finished and
transferred to Russia's air force
several more bombers in the very near future, OAO Unified Aircraft Building
Corporation president Aleksey Fedorov said on Tuesday in Kazan'.
"Today there is a still a small technological backlog both for long-range
bombers and for strategic bombers which in the very near future will be
finished and transferred to the air force. Right now we are resolving the
problem of their completion and transfer to the armed forces with the defense
ministry," Fedorov said to journalists on the ending of the transfer
ceremony for the new Tu-160 strategic bomber at the KAPO S.P. Gorbunov flight
test facility.
Fedorov refused to name the exact number of airplanes that will be completed
and transferred to the air force in the near future.
"If one is speaking about future, new airplanes, then, most likely, it
won't be the Tu-160 in the form it has right now. Life goes on, technology
develops and air force requirements steadily grow. Therefore, right now we are
discussing with our main customer -- the Russian Federation defense ministry --
the appearance of a future long-range aviation complex. I think that several
years will go by for the creation of the technical requirement for this
complex. After that, when they have been completed, we will begin to design the
strategic airplanes," the OAK president explained.
He noted that a year ago, start of construction of new strategic airplanes for
the Russian Federation defense ministry still had not been determined, but he
expressed the conviction that the will be manufactured in KAPO halls.
"The airplanes KAPO is producing now carry missiles and bombs and fulfill
all the requirements the air force has before it today. We fully reasonably
consider that our strategic bombers is one of the best airplanes in the world
in its class," Fedorov added.
As the Russian Federation air force chief of staff, Igor' Khvorov, reported,
with the aircraft that is being transferred, "there will be" 16
Tu-160 strategic missile carriers "in commission."
"Together with Tu-95 airplanes, the number is able to resolve missions in
support of nuclear parity with our probable enemy and fully provide for the
security of our state," he said.
The Tu-160 which has received the name of one of the KAPO directors, Vitaliy
Kopylov, has become the first new strategic bomber to be produced from within
the plant's walls in the last 10 years. Its construction began as early as the
'90s of the last century; however, it was frozen for a long time. New targeting
and navigational equipment and avionics have been installed onto the airplane.
The engineering cycle for the construction of such aircraft is about 2 years.
The Tu-160 is a multi-mission strategic missile carrier and bomber which is intend
for destruction of ground and maritime targets from low and medium altitudes at
sub-sonic speeds and from high altitudes at supersonic speeds using strategic cruise
missiles, short-range guided missiles and bombs.
Design-wise, the Tu-160 is close to the American B-1B strategic bomber, but has
a greater takeoff weight, combat payload and higher flight performance. Flight range
is more than 13,000 kilometers.
The airplane is equipped with an in-flight refueling system. The crew consists of
four men and they are in ejection seats.
The strike navigational complex includes an astro-navigational system, an inertial
navigation system, a targeting and navigational complex, opto-electronic bomb sight
and radar. The airplane's equipment consists of long, medium and short-range aerial
cruise missiles, bombs and mines. The total weapons payload is 22.5 tonnes.
Source: 29.04.08,
RIA Novosti
Date Posted
28 April 2008
Russian Federation Air Force Plans to Upgrade up to Three
Tu-160 Each Year
Russia's air force plans to upgrade up to three Tu-160
strategic missile carriers each year, the chief of staff and first deputy
commander of the supreme high command (strategic) 37th air army, General-Major
Anatoliy Zhikharev, reported on 26 April.
"There will be a huge event in the life of long-range aviation on 29
April. We will receive a new Tu-160 strategic missile carrier. In the future,
we plan to upgrade two - three such airplanes annually at the aircraft
enterprise in Kazan'," Zhikharev said.
He specified that "we already have sent three airplanes to the aircraft
enterprise. one in 2007 and two this year. We plan that by the end of the year
one upgraded airplane already will be with the troops."
The general added that it is planned in the future to upgrade up to three
airplanes a year.
Zhikharev added that the Tu-160 "we will get already had been upgraded.
This airplane had the targeting and navigational equipment upgraded."
Therefore, the crew has undergone cross-training and studied this new airplane.
"The Tu-160 has undergone all the tests. On Friday, a crew of the 121st
heavy bomber aviation regiment made a check flight. At the present time, the
airmen are getting ready to ferry the airplane to the unit on 29 April,"
Zhikharev said.
He recalled that on 29 April there will be a ceremony accepting the new Tu-160
airplane into the inventory at the aircraft enterprise in Kazan', after which
it will fly to the Ehngel's airbase in the Saratov Oblast'.
Source: 28.04.08, RIA Novosti
Russian Federation and Ukraine Resuming Production of
An-124-100 "Ruslan" Airplane
((Title says it all.
Not further translated.))
Source: 28.04.08, RIA-Novosti
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