Two Tu-160s met the British QRA yesterday.
On Sept. 10, RAF Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) Typhoon aircraft were scrambled from RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland (along with a supporting Voyager tanker from RAF Brize Norton) to intercept two Russian aircraft flying in international airspace.
The two Typhoon pilots visually identified the two Russian Tu-160 Blackjack bombers and escorted them as they flew close to the British airspace.
It’s the very first time in several years that the white-colored supersonic, variable-sweep wing heavy strategic bomber appears in photographs taken by RAF QRA pilots: indeed, according to recent reports, there only 5 combat capable Tu-160 in service and this means the Tu-160 are rarely launched on very long missions.
However, with the Tu-95s only slowly returning to normal operations after the grounding that followed a series of crashes, there is some chance Tu-160s may pay visit to the international airspace off some NATO member state.
In 2013, two Tu-160s deployed to Venezuela and Nicaragua after a 13-hour flight across the Pacific. On their 15-hour return flight to Engels airbase, in Russia, that included aerial refueling by Il-78 tankers over the Norwegian Sea, the two Blackjacks entered Colombian airspace and were intercepted and escorted by Colombian Air Force Kfir fighter planes for 5 minutes.
Image credit: Crown Copyright / UK MoD
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I must say, that is one gorgeous airplane.
very old
Looks like a B-1.
Don’t go there.
Better than B-1.
The TU160 is an old relic. It is a very large target painted on radar screens. As soon as they take off they are sitting targets. I hear they are very unreliable and costly to operate which explains why they are grounded most of the time
Start of operation: Tu-160 – 1987, B-1 – 1984.
Actually, Tu-160 was always feared by the west because it has many stealthy capabilities, from radar print to special paint applied which gave it the name White Swan..You should check ay least wikipedia data before commenting
Because 90% was based on stolen US designs? Of course it does.
Αnd the US , stolen from Germany SS designs.
No secret to anyone
That is nonsense; simply, aerodynamic solutions can`t be solved otherwise because of laws of physics; in anything else, B- 1 and Tu-160 are much different machines, with Tu-160 overwhelmingly winning in any comparison; except the fact that USSR broke down and much fewer were built, later US insisted that Ukraine DESTROYS these airplanes in so called Noun-Lugar deal; as they were panicky afraid of Tu-160.
However, thanks to new administration in Russia, NEW and modernized Tu-160 will be built.
I hope Russia wastes billions of roubles in an ancient dinosaur like the TU160. The sooner Russia will go completely broke like the Soviet Union
Meteorite was cancelled ages ago.
So what does the slogan painted on the nose say?
Each Tu-160 plane is named after someone, and the name of the person is pained on the plane. This one is named after Andrey Tupolev himself.
Nice. Thanks for the answer.
This is the cockpit ob a B1B. compare it to the Tu-160. The new Tu-160’s may have some 21st century upgrades though.
https://theaviationist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/B-1B-cockpit.jpg
So what does it mean?That more “fancy” cockpit can influence the speed, or quality of airplane?Tu – 160 is so much better then B-1, and holds some of world records check online.Also..there is a reason why Russians do whatever they do…No Russian plane can have western produced microchips etc and also, they should launch a nuclear attack on US, and survive it, so computers on board are not the best idea..
Non stealth aircraft like the TU160 would not survive very long in a conflict against a modern well equipped military. The TU160 would be detected as soon as they take off from Russian air bases and F22s would be waiting like birds of prey overhead and would be shooting them down before they even leave Ruseian airspace.
Over north pole?
Do you know the range of Tu-160 and the range of his payload?