Vladimir Putin took a 30-minute ride in a modernized Tu-160M supersonic bomber as part of the crew yesterday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin flew in a Tu-160M strategic bomber on Feb. 22, 2024. A 30-minute sortie from Kazan Aviation Plant, located some 450 miles to the east of Moscow. The flight came the day after Putin visited the Gorbunov Kazan Aviation Plant, a Tupolev subsidiary that ranks among major Russian aviation industry enterprises and employed 8,400 people in 2023.
The plant whose runway has been renovated recently, is preparing to produce new Tu-160M ‘White Swan’ strategic missile-carrying bomber, a new version of the Tu-160 plane.
On 21 Feb, Putin was at the Kazan Aviation Factory to name a modernized Tu-160 BLACKJACK for the first president of Tartarstan, Mintiner Shajmiev. Three aircraft supported the visit. Two Tu-214PU Airborne Command Post RA-64517 & RA-64520 and an Il-96 CAMBER RA-96014. pic.twitter.com/PiOoBm1hIh
— reconron (@thereccelizard) February 22, 2024
‼️🇷🇺✈️ JUST IN: TU-160 took off with #Putin pic.twitter.com/SScGDmVHXZ
— Maimunka News (@MaimunkaNews) February 22, 2024
Footage released by the Kremlin shows Putin in the left seat of the Blackjack’s cockpit, at times handling the large bomber under the supervision of the pilot: a show of might, that comes on the second anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, as Russia’s President prepares for the election race next month.
Putin flying on Tu-160M strategic bomber. pic.twitter.com/Bbo7PKhqaJ
— Clash Report (@clashreport) February 22, 2024
Interestingly, the glass cockpit of the bomber has been blurred in the clip.
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As explained in a previous post here at The Aviationist:
The Tupolev Tu-160 is a supersonic strategic missile-carrier with a variable sweep wing. The decision to resume the production of the upgraded version of the Tu-160, the Tu-160M, was made in 2015.
As a consequence, two existing Tu-160s were upgraded to the Tu-160M standard under a contract with the Ministry of Defense. Overall, 15 airframes should be upgraded. The aircraft that first flew on Jan. 12, 2022 is the first newly build airframe under a contract with the Ministry of Industry and Trade out of ten advanced Tu-160M2 aircraft which will be produced for the Russian Aerospace Forces.
The new Tu-160M2 version, includes a glass cockpit, weapons upgrades, new engines and the removal of obsolete equipment no longer relevant to the Tu-160’s mission. According to the CEO of the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) Yury Slyusar, the new aircraft has 80% of its systems and equipment upgraded. The original Tupolev Tu-160 “Blackjack” first flew in 1981 and entered service in 1987.
The first flight of the first deeply modified Tu-160 (designated Tu-160M2), built from backlog airframe took place on Feb. 2, 2020 and lasted 2 hours and 34 minutes.
On Nov. 3, 2020, the first “fundamentally upgraded strategic bomber” flew from Kazan, Russia, powered by the new NK-32-02 engines . The United Aircraft Corporation said that during the flight the upgraded general systems and onboard radio-electronic equipment were tested and the performance of the new engine NK-32 of the 02 series assessed.
At the moment, we can’t but notice that the new Tu-160 is often referred to as Tu-160M and M2. If any, the difference between M and M2 variants is not clear.
The flight on Feb. 22, 2024 was not the first time Putin flew on a Tu-160, the first time was on Aug. 16, 2005.
