Russia will very soon acquire a new model of nuclear bombers with a range of twelve thousand kilometers. Not so long ago, Tupolev told about additional details of the initiative, and at the same time told when exactly the first cars will appear at military airfields in Russia.
Russia will soon have its own next-generation nuclear strategic bomber. We are talking about PAK DA (a promising long-range aviation complex), a project of the domestic aircraft developer PJSC Tupolev. It is known that the advanced combat vehicle will be presented to the general court in 2021 or 2022. This will be a pre-production sample that will be shown to the military. According to Russian media reports, the first flight of the PAK DA is scheduled for 2025-2026. The carrying capacity of the PAK DA will be 30 tons, and the range will be 12 thousand km.
At the moment, the Tupolev design bureau is working on the first prototype of a nuclear bomber. Serial production of the car will begin no earlier than 2028. Earlier this was reported by several prominent Russian publications. It is assumed that the PAK DA will replace all Russian strategic bombers, including the Tu-160, Tu-95MS and Tu-22M3. However, in 2015, a project to modernize the Tu-160 to Tu-160M2 was initiated, which was one of the reasons for the delay in the PAK DA project.
By the way, the Russian military should receive an improved Tu-160M2 already in 2021. In January 2018, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation placed a state order for the production of 10 such aircraft. The formation of the fleet of these aircraft is planned to be completed by 2030. A total of fifty machines will be created. In addition, Russia is modernizing Tu-22M3 naval strike and strategic bombers. The car made its debut flight back in 2018. In total, the modernization will affect 20 vehicles.
Finally, the country is modernizing Tu-95MS aircraft. Obviously, all this will somewhat limit the army's ability to purchase the latest PAK DA. Most likely, in the coming years, the Ministry of Defense will continue to squeeze (primarily) the potential from existing aircraft.
In continuation of the topic, remember how in the Soviet Union they tried to make an atomic machine that would wipe the nose of the United States and not only.