Tupolev Tu-160 'Blackjack'

Development

Tupolev began the project in the early 1970s, with the basic aircraft-and-systems concept established by the middle of the decade. It was designed as an intercontinental strategic missile carrier rather than a short-range tactical strike aircraft. Kuznetsov began work on its NK-32 engine in 1977.

The prototype flew on 18 December 1981 with B. Veremey as test pilot. Testing of the first production aircraft began in October 1984. The engine programme reached a separate milestone in 1985, when a Tu-160 first flew with series-built NK-32 engines. An operational long-range aviation unit in the Ukrainian republic of the Soviet Union began receiving aircraft in April 1987.

Airframe and recognition

The Tu-160 has a long, pointed nose, a slender fuselage, variable-sweep outer wings and a tall swept fin. The tailplane is mounted part-way up the fin. Four engines are arranged in paired installations beneath the inner wing, with the exhausts extending behind its trailing edge.

The pivoting outer panels change the aircraft’s plan view substantially. With the wings spread, the span is greater than the aircraft’s length; sweeping them back produces a narrower outline. The rounded 54-metre length and 55.7-metre reference span describe the scale of the aircraft without implying one fixed span for all wing settings.

The Tu-22M Backfire also has variable-sweep wings. The Tu-95 Bear has propellers, giving it a different appearance in a clear photograph. Those visual features are absent from the ordinary radar symbol: a track’s height and speed are different evidence from an aircraft photograph.

The Kuznetsov NK-32

The NK-32 is an afterburning turbofan with a three-shaft arrangement. Its compressor and turbine groups turn on separate shafts. An annular combustion chamber burns fuel in the main engine, while a common afterburner sits downstream of the turbines. The engine also has a large variable exhaust nozzle.

A turbofan produces thrust from both its fan airflow and its core exhaust. Afterburning adds fuel downstream of the turbine to increase thrust; it is a different operating condition from flight without afterburner. Read the engine guide for the distinction between a turbojet, turbofan and turboprop.

The first series-built NK-32 was completed in 1984, and a Tu-160 flew with series engines in 1985. The NK-32 series 02 supplied for the later Tu-160M is a subsequent development. The later engine and equipment fit differs from the original 1998 configuration.

Armament and mission

The Tu-160’s strategic mission centres on carrying long-range cruise missiles. An air-launched cruise missile is released by an aircraft and then flies under its own propulsion and guidance. That permits the carrier and the weapon to take different routes: the bomber does not have to remain alongside the missile or fly directly over the target.

A type’s armament capability is not an inventory aboard a particular flight. It also does not identify which weapon, if any, has been released. Keep the aircraft’s reported type, its observed movement and evidence of a separate weapon distinct.

The aircraft in the 1998 setting

By 1998 the Tu-160 had been in unit service for around eleven years. It was a Soviet-designed aircraft operating in the post-Soviet period. The new-build Tu-160M modernisation came later.

Supersonic capability does not mean supersonic flight throughout a mission. A performance figure describes a specified capability, while the current track speed describes this contact now. Likewise, the aircraft’s strategic role does not by itself establish the route, fuel state, weapons load or intent of one flight.