a
World Aviation Defense & Security Industry News - KRET
 
 
KRET details Tu-160M2 strategic bomber's future improvements
 
Work to develop a defensive aids suite for the Tupolev Tu-160M2 strategic bomber has begun, Vladimir Mikheyev, adviser to the first deputy CEO at Russia’s Radio-Electronic Technologies Group (KRET), told TASS.
     
Russian Air Force's Tu-160 strategic bomber
(Credit: UAC)
     
The system will defend the plane against missiles of any type, he added.

"We understand that it [the plane] will have an absolutely new defensive aids suite being developed as part of the R&D work. It will defend the plane against missiles of any type. The system will detect targets within several hundred kilometers," Mikheyev said.

According to him, the plane needs a precision navigation system.

"Requirements to the navigation system will be different. It will have absolutely new components, in particular, a gimballess inertial navigation system, an advanced astronavigation system and a whole range of instruments, including a new satellite navigation system," Mikheyev said.

Earlier, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Borisov said that radio electronic equipment of the Tu-160M2 strategic bomber and the PAK DA (Prospective Airborne Complex of Long-Range Aviation) plane should be standardized as much as possible.

According to Borisov, defense contractors will operate the equipment used to produce the Tu-160M2 plane so as not to pay twice for pre-production and development.

Russian Defense Minister General of the Army Sergei Shoigu said that the serial production of the upgraded Tu-160M2 strategic bomber was planned to begin after 2021. Shoigu made this statement in his address to the Federation Council, the upper house of Russia’s parliament.

A proposal to resume the production of the Tu-160 aircraft in an upgraded version was made by Russian Defense Minister General of the Army Sergei Shoigu during a visit to the Kazan Aircraft Plant, an affiliate of the Tupolev Company, in April 2015.

In May 2015, President Vladimir Putin ordered to resume the production of the strategic bomber.

In October 2016, Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Borisov said that 50 planes of the type were planned to be produced.
     
© Copyright 2017 TASS. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 

 

,