home Ideas Which aircraft is considered the great-grandfather of modern strategic bombers. PAK DA - a project to create the latest Russian strategic bomber

Which aircraft is considered the great-grandfather of modern strategic bombers. PAK DA - a project to create the latest Russian strategic bomber

December 23 - Day of Long-Range Aviation of Russia. It is armed with unique aircraft: strategic missile carriers different types and flying tankers.

Carrier killer

Long-range supersonic bomber with variable sweep wing Tu-22 is designed to destroy aircraft carriers: pinpoint or massive, that is, together with escort ships.

To do this, the Tu-22 is capable of carrying up to three Kh-22 Burya cruise missiles. Missiles are also supersonic, long range. They fly at speeds up to five thousand kilometers per hour, deliver thermonuclear warheads with a capacity of megatons each. In principle, one "Storm" is enough to destroy any aircraft carrier order, but in aviation they are used to doing everything with a margin.

When used over land, the bomber carries four X-15 hypersonic missiles to destroy important stationary targets with known coordinates in advance. The X-15 flies along a ballistic trajectory: it climbs to a height of up to 40 kilometers, and then dives at a target at a speed of over five thousand kilometers per hour. The basic warhead of the rocket is nuclear, with a capacity of up to 300 kilotons. There is a variety for destroying air defense system radars, it is guided by target radiation.

Now the Russian Air Force is armed with Tu-22M3. This is the third generation of the bomber developed half a century ago: from the first models, only the front landing gear and partially the cargo compartment, in which the rocket is semi-recessed into the fuselage, have been preserved. Tu-22 of the latest series have an airborne defensive complex with radio interference stations and shooting traps. Until 2020, it is planned to equip 30 bombers with new on-board electronics adapted for the use of high-precision Kh-32 missiles.

The famous Tu-144 owes its appearance to this bomber. In 1961, during an air parade in Tushino, Nikita Khrushchev, who was watching the flight of the Tu-22, asked the aircraft designer: "Andrei Nikolaevich, could you carry people instead of bombs?" Tupolev replied that work on a supersonic passenger aircraft was already underway.

In the second half of the 90s, the Tupolev Design Bureau tried to create a supersonic business class aircraft for 10-12 passengers on the basis of a bomber. The project was closed because the Tu-22 engines did not fit into civil environmental standards.

A russian bear"

The first domestic intercontinental bomber Tu-95 (Bear according to NATO classification) is the basis of Long-Range Aviation. The task for its production was given by Stalin, the aircraft was adopted under Khrushchev. The first relied on bombs, the second preferred missiles. The Tu-95 is eventually capable of carrying both.

On a bomber, Russian pilots mastered in-flight refueling, the Tu-95 delivered all nuclear and thermonuclear devices to the test site, including the Tsar bomb with a capacity of 60 megatons. The 27-ton bomb did not fit in the cargo compartment, so the bomb bay doors were removed and the ammunition flew to Novaya Zemlya, half protruding from the fuselage.

During the explosion, the carrier aircraft was at a distance of 45 kilometers. The electromagnetic pulse stopped all four engines. The Tu-95 fell and started the engines: the first at seven thousand meters, the second at five ... The bomber sat down with three running engines. On the ground, during the inspection, it turned out that the fourth engine was badly burned and could not start in principle.

During the Caribbean crisis, Tu-95s, replacing each other, patrolled over Svalbard - at a distance of launching an X-20 missile with a thermonuclear warhead with a capacity of three megatons. Now the main armament of the Tu-95 are six Kh-55 cruise missiles, placed on a drum launcher in the cargo hold. Another 10 missiles the aircraft is capable of carrying under the wings. Aircraft are being re-equipped with the new X-101 missile, which hits moving targets with an accuracy of two meters. At a distance of 10 thousand kilometers, the deviation of the missile from the target does not exceed 10 meters.

a swan song

The flagship of the Long-Range Aviation of Russia is the Tu-160 supersonic missile carrier. This is the largest supersonic aircraft in history. military aviation and the heaviest bomber with a takeoff weight of 275 tons. It is also unmatched among variable-sweep wing aircraft. For color and silhouette, Russian pilots romantically call the Tu-160 "White Swan". The unromantic NATO members called it Blackjack (baton).

Armed "Swan" 12 cruise missiles X-55 in two drum launchers. The missile flies at a speed of 920 kilometers per hour at ultra-low altitude, bending around the terrain, and delivers a thermonuclear warhead with a yield of 100 kilotons over 2,500 kilometers, which guarantees the destruction of the target. Also, Kh-555 missiles with a more advanced control system and, accordingly, greater hitting accuracy can be suspended from the Tu-160 - the coefficient of possible missile deflection at a distance of two thousand kilometers is 20 meters.

The bomber also carries bombs as a "weapon of the second stage" - to finish off the survivors of the missile attack. Total weight payload 45 tons. The Tu-160 is capable of flying 14 thousand kilometers without refueling at a speed of 2230 kilometers per hour. Most of the aircraft in service have their own names in honor of outstanding pilots and aircraft designers.

"Swans" periodically disturb the air defense of NATO countries, unexpectedly appearing at their borders in various parts of the world. The surprise is due to the fact that when the aircraft was created almost half a century ago, stealth technologies were incorporated into the design.

flying tanker

Tanker aircraft Il-78 makes Russian aviation really far away. In NATO, he was given the name of the Phrygian king Midas, known for his ability to turn everything he touched into gold. Contact with the Il-78 makes it possible for long-range and front-line aircraft to cover huge distances without landing. On July 30, 2010, two Tu-95s flew about 30 thousand kilometers over three oceans, refueling four times in the air and set a world record.

The IL-78 has three refueling units: two under the wings, the third in the aft fuselage on the right. Each pumps over two tons per minute. Within a radius of a thousand kilometers from the airfield, the tanker is capable of transferring 69 tons of fuel, simultaneously refueling one large Tu-95 aircraft or two not very large bombers or fighters.

For this, the IL-78 produces 26 meters of hose with an openwork half-meter cone at the end. The wingman pilot must equalize speeds and hit the cone with the receiver bar. This operation requires precision and high skill of both crews.

January 25, Russian President Vladimir Putin visited the Kazan Aviation Plant. S.P. Gorbunova ( PJSC branch"Tupolev", is part of the United Aircraft Corporation, UAC), where he watched the demonstration flight of the modernized strategic bomber Tu-160. This new missile carrier with serial number 0804 was named after the first Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Air Force Pyotr Deinekin.

Test flights of the aircraft began last week. The roll-out ceremony for the first prototype took place on November 16, 2017. It is expected that by the end of this year the missile carrier will be handed over to the Aerospace Forces (VKS) of the Russian Federation. The volume of the contract for the supply of ten upgraded Tu-160M missile carriers to the RF Ministry of Defense will be 160 billion rubles. According to the president, this will allow the enterprise to be fully loaded until 2027. The head of state called the work carried out to create the aircraft "a great success for the plant's staff."

History of the "swan"

The supersonic Tu-160M2 (NATO codification - Blackjack) is an improved version of the Tu-160 developed back in the USSR. Among the pilots he received the nickname "White Swan". Along with the Tu-95MS, it forms the basis of the modern fleet of the Long-Range Aviation of the Russian Aerospace Forces. The Tu-160 is the largest supersonic aircraft in the history of military aviation, the heaviest combat aircraft in the world, capable of carrying cruise missiles with nuclear warheads.

It was created in response to the appearance in the United States of the intercontinental bomber Rockwell B-1 Lancer. The need to create a new aircraft was also explained by the fact that in the late 1960s strategic aviation was armed only with obsolete subsonic bombers - Tu-95 and M-4.

Compared to the American rival, the Tu-160 received an electric remote control system, a rudder in the form of an all-moving upper part of the keel, a rotary "comb" that improves the flow around the junction of the movable and fixed parts of the wing. The central beam of this aircraft, 12.4 m long and 2.1 m wide, which is the main structural element, is made of titanium using a unique technology. The maximum flight range is almost 14 thousand km. By the way, in 1985, during tests on the Tu-160, the speed of sound was exceeded for the first time.

From 1981 to 1992, 36 such aircraft were built, although it was originally planned to make 100. Since 1987, the first 19 copies of the bomber were transferred to the bomber regiment in the city of Priluki, Ukrainian SSR. Therefore, after the collapse of the USSR, the Russian Federation did not have a single newest strategic bomber. In 1992-1994, six aircraft were built and transferred to the bomber regiment in Engels. In 1999-2000, Russia received from Ukraine 11 strategic bombers (eight Tu-160s and three Tu-95MS), as well as about 600 air-launched missiles on account of Ukrainian debts for Russian gas. The remaining ten aircraft in Priluki were disposed of at the insistence of the United States, and one more was transferred to the museum in Poltava. Today, there are 16 units in the combat composition of the Russian Aerospace Forces.

Price " white swan"

Expert estimates of the cost fluctuate in the range of $250-600 million (in 1993, the media called 6 billion rubles, which corresponded to about $600 million). One hour of a missile carrier flight (without combat use) costs, according to official data for 2008, 580,000 rubles (about $23,300). For comparison: the cost of the American B-1B bomber, close to the Tu-160 in terms of flight technical specifications, is $317 million, an hour of flight costs $57.8 thousand.

Continuation

The decision to resume the production of bombers in a modernized version was made in 2015. The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation reported that their serial production should begin in 2023. In June 2017, Viktor Bondarev, who then held the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Aerospace Forces, stated that the Tu-160M2 could take to the air for the first time at the end of 2018. PJSC "Tupolev" launched work on the creation of deeply modernized aircraft.

Swan update

Despite the external similarity with the previous version, the Tu-160M2 is distinguished latest systems ensuring combat use, as well as latest versions double-circuit turbojet forced engine NK-32 (produced at the Samara PJSC "Kuznetsov").

According to a TASS source in the military-industrial complex (DIC), the new aircraft is not a prototype of a modernized version of the bomber.

The aircraft carried out only a small upgrade, the airframe and engines remained the same. Fully digitized documentation on the new missile carrier will be released no earlier than the middle of this year, and without it, work on the construction of the Tu-160M is impossible.

source in the OPK

Thanks to the modernization, efficiency will increase by 60%. According to Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation Yuri Borisov, the Tu-160M2 will be a practically new aircraft, two and a half times more efficient than its predecessor. Appearance of the updated "White Swan" is as recognizable as that of its "big brother", created in the Soviet era.

The Ministry of Defense plans to restore the production of the Tu-160 strategic bomber. It's about not about one-on-one restoration, because the Tu-160, which we have in service today, is an aircraft developed in the 80s, which, fortunately, stepped over the time in terms of its flight performance. He currently has the most best performance. The aircraft we are talking about, it will probably be called Tu-160M2 and will be practically a new aircraft

Yuri Borisov

Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation

According to the commander of the Long-Range Aviation of the Aerospace Forces of the Russian Federation, Lieutenant General Sergei Kobylash, the introduction of new digital technologies will "significantly increase the combat capabilities shock complex using high-precision long-range weapons."

Economical engines with wider resource capabilities will increase the flight range, which, together with the declared power-to-weight ratio, will keep the Tu-160 strategic missile carrier in the lead among strategic strike systems

Sergey Kobylash

Commander of Long-Range Aviation of the Russian Aerospace Forces, Lieutenant General

Due to the modernization of a number of units of the NK-32 engine of the 02 series, the aircraft became more economical. "It has wider resource capabilities. Thanks to this engine, the Tu-160M2 bomber, the production of which is planned to be deployed in Russia, will receive expanded capabilities, including an increase in flight range," the United Engine Corporation (UEC) noted. The UEC stated that the stand for testing new engines was reconstructed and certified for operation with NK-32 power plants.

This engine has been upgraded: the main blocks, components have become more economical, the engine as a whole has better resource capabilities, and due to the work that made it possible to improve it economic indicators, the flight range of the aircraft will be at least a thousand kilometers more compared to the existing

Viktor Bondarev

former Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Aerospace Forces, Colonel General

As explained in the press service of the Kazan aircraft factory, the sample was built on the basis of the technological reserve available at the enterprise. "It was completed, among other things, to solve the problems of reproducing the Tu-160 in a new look: restoring the final assembly technology, testing individual new technological solutions, development of new aircraft engines with improved performance," the press service of the plant notes.

Possibilities of the "swan"

The suppliers of components for the new aircraft did not stand aside either. During the modernization of the Tu-160, the Radioelectronic Technologies Concern (KRET) creates new computing and on-board systems, controls, a strapdown inertial navigation system, an electronic warfare complex, fuel-measuring and flow-metering systems, as well as weapons control systems. The board of the new Tu-160M2 will be made with elements of integrated modular avionics, which will later be used for PAK DA. The development of on-board radio-electronic equipment (avionics) for the Tu-160M2 was promised to be completed by 2020.

Russia became the birthplace of bomber aircraft thanks to the designer Igor Sikorsky, who in 1913 created the first aircraft of this type. The USSR also created the most massive bomber in the world. And on January 20, 1952, the first intercontinental jet bomber M-4, created by V.M. Myasishchev. Today is a review of bomber aircraft created by domestic designers.

Ilya Muromets - the world's first bomber

The world's first bomber was created in Russia in 1913 by Igor Sikorsky and was named after the epic hero. "Ilya Muromets" - this was the name of various modifications of this aircraft, which were produced in Russia from 1913 to 1917. The main parts of the aircraft were wooden. The lower and upper wings were assembled from separate parts and connected by connectors. The wingspan of the first bomber was 32 meters. Since aircraft engines were not produced in Russia in those years, German-made Argus engines were installed on Ilya Muromets. The domestic R-BV3 engine was installed on the bomber in 1915.

"Ilya Muromets" was 4-engine, and even stopping two engines could not make the plane land. During the flight, people could walk on the wings of the aircraft, and this did not affect the balance of the aircraft. During the testing of the aircraft, Sikorsky himself took to the wing to make sure that, if necessary, the pilot could repair the engine right in the air.

At the end of December 1914, Emperor Nicholas II approved the decision of the Military Council on the creation of the "Squadron of Airships", which became the world's first formation of bombers. On the first combat mission, the aircraft of the Russian squadron flew out on February 27, 1915. The first flight was unsuccessful, because the pilots got lost and did not find the target. The next day, the task was completed successfully: the pilots dropped 5 bombs on the railway station, and the bombs fell right among the rolling stock. The result of the bomber raid was captured in the photo. In addition to bombs, the Ilya Muromets bomber was armed with a machine gun.

In total, during the First World War, Russian bombers made 400 sorties, dropping 65 tons of bombs and destroying 12 enemy fighters. Combat losses amounted to only one aircraft.

TB-1 - the world's first heavy bomber

In the early 1920s, a discussion broke out among Soviet aircraft builders about what to build aircraft from. The majority was of the opinion that Soviet aircraft should be made of wood, and there were those who insisted that the USSR should create all-metal aircraft. Among the latter was the young engineer Andrei Nikolaevich Tupolev, who was able to insist on his opinion.

TB-1, which, after long tests and improvements in 1931, nevertheless left the assembly line, became the first domestic monoplane bomber, the first domestic all-metal bomber and the first Soviet-designed bomber that went into serial production. It was with the TB-1 that the formation of strategic aviation began in the USSR. These machines have plied the skies for over two decades.

It was on TB-1 that a lot of innovations were tested, which were subsequently used in aviation, in particular the autopilot system, radio control systems, ejection systems, and so on. The aircraft could carry 1030 kg of bomb load and small arms (three twin installations). The crew of the aircraft - 5-6 people.

On the TB-1 and its modifications, several world aviation records were set. So, it was on this bomber that the first ever flight by plane from the USSR to the USA was made. In 1934, pilot A.V. Lyapidevsky saved the Chelyuskinites and took all the women and children out of the camp. TB-1 bombers were in service in the USSR until 1936, and some - before the start of the Great Patriotic War.

Pe-2 - the most massive bomber

In 1938, the famous Tupolev "sharazhka" began the development of the Pe-2 dive bomber, which later became the most massive Soviet bomber during the Great Patriotic War.

The Pe-2 was very compact and had an all-metal construction with a good aerodynamic shape. The bomber was equipped with 2 M-105R liquid-cooled engines of 1100 hp each, which allowed the aircraft to reach speeds of up to 540 km / h (only 30 km / h less than the Me-109E fighter, which was in service with the Nazi army ).

In 1940, 2 serial bombers were produced, and at the beginning of 1941, 258 Pe-2 bombers left the assembly line. On May 1, 1941, a new bomber, which received the 95th air regiment of Colonel Pestov, flew over Red Square during a parade. Pe-2 took part in the fighting literally in the first days of the war. By 1943, Pe-2 bombers were number one in bomber aviation. Due to their high bombing accuracy, they were very effective weapons. It is a known fact that on July 16, 1943, pilots of the 3rd Bomber Air Corps destroyed 229 vehicles, 55 tanks, 12 machine-gun and mortar points, 11 anti-aircraft and 3 field guns, 7 fuel and ammunition depots on their 115 aircraft.

And although in 1944 the Tu-2 began to arrive at the front, which surpassed the Pe-2 in basic parameters, the “pawn” remained the main Soviet bomber until the end of the war and, together with it, became a legend of Soviet aviation.

At the beginning of 1945, 4 American aircraft B-29s that participated in the bombing of Japan and the territories it occupied. When the Communist Party and the Soviet government gave designers the task of creating a modern long-range bomber, MAI professor and aircraft designer Vladimir Myasishchev suggested copying American bombers, but installing domestic ASh-72 engines on the new aircraft, and replacing American machine guns with B-20 guns.

Tu-4, flight tests of which took place already in 1947, is an all-metal cantilever monoplane. The length of the bomber was 30.8 meters, and the wingspan was 43.05 meters. Four ASh-73TK motors with a capacity of 2400 hp. with. allowed the aircraft to accelerate to a speed of 558 km / h at an altitude of 10 km. The maximum bomb load is 8 tons. The efficiency of the aircraft was improved through the use of automation. For example, an onboard locator with an autopilot made it possible to find targets and hit them even at night.

The Tu-4 became the first Soviet carrier of nuclear weapons when, in 1951, a bomber regiment armed with atomic bombs was formed in the USSR. In 1956, during the Hungarian events, the regiment flew to bombard Budapest, which was interrupted at the last moment by the order of the Soviet command.

A total of 847 aircraft were built, 25 of which were transferred to China.

In the late 1940s, with the advent of nuclear weapons, there was a need for means of delivery. Bombers were needed, which exceeded the existing technical characteristics by about 2 times. The Americans were the first to develop the concept of such an aircraft. This is how the B-60 and B-52 appeared, which took to the air in the spring of 1953. In the USSR, work on a bomber of this class began with a significant delay. Stalin entrusted the development of the aircraft to MAI professor V. Myasishchev, who submitted to the government a scientifically based proposal to create a strategic aircraft with a flight range of 11,000 - 12,000 km, but at the same time, very tight deadlines were set for the project. By December 1952, a prototype aircraft was built, and in January 1953, the M-4 bomber - an eight-seat cantilever all-metal medium wing equipped with 4 engines and a retractable bicycle-type landing gear - made its first flight.

As a result of changes and improvements, an aircraft was created, the flight range of which, in comparison with earlier models, increased by 40% and exceeded 15 thousand km. The duration of the flight with one refueling was 20 hours, which made it possible to use the M-4 as an intercontinental strategic bomber. Another innovation - the new bomber could be used as a long-range naval torpedo bomber.

The tactics of using the M-4 provided for the flights of these aircraft in formation as part of a squadron or regiment at an altitude of 8-11 km. Approaching the target, the aircraft broke formation and each bomber carried out an attack on its own object. Thanks to the cannon armament system, the bomber could effectively resist interceptor aircraft. The aircraft were officially decommissioned in 1994.

The design of the Il-28 bomber began with the tail. The fact is that the creation of this aircraft became possible due to the launch into mass production of a reliable English turbojet engine with a Ning centrifugal compressor, in which a defensive mobile unit was used, which determined the main layout features of the Il-28.

The main advantage of the aircraft was the fact that the IL-28 was stable over the entire speed range. He easily performed any maneuvers necessary for the bombers, performed turns with a roll of up to 80 degrees. During a combat turn, the climb reached 2 km.

IL-28 was produced under license in China under the name H-5. The aircraft was widely operated in more than 20 countries. In total, about 6 thousand units were produced.

Su-34 - 4+ generation bomber

The Su-34 bomber, designed to deliver high-precision strikes against surface and land targets at any time of the day, has become the Russian 4+ generation bomber. Its design ended in the early 1990s.

Some elements of the Su-34 are made using Stealth technology. So, in the aircraft, the degree of reflection of enemy radar radiation was reduced with consistently good aerodynamics. Radar absorbing materials and coatings made the Su-34 less visible on radar screens than aircraft such as the Su-24, F-111 and F-15E. Another element of the combat survivability of the Su-34 is that the navigator-operator has a second control.

Su-34 front-line bombers, according to experts, are many times superior to their predecessors. The aircraft, whose combat radius exceeds 1000 km, can carry 12 tons on board various weapons. Bombing accuracy is 5-7 meters. And experts say that the Su-34 has not yet used its resource.

The Tu-95 bomber was the first Soviet intercontinental bomber and the last aircraft designed by Stalin. The first flight of the Tu-95 prototype, created in OKB-156 under the leadership of A.N. Tupolev, took place on November 12, 1952, and mass production was started in 1955 and continues today.
a world record for non-stop flight for aircraft of this class - bombers flew about 30 thousand km over three oceans in 43 hours, making 4 refueling in the air. And in February 2013, two Tu-95 Medved strategic bombers with cruise missiles with nuclear warheads on board flew over the Western Pacific island of Guam a few hours before addressing the nation american president Barack Obama. The Washington Free Beacon called this fact " a sign of Moscow's growing self-confident strategic assertiveness towards the United States».

It is worth noting that the bombers created in Great Britain, the USA, Italy, Poland, Japan and other countries also left a significant mark on the history of aviation. Earlier we published a review about the times of the Second World War.

Term restriction

It is customary to call a bomber strategic only when it has an intercontinental range (over 5,000 km) and is capable of using nuclear weapons. For example, aircraft such as the Tu-22M, Tu-16 and B-47 are capable of using strategic nuclear weapons, but do not have an intercontinental flight range, and therefore are often called long-range bombers. (In fact, this use of the term "long-range bombers" is not correct, since such bombers, without having an intercontinental flight range, are otherwise technically also strategic bombers. That is, intercontinental and so-called "long-range" bombers are nothing more than two subclasses of strategic bombers.)

However, due to the uncertainty of the criteria on the one hand, and the political situation on the other, some countries may call not only technically strategic, but tactical and operational tactical bombers strategic (Xian H-6A - Chinese Air Force, Vickers 667 Valiant - British Air Force, Mirage 2000N - French Air Force, FB-111 - US Air Force). In the latter cases, this is often caused by the use (including planned) of technically tactical and operational-tactical bombers as strategic bombers. (Sometimes the use of tactical and operational-tactical bombers as strategic ones is expedient if strategic goals on enemy territory are within the reach of tactical and operational tactical strike aviation.)

Story

Strategic aviation (including strategic bomber), in the full sense of the term, began to develop actively in the early years of the Cold War. Nevertheless, long-range heavy bombers of the Second World War: B-17 and B-29 (US Air Force) and Lancaster bombers of the Royal Air Force of Great Britain are quite reasonably classified as strategic bombers. Actually, these aircraft were then used as strategic bombers. The Soviet Il-4, by the nature of its combat use, was also actually a strategic bomber.

During the Second World War, projects of intercontinental bombers began to appear. In Germany and Japan, there were plans to use such bombers for raids on the United States from Europe and Asia, respectively (see Amerika Bomber and Nakajima G10N). In the United States, in turn, a project was being developed for an intercontinental bomber for raids on Germany in the event of the fall of England - as a result further development this project in the second half of the 1940s began mass production the first "real" B-36 strategic bomber. The B-36, being a piston aircraft, soon became quite vulnerable to rapidly improving jet fighters, despite its very high flight altitude for those years. Nevertheless, for a number of years, B-36s formed the backbone of the US strategic nuclear forces.

Further development of this type of weapons went at a rapid pace. After some time, strategic bombers, usually equipped with nuclear weapons, were constantly on combat duty, providing conditions for mutually assured destruction in case of war. The main post-war requirement for a strategic bomber, which aircraft designers sought to fulfill, was the ability of the aircraft to deliver nuclear weapons to the territory of a potential enemy and return back. The main such aircraft during the Cold War were the American Boeing B-52 Stratofortress and the Soviet Tu-95.

Supersonic strategic bombers

The pinnacle of this doctrine is the American "Valkyrie" XB-70A and its Soviet counterpart - T-4 ("weave").

The inconsistency of the doctrine became clear with the advent of air defense systems, such as the S-75, which confidently hit targets such as the U-2 ultra-high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft. Production of the B-58 was curtailed, the first carrier-based strategic bomber A-5 was converted into a reconnaissance aircraft.

At this new stage in the development of weapons, the strategic bomber was still required high speed, but not as a means of overcoming air defense, but as a means of reducing the flight time - the duration of arrival at the site of the strike. Overcoming air defense was planned as, for example, flying at ultra-low altitude.

In this paradigm, aircraft such as the FB-111, Tu-22M and the English TSR.2 (which did not get into the series due to the reorientation of the UK to use SSBNs with Polaris missiles) were made. In English texts, such aircraft are called "interdictor".

With the development of new technologies, strategic bombers received supersonic speed and the ability to fly at extremely low altitudes (B-1, Tu-160), and in some cases reduced radar visibility (B-2 and Tu-160). This complex characteristics increases the likelihood of successful penetration into someone else's protected airspace.

Nevertheless, the high cost of creating and maintaining aircraft of this type, as well as their low efficiency in low-intensity conflicts, does not make it possible to quickly replace the fleet and some types of aircraft remain in service for several decades ( bright examples: B-52 and Tu-95). However, the moral and technical aging of machines of this type makes it necessary to replace them. So, in the United States, a program was launched to develop a new bomber to replace the B-52 (after 2030, when preliminary, aircraft of this type will be removed from combat duty). In Russia, it is planned to replace the Tu-95 with modernized Tu-160 after 2015. Also in Russia, the PAK DA project was launched - work on the creation of a strategic bomber designed to replace the Tu-160.

As a rule, strategic bombers were developed directly for the delivery of nuclear weapons. But they were sometimes used in local wars. In particular, the Tu-16, Tu-22 and Tu-22M were used to a limited extent in the Afghan war, the B-52 in Vietnam and Iraq, the B-2 in Yugoslavia and Iraq (2003).

Which aircraft is considered the great-grandfather of modern strategic bombers. PAK DA - a project to create the latest Russian strategic bomber

History of the "swan"

Swan update

Possibilities of the "swan"

Ilya Muromets - the world's first bomber

TB-1 - the world's first heavy bomber

Pe-2 - the most massive bomber

Su-34 - 4+ generation bomber

Term restriction

Story

Supersonic strategic bombers

Major strategic bombers

cold war

Experienced and not implemented projects

Modern

Future

see also

See what the "Strategic bomber" is in other dictionaries: