Tu-160 Blackjack Tupolev
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Tupolev Tu-160 Blackjack Strategic bomber aircraft
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The Tupolev Tu-160 (NATO reporting code: Blackjack) is a supersonic, variable-sweep wing heavy strategic bomber designed by the Tupolev Design Bureau in Russia. Although several civil and military transport aircraft are larger in overall dimensions, the Tu-160 is currently the world's largest combat aircraft, largest supersonic aircraft, and largest variable-sweep aircraft built. In addition, the Tu-160 has the heaviest takeoff weight of any combat aircraft. The Tupolev Tu-16 is intended to defeat critical enemy targets in remote areas and in the deep rear of continental theaters of military operations by using nuclear and conventional weapons. Currently, modernization of the Tu-160 bomber and its equipment with new types of weapon systems is underway. The Russian Air Force will receive more than 10 modernized Tu-160 Blackjack strategic bombers by 2020, the Defense Ministry said on Tuesday, February 7, 2012. The modernized version, Tu-160M, features new weaponry, improved electronics and avionics, which double its combat effectivness. |
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| - Tu-160: Production version. - Tu-160S: designation used for serial Tu-160s when needed to separate them from all the pre-production and experimental aircraft. - Tu-160V: proposed liquid hydrogen fueled version. - Tu-160 NK-74: proposed upgraded (extended range) version with NK-74 engines. - Tu-160M: proposed stretched bomber version carrying two long-range, hypersonic Kh-90 (3M25 Meteorit-A) missiles. - Tu-160P (Tu-161): proposed very long-range escort fighter/interceptor version. - Tu-160PP: proposed electronic warfare version carrying stand-off jamming and ECM gear. - Tu-160R: proposed strategic reconnaissance version. - Tu-160SK: proposed commercial version, designed to launch satellites within the "Burlak" system. - Tu-170: proposed conventional bomber (conceived in order to avoid SALT-2 limits). |
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The Tu-160 Tupolev airframe has a normal aerodynamic design with an integral center-section configuration. A variable-geometry wing (from 20 to 65°) allows various flight profiles, including a low-level flight in the relief-following mode, demonstrating high flight performance both at subsonic and supersonic speeds.
The Tu-160 has all-moving vertical and horizontal tail surfaces and is equipped with a quadruplex fly-by-wire flight control system with a redundant capacity controlled by an analog computer providing for an electronic stability with flight centering close to neutral. The crew is accommodated in the nose part of fuselage in a single pressurized cabin fitted with individual K-36L-70 ejection seats (ejected upwards after the separation of hatches), allowing the crew to automatically escape from the aircraft in an emergency within the entire range of altitudes and speeds, including zero values. |
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The Tu-160's avionics suite incorporates an aiming/navigation complex and an onboard computer supporting the automatic flight and weapon employment by day and night, in any weather conditions and geographic regions. The Tu-160 is also equipped with multichannel digital jamming-resistant communications equipment, including a satellite communications system, as well as an astronavigation system.
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The Tu-160 is powered by four Kuznetsov NK-321 afterburning turbofan engines, the most powerful ever fitted to a combat aircraft. The engines are arranged in two nacelles under fixed wing parts and provided with variable vertical wedge air intakes, as well as with an onboard APU.
The Tu-160 is equipped with an inflight refueling system, the refueling probe of which is retracted into the nose part of fuselage in front of the cockpit. The landing gear consists of a steerable two-wheel nose strut (with a deflector protecting engine air intakes from foreign object penetration) and two six-wheel main LG struts. The LG design allows the Tu-160 to operate on the existing airfields without runway strengthening. |
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The onboard self-defense complex can detect and classify different types of ground-based, ship-based and airborne enemy AD radars, determine their coordinates and suppress their operation with powerful jamming or disorient them by decoys (the tail cone accommodates IR flare/chaff dispensers). The extreme aft part of fuselage accommodates an IR radar designed to detect enemy aircraft and missiles approaching the aft hemisphere. The integral aerodynamic design and the use of several technical solutions have significantly reduced the Tu-160's radar signature.
The aircraft's armament suite can include: - 12 subsonic long-range cruise missiles; - 24 aeroballistic short-range hypersonic missiles (equipped with an inertial navigation guidance system). The cruise missiles are placed in multistation launchers of two intra- fuselage weapon bays (six missiles in each launcher). The hypersonic missiles (in antiship and antiradar versions) are placed on four launchers (six missiles in each) with two launchers located in each weapon bay. The Tu-160 can also employ various types of bombs of different purposes. |
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