Tupolev Tu-160

The Tupolev Tu-160 (Russian: Туполев Ту-160 «Белый лебедь», romanized: Bely Lebed, lit. 'White Swan'; NATO reporting name: Blackjack) is a supersonic, variable-sweep wing nuclear-capable heavy strategic bomber and airborne missile platform designed by the Tupolev Design Bureau in the Soviet Union in the 1970s. The aircraft is large, rather longer than a Boeing B-52 Stratofortress at 54 m, with wingspan 56 m when spread, 36 m when swept back. The Tu-160 is operated by the Long Range Aviation branch of the Russian Aerospace Forces.

The Tu-160 entered service in 1987, the last strategic bomber designed for the Soviet Air Forces. It was built to serve as both a conventional and nuclear bomber. Production was stopped in 1992 following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, and the newly independent Russian and Ukrainian air forces inherited a fleet of 13 and 19 Tu-160s, respectively. Following protracted negotiations, eight Ukrainian Tu-160s were purchased by the Russian Federation while the remaining 11 were scrapped in the late 1990s under the Nunn–Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction agreement. Following these actions, the sole operator of the aircraft type became the Russian Aerospace Forces' Long Range Aviation branch, which still had 17 Tu-160s in service as of 2022. The type had its combat debut in November 2015 during the Russian military intervention in the Syrian Civil War, conducting numerous airstrikes using Kh-101 air-launched cruise missiles. Various overseas deployments have been conducted, including to distant nations such as Venezuela and South Africa.

Since the early 2000s the active fleet has been subject to several upgrades, largely focusing on various electronics systems. A program of modernising existing aircraft to a new Tu-160M standard and building new aircraft was embarked upon, with the first updated aircraft delivered in December 2014. Plans were announced in 2015 for the delivery of 50 new-built Tu-160Ms and the upgrading of 16 existing aircraft.

The new bombers are reported to have more sophisticated armament, engines, and avionics than the original Tu-160. In January 2022, the first newly-built Tu-160M performed a test flight, with two new aircraft planned for delivery in 2022 of ten on order.