(Public domain image courtesy of Wikipedia)
What do you call a bear with gray hair? Russia’s most reliable heavy bomber:
Russia is increasing its effort to modernize its aging Tu-95MS bombers. Eight of these were modernized (mainly with new electronics, including communications, navigation and automated landing systems) in 2014 and ten more will undergo the process in 2015-16. This modernization effort has been going on since 2000 but because so many of these elderly Tu-95s are wearing out Russia only has 43 in service in 2015. Plans to design and build a new heavy bomber have constantly been stalled by budget problems. That will become a critical problem once the Cold War era “heavies” all wear out.
In the meantime the Russian program to put Cold War era heavy bombers back in service continues to get funded.
The Tu-95 first flew in 1952, and if you hadn’t noticed in the photo above, is a prop-driven heavy bomber — like a WWII-vintage B-29 on steroids.
Russia however doesn’t have much choice other than to try and keep them flying. Their only jet-driven heavy bomber, the 1987-vintage Tu-160 “Blackjack,” was never produced in great numbers (35), and its engines are notoriously unreliable.
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