With a View to the Future: Why Russia Needs PAK DA Next-Gen Stealth Bomber
14:19
02.03.2017
In a
follow up to recent reports that Russian designers have made the first
full-size model of the Russia's next-generation strategic bomber, known as the
Advanced Long-Range Aviation Complex (PAK DA), Russian defense analysts
explained why the country needs such an advanced aircraft.
The
developers from Russia's Tupolev design bureau have recently created a
full-size model of the prospective advanced long-range bomber, known
by its Russian initials as PAK DA.
The new
aircraft is expected to make its first flight sometime before 2021,
with the first deliveries starting in 2023. The first public
demonstration of the aircraft is expected in 2018.
It is
estimated that the new aircraft will have an operational range of about
12,000 kilometers and travel at subsonic speeds. The plane’s airframe will
consist of radar-absorbent material.
Furthermore,
it was reported that the new fifth generation bomber will be able to carry
a 30-ton weapons payload including different variants of air-to-surface
and air-to-air missiles as well as conventional and smart-guided
bombs.
The bomber
"is to be equipped with the latest radio-electronic warfare
equipment of domestic manufacture, unparalleled in terms
of effectiveness," the designers revealed.
It will have
a flying wing design, which is a tailless fixed-wing aircraft that has no
clearly defined fuselage. The crew, payload, fuel, and equipment are typically
housed inside the main wing structure.
Commenting
on the reports, Viktor Murakhovsky, Editor-in Chief of Arsenal
of the Fatherland journal said that the new bomber will be a worthy
replacement to the aircraft that were developed back in Soviet times.
"The
creation of a new aircraft is not a fast process. Thus the combat
effectiveness of the existing fleet of the long-range aviation needs
to be constantly maintained, partially with the help
of modernization," he told RT channel.
However these
aircraft can't fly forever, he noted.
The new
bomber is expected to become one of the chains in the system
of strategic "non-nuclear" deterrence.
The PAK DA,
he said, will have cutting-edge equipment and advanced air-launched weapons,
most prominently, long-range cruise missiles and hypersonic striking powers.
Meanwhile,
military expert Vasily Kashin, Senior Research Fellow at the Moscow-based
Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies noted that both
Tu-95 and Tu-160 remain visible to the modern anti-missile defense
systems, thus Russian Aerospace Forces do need a more modern aircraft
with lesser radar visibility.
"It will
considerably expand our possibilities and will provide a certain advantage
to our forces. It is quite expensive and complicated to create such
an aircraft. Long-range combat aviation is not exploited as intensively
as civil aviation, and so its working lifespan is considerably longer.
On the whole,
Russian long-range aviation is younger than that of the US," he
said.
Original
post: sputniknews.com
As it is now
confirmed that it is flying wing design and tailless I picked the most likely
design from the web….
Prospective
Air Complex for Long Range Aviation (PAK DA)
 |
| x-true.info |
In 2015 the decision was announced to resume the production of Tupolev-160 bomber (its upgraded configuration Tupolev-160M2) and to postpone the development of a new generation bomber till a later date. The Defense Ministry said the construction of Tupolev-160M2 would begin in 2023. The Aerospace Force planned to acquire at least 50 such aircraft.
As of
February 2017 it was reported that the new bomber was expected to make its
first flight sometime before 2021, with the first deliveries starting in 2023.
"It is impossible to build a missile-carrying bomber invisible to radars
and supersonic at the same time. This is why focus is placed on stealth
capabilities. The PAK DA will carry AI-guided missiles with a range of up to
7,000 km. Such a missile can analyze the aerial and radio-radar situation and
determine its direction, altitude and speed. We’re already working on such
missiles," Bondarev was quoted as saying by the Russian newspaper
Rossiskaya Gazeta 24 February 2017.
The major
design works on developing the advanced PAK DA strategic bomber are due to
start after 2021, the commander-in-chief of Russia’s Aerospace Forces, Victor
Bondarev, said on 12 August 2015. "Currently, the design work on
developing the PAK DA advanced long range aviation complex is being conducted
by the Tupolev company under the contract with the Russian Defense
Ministry," Bondarev said, adding that the major works will be implemented
after 2021. The new strategic bomber was earlier expected to perform its maiden
flight in 2019 and become operational in the Russian Air Force approximately in
2023-2025. Its development has been postponed amid plans to resume series
production of a Tu-160M2 bomber in 2023.
Commander-in-Chief
of the Russian Aerospace Forces Viktor Bondarev said that the main stages of
the experimental design efforts for the PAK DA creation would begin after 2021.
However, he said on January 2016 that the advanced strategic long-range
aircraft’s prototype may take its maiden flight before 2021. He said the PAK DA
creation works are underway and their progress rates were satisfactory. There
is a task to conduct the (PAK DA`s) first flight in 2021. If the reached
progress rates are maintained, the bomber will take the flight before the targeted
time, Bondarev added.
It was
earlier planned that the PAK DA bomber would start to be delivered to the
Russian army in 2023-2025, and the first tests flights were planned for
2019-2020. It became known later that the creation of Russia’s new strategic
bomber would be delayed because of the plans to resume serial production of
Tu-160M2 that is planned to be started in 2023.
The Russian
Air Force would start receiving its first PAK DA next generation long-range
bomber in 2023, Russian Air Force Commander-in-Chief Lt. Gen. Viktor Bondarev
said 22 May 2014. Earlier reports said PAK DA bombers could be supplied to the
Russian Air Force approximately by 2020. “The maiden flight should be performed
in 2019. State tests and supplies will be completed in 2023,” Bondarev said.
The head of United Aircraft Corporation (UAC), Mikhail Pogosyan, told reporters
earlier that the full-fledged construction work would start in 2014.
While the US
for many years had the only operational stealth aircraft, as of 2000 Russia was
reportedly designing a stealth bomber. Russia announced plans in 2009 to
develop a new strategic bomber featuring stealth technology by 2025. The new
bomber is expected to replace the Tu-95MC Bear and Tu-160 Blackjack strategic
bombers, and Tu-22M3 Backfire long-range bombers currently in service with
Russia’s strategic aviation. As of 2012 Russia’s strategic air forces operated
a total of 63 Tu-95MS and 13 Tu-160 bombers. Altogether, they were capable of
carrying 850 long-range cruise missiles.
In December
2009 Russian aircraft maker Tupolev said a new-generation Tu strategic bomber
would be developed by 2017. Company President Alexander Bobryshev told Russian
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin the research on the new aircraft project should
be completed by 2012, while production-line assembly should start in 2020 to
2025. However, Maj. Gen. Anatoly Zhikharev, commander of Russia's strategic
aviation said a new strategic bomber, which would use stealth technology, was
expected to enter service in 2025-2030. He said the stealth technology would
make "the new aircraft difficult to detect by radar, although it is
impossible to make airplanes of this type completely invisible."
Russia's Long
Range Aviation commander, Major General Anatoly Zhikharev, had said the Air
Force could receive the new strategic bomber in 2025. Defense Minister Anatoly
Serdyukov has said that a new aircraft assembly line in Russia's Kazan plant
(KAPO) would build PAK DA [Perspektivnyi Aviatsionnyi Kompleks Dalney Aviatsyi
- Prospective Air Complex for Long Range Aviation.] and the new Antonov An-70
propfan transport aircraft. The same plant previously built the Tu-95MS and
Tu-160.
In May 2012,
Russia Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin called on Russia's defense industry
to develop hypersonic air-breathing weapons as a future strike system. He
picked out American development work in the X-51, Falcon, HiFire and HyFly
programs as examples of what he described as the perspective threat posed by
U.S. hypersonic development work. "The undertaking of this work allows us
to lay the basis for creation of a national competitor in hypersonic
weapons," he said. Development of such a weapon should be discussed at the
highest levels of state, he said. Rogozin, who has special responsibility for
the military-industrial complex, insisted Russia has no need to develop a new
long-range bomber to replace its existing fleet.
Deputy Prime
Minister Dmitry Rogozin suggested that with the current and future air and
missile defense systems in place, strategic bombers were no longer relevant.
“Look at the current level of air defense and anti-missile defense – these
aircraft will not get anywhere. Not ours, not theirs,” Rogozin, who oversees
defense industry and will soon assume full control over financing of R&D for
military purposes, said in an interview with Izvestia. He added that strategic
bombers could not be viewed as means of delivering nuclear strikes on enemy
territory anymore.
On 09 June
2012 Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev reiterated plans to develop a new,
fifth-generation strategic bomber. “Alongside a fifth-generation fighter there
are also plans to develop an advanced long-range aviation complex. I am talking
about a new strategic bomber,” he said. Maintenance and modernization of the
existing strategic bombers is not enough, he added. His remarks come days after
a senior cabinet member questioned the need for a new bomber.
Chief of the
Russian General Staff Gen. Nikolai Makarov told Izvestia in early June 2012
that the new bomber project was underway as planned. “We have made some
progress in the development of the new bomber,” Makarov said. “If we reach
production phase, this plane will outperform any modern aircraft of the same
class, including those built by the Americans.”
Russian
President Vladimir Putin ordered development of the new long-range strategic
bomber to be sped up in mid-June 2012. Speaking during a conference on defense
orders, Putin said: "We have to develop work on the new PAK DA long-range
bomber aircraft for Long-Range Aviation. I know how expensive and complex this
is. The task is not easy from a scientific-technical standpoint, but we need to
start work," Putin said, adding that otherwise, Russia could miss the
boat.
Russia's
Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said he was in favor of development of the
PAK DA long-range bomber for the country's air force, just hours after saying
the project was unnecessary, in apparent contravention of President Putin's
call last week for domestic aerospace industry to develop just such an
aircraft. “I am for PAK DA but it should not be a copy of the B-2. We need to
look at the horizon and develop hypersonic long-range aviation, civil and
military,” Rogozin said
The outline
for a design of the Russian Air Force's future strategic bomber, known as
PAK-DA, has been worked out, Air Force commander Maj. Gen. Viktor Bondarev said
in June 2012. "The outline of this aircraft is already formed, and the
technical and tactical characteristics are being set out," Bondarev said.
"I think we have the resources and funding to make the plane on time, so
it is ready when we need it as a replacement or addition to our Tu-95 and
Tu-160 strategic bombers," he added.
The Russian
Air Force may receive its first PAK DA next generation long-range bomber about
2020 instead of 2025 as initially planned, Russia’s acting deputy Air Force
commander, Major General Alexander Chernyayev, said in late June 2012. “I think
the first models of the Prospective Air Complex for Long Range Aviation (PAK
DA) will be supplied to the Air Force approximately by 2020,” Chernyayev said
in an interview published on the Russian Defense Ministry website. Chernyayev
also said in his interview the Russian Air Force was planning to modernize its
Tu-95MS, Tu-160 and Tu-22MS bombers, as well as Ilyushin Il-78 Midas air-to-air
refueling tanker aircraft.
The general
look of the new strategic bomber has already been worked out, and engineers are
currently finishing work on aircraft specific operational requirements,
Chernyayev said. “We have everything today to develop the plane on time and put
it into operation together with [Tupolev] Tu-95MS Bear, Tu-160 Blackjack and
Tu-22M3 Backfire [strategic bombers], which have proven their high
reliability,” he added.
Prime
Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who has responsibility for military-industrial
affairs, and the Armed Force’s General Staff, disagreed over the need for a new
“traditional” strategic bomber. Rogozin said on his blog in June 2012 that it
would be undesirable for Russia to "go down the American route," and
produce a bomber like the Northrop B-2, and repeated his earlier calls for a
hypersonic air vehicle system instead of a traditional long-range bomber. In
earlier comments, Rogozin had appeared to dismiss the need for PAK-DA, saying
long-range bombers would fall victim to air defense systems long before
reaching their targets.
The Russian
Air Force has approved the conceptual design and specification of its future
PAK-DA strategic bomber, paving the way for development of components for the
aircraft, Air Force Commander Lt. Gen. Viktor Bondarev said 11 April 2013. “The
development of the aircraft is going as planned. The outline of its design and
characteristics has been approved and all relevant documents have been signed
allowing the industry to start the development of systems for this plane,”
Bondarev said at a meeting with Russian lawmakers.
The Russian
Air Force has tactical and technical requirements for a new generation of
strategic bombers, as reported by Interfax. According to some sources, the PAK
DA would be based on the supersonic Tu-160 bomber. Later references to the new
bomber, including a televised address from Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, seem
to imply the aircraft will be an entirely new design. Some speculation suggests
that it might follow the stealthy design of the America B-2 Spirit bomber, but
there is little public evidence to support that. Source: globalsecurity.org
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| Konstantinos Panitsidis |
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| redstar.gr |
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