Friday December 1, 2017 15:56 MSK
Russia’s Tupolev Aircraft Company has delivered another
repaired Tu-22M3 long-range missile-carrying bomber to the country’s Aerospace
Force, the Tupolev press office reported on Friday.
"On November 30, the plane left the flight testing
station of the Kazan Aircraft Enterprise, a Tupolev branch. The Tu-22M3 has
undergone an entire range of controlling and repairing work in the enterprise’s
workshops to regain its flight worthiness while specialists have carried out
all ground tests at the enterprise’s flight testing station. The operational
acceptance/delivery and familiarization flights have also been successful,"
the press office said.
After the Tu-22M3 is delivered to the customer, it will
traditionally perform a flight over the enterprise and then fly to its
destination point.
"This plane, like other operational Tu-22M3
aircraft, will undergo its upgrade to the Tu-22M3M modification from
2018," the Tupolev press office said.
A source in the Russian defense industry told TASS in
mid-November that designers had completed developing the documentation for the
modified version of the Tu-22M3 bomber, the Tu-22M3M, and the first heavy
upgrade of operational aircraft would begin in 2018.
The Tu-22M3M bombers will get advanced precision weapons
while their radio-electronic devices and engines will be similar to the
equipment aboard the latest Tu-160M2 aircraft, the source added.
"The development of the documentation for the
Tu-22M3M has been completed and work is currently underway at the Kazan
Aircraft Enterprise to prepare the production facilities for the repair and
modernization of the bombers that are in service in the operational units of
Russia’s Aerospace Force. The first heavy upgrade of these planes since the
time of their development will begin from next year," the source said.
"The Tu-22M3M will feature an absolutely new
avionics system standardized with the Tu-160M2," the source noted.
"This refers to the entire avionics, including the
navigation and sighting complex," the source said, adding that after its
upgrade the Tu-22M3M would get a possibility to use "modern long-range
precision weapons."
According to the source, the Tu-22M3M will have a power
unit identical to the motor system aboard the Tu-160M2 (new NK-32-02 engines
produced by the Samara-based Kuznetsov aerospace engine company).
Original post: ruaviation.com
Tu-22M/22M3/22M3M: Details
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