Military and Commercial Technology: Russia’s first Tu160M2 strategic bomber is in service, and China’s H-20 is about to refuel

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俄罗斯首架图160M2战略轰炸机服役，中国轰-20要加油了_制造

2021-03-16 10:08

According to Russian media reports, recently, the first Tu-160M2 strategic bomber manufactured by the Russian United Aviation Manufacturing Group took off from the "Gorbunov" aircraft manufacturing plant in Kazan and flew to Zhuko, a suburb of Moscow. Gagarin Air Force Academy in Wowski.

Tu-160M2 successfully flew for the first time on November 3 last year

According to the plan, this Tu-160M2 strategic bomber will start at the airport of Gagarin Air Force Academy for national acceptance flight organized by Tupolev and the Russian Aerospace Forces. If all goes well, it will be in the second half of 2021. Officially delivered to the Russian Aerospace Forces. And this is also "another node" reached by the Tu-160M2, which went offline at the end of 2019, and another node for the Russian Aerospace Forces to rebuild the long-range aviation force.

"White Swan" takes off hard

If Big Ivan is asked to evaluate this "new entry" Tu-160M2 "White Swan" strategic bomber, we think we can use one word to describe it: difficult takeoff. To say that this Tu-160M2 strategic bomber has had a "difficult takeoff", it is very simple. Whether it is manufactured from the airframe, or from the avionics system, or from the main sub-system, this manufacturing, or The process of restoring manufacturing capacity is not easy.

Tu-160M2

Body manufacturing

Let’s talk about the fuselage. Everyone knows that the fuselage of the Tu-160 strategic bomber manufactured by the Soviet aviation industry was basically the result of the production collaboration of the All-Soviet Alliance. The body wall panels are milled and welded from a whole piece of titanium alloy metal. The large electron beam welding equipment required in the welding process is also a special manufacturing equipment specially developed by the Ukrainian Barton Welding Technology Research Institute. The craftsmanship and tooling required for the production of the entire machine body are extremely complex, and even have extremely high requirements for electricity. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, by 1994, Yeltsin generously admitted that Russia had lost the ability to manufacture "white swan".

In order to restore the mass production capacity of the Tu-160 strategic bomber at the "Gorbunov" plant in Kazan, the Russian aviation industry department has made arduous efforts. Starting in 2016, it has gradually implemented funding to the Kazan plant to assist Kazan. Restore the original plant equipment, power supply and heating, manufacturing tooling, etc. In addition, several hundred million rubles have been specially allocated to rebuild the entire plant test flight station and auxiliary equipment, including hangars, test stations, and terminal buildings.

In addition, the large-scale specialized equipment required for the manufacture of Tu-160, such as electroplating, welding, lathes, etc., is also led by the Russian aviation industry department, and different industrial departments are doing their best to solve the problem. For example, the original manufacturing of Tu-160 The extremely important ЭЛУ-24 electron beam welding equipment is repaired by Progress, while another company is responsible for repairing and upgrading the УВН-45 titanium alloy annealing device that performs the more important annealing procedure.

In addition, the "Gorbunov" plant even used a Tu-160 strategic bomber body (No. 0804) left from the Soviet era to "save" a "used" aircraft in November 2017. When the Tu-160 came out, this aircraft was supposed to "practice" in advance to restore the production capacity of the Tu-160, and it could be regarded as laying a solid technical foundation to actually start manufacturing a new aircraft.

Avionics System

The second is the avionics system. From the perspective of the Soviet Union in the 1980s, the Tu-160 strategic bomber has reached an extremely advanced level, especially equipped with a complete airborne navigation and fire control system, complete with active and passive. Airborne electronic countermeasures equipment can be described as "the strongest in the Soviet Union" more than 30 years ago. But all these years have passed. The original ancillary manufacturers have either long since disappeared or been assigned to foreign countries, and the original avionics systems are almost out of date. Among other things, just look at the "Soviet Watch Shops" in the cockpit of the Tu-160 strategic bomber, and you can see how old the current status of the Tu-160 is.

Therefore, the Russian aviation industry is said to have adopted integrated avionics similar to the Su-57 fighter jet on this newly manufactured Tu-160M2 strategic bomber. The main purpose is to replace the Tu-160 strategic bomber with a new type of fire control. Radar, new inertial and satellite navigation equipment, and "bastion" type airborne integrated electronic countermeasure system, etc. For this reason, the Russian aviation industry department also specially allocated funds for the transformation of a Tu-214 passenger plane in 2013 to test the avionics equipment prepared on the Tu-160M2. After this set of equipment is purchased, it can only be said that the Russian aviation industry has "spent its blood", but this at least ensures that the avionics of the Tu-160M2 strategic bomber reaches a higher technological level.

Power system

Finally, there is the biggest "blocker" of the Tu-160M2 strategic bomber: the Kuznetsov НК-32-2 high-thrust turbofan engine as its main power system, and Samara Kuz, responsible for mass production of this series of engines. As early as after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the Nezov Aviation Production Consortium was also unable to build an engine due to technical cooperation issues, as well as confusion in production management and even technical document management. Now, in order to ensure that the Tu-160M2 can fly into the sky, Must ensure that the plant restores engine production capacity.

Production capacity restoration work was probably started around 2014. In addition to ensuring that the НК-32 series of engines can continue to be manufactured, a batch of engine test equipment has also been added. In the end, after hard work, the Kuznetsov plant estimated that the resumption of production of the НК-32 high-thrust turbofan engine will be completed around 2019, and the first batch of НК-32-2s with upgraded technical conditions have been manufactured. type. These turbofan engines that have successfully rolled off the assembly line have undoubtedly become the biggest boost to the successful resumption of batch production of the Tu-160 strategic bomber.

Figure-The impact of 160M2 service

Then, with the successful delivery of the first Tu-160M2 strategic bomber that resumed production and the launch of national test flights, it is estimated that the Russian Aerospace Force will be officially installed this year. What impact will it have on the Russian Aerospace Force?

Tactical level

First of all, of course at the tactical level. According to the information released by the Russian Aerospace Forces, the flight performance and tactical performance of this Tu-160M2 strategic bomber are slightly improved compared to the previous technical state of the Tu-160M. It is mainly reflected in the extension of the combat range under a certain load, the increase of the supersonic combat radius, and the improvement of the airframe's electronic countermeasure capabilities. Of course, even so, in the current tactical situation and battlefield environment, it is definitely impossible to expect Tu-160M2 to penetrate the opponent's defense depth and carry out airborne attacks on the opponent's strategic depth. It is highly likely to be used as a defense zone. Strategic bombers for foreign attacks.

For this reason, it is said that the Russian Aerospace Forces has prepared multiple types of advanced cruise missiles for the Tu-160M2. In addition to the original PKB-500 and X-101 air-launched cruise missiles, it is said that it will also integrate a new generation of the Tu-160. Hypersonic air-to-surface missile. After the integration of a variety of advanced tactical weapons, the Tu-160M2 visually will become the Russian Air and Space Army’s strongest offensive capability, the farthest combat radius, and of course the most powerful strategic strike weapon, and it will inevitably become the next air force. The backbone of the air attack stage.

Strategic level

From a strategic point of view, in the current battle sequence of the Russian Air Force, there is actually only one unit equipped with Tu-160 strategic bombers, which is the 22nd Guards Heavy Bombing Aviation Division in Engels, Saratov Oblast. The 121st Guards Regiment under its jurisdiction is also equipped with at least 6 Tu-160Ms and more than 10 Tu-160s, which are all Tu-160s currently owned by the Russian Air Force.

After the appearance of the Tu-160M2, it is said that the Russian Aerospace Forces are preparing to receive new Tu-160M2 strategic bombers at a rate of 3 to 4 aircraft a year from 2022, even in the long-range aviation system developed by Sukhoi Company ( PAK-DA, similar to the American B-2 stealth bomber) will continue to install the Tu-160M2 after entering service, eventually bringing the Tu-160 plus Tu-160M/M2 to about 60.

PAK-DA imagination map

If this armament reorganization plan can be achieved, coupled with the 43 Tu-95MS/MSM series equipped in the 184th Guards Regiment and the 182th Regiment of the 326th Division of the Heavy Bombardment Aviation, it means that the Russian Aerospace Forces are sure to be in 2030. Around the year, it reached the scale of about 100 heavy strategic bombers. Although this is far less than the peak level of the Soviet Union, based on the current equipment of the Russian Aerospace Forces and the current strategic bomber fleet of the U.S. Air Force, it is actually in a state of shrinking. The arms reorganization plan is undoubtedly worthy of attention.

Figure-95MS/MSM series

Equipment level

Finally, from the perspective of equipment level, the current equipment system of the Russian Air and Space Army's long-range aviation forces is basically clear, and can be roughly divided into the following levels:

One is the lower level composed of Figure -22M3 and Figure -22M3M. This level is expected to take into account tactical bombing in the future, while the mission focus will be shifted to aviation control of the sea and combat deep defense outside attack;

The second is a higher level composed of Tu-95MSM and Tu-160M2. This level is estimated to serve as the "backbone" of the Russian Air and Space Army’s strategic bomber force, with its larger equipment scale, better cost-effective use, and larger The number of launches, undertaking the task of attacking the firepower output terminal outside the main defense area of the Russian Air and Space Army long-range aviation force, and taking into account the task of strategic nuclear deterrence;

The third is that the PAK-DA project, which is newly developed by Sukhoi but has not yet appeared, assumes the "highest" level. In this sense, it is estimated that PAK-DA is expected to focus on the strategic nuclear deterrence task of strategic bombers, which is the highest and most important task among the strategic bombers.

And this will have an unpredictable impact on the construction of the Chinese Air Force’s next strategic bomber force, and even the positioning of our new generation of H-XX long-range bombers. The specific impacts will be left to time Check slowly.