KAPO gains contract for completion of Tu-160 strategic bomber after production stopped in 1992

Published: 7/8/1999

According to Nail Khayrullin, Director General of KAPO, the Kazan Aircraft Production Association (KAPO) has received an order from the Russian Ministry of Defence for the completion of one strategic bomber, the Tu-160. Speaking at a regional conference of the managers of Tatarstan industrial companies, Khayrullin confirmed that the contract, totalling 45m roubles ($2m), had been signed and that the KAPO management and MoD representatives had reached a preliminary agreement on the partial financing of a state order of one additional bomber. The aircraft ceased to be manufactured at the Kazan plant in 1992 when 30 aircraft had been built out of a planned 100. The Tu-160, NATO reporting name Blackjack, went into serial production in 1984 and was developed in response to the US strategic bomber program the B-1. During flight tests several years ago, the aircraft achieved a number of world records, in payload, rate of climb, and ceiling. The US insisted on the inclusion of this category of bombers in the strategic arms limitation treaty. Russia accordingly had to cease construction of the Tu-160, with the exception of those at a certain stage of completion. Excluding the 19 bombers left in Ukraine, four are based in Engels, in Saratov region, and the ANTK Tupolev holds two. The ordered aircraft will come from the six Tu-160s, at different stages of completion, which are currently sitting at KAPO. Of late, the interest in the Tu-160 has been revived by plans from both Russia and the Ukraine to examine the possibility of turning the plane into a launch vehicle for space vehicles (www.concise.org 16/4/99). There exists both Russian and Ukrainian plans for such ventures, the latest being the US company Platform International proposal involving the Ukraine's 19 aircraft. The Ukraine is however, obliged to destroy the aircraft under START II, but seems confident that their sale to a US partner will persuade the US authorities to rescind the requirement.

Article ID: 666