Why Russia is building old Tu-160s while US, China build stealth bombers
July 20, 2025
At a time when the United States Air Force is looking to replace its remaining fleet of variable-sweep wing supersonic strategic bombers, Russia is seeking to restart production. The Tupolev Tu-160M is the largest of Russia’s strategic bomber fleet.
Artisinal production rates for the Tu-160
Russia may be the primary successor state to the USSR, but it is not the USSR. Russia is simply unable to put aircraft like these back into production on a large scale. A few latter examples of ‘new build’ Tu-160Ms delivered post-Soviet Union were mostly built using leftover components from the Soviet Union.
In December 2022, it was reported by TASS, Russia’s state-run news agency, that Russian aerospace conglomerate UAC was about to fly its second new-built and fourth modernised Tu-160M. Initial production of new aircraft involved completing unfinished airframes left by the Soviet Union.
As the industry to make these bombers had atrophied and disappeared, Russia had to redevelop the technology of vacuum welding of titanium products to build new airframes. Currently, Russia is believed to be able to deliver one or fewer Tu-160Ms per year.
Since the White Swan’s production was restarted, FlightGlobal has decreased its estimate for how many Tu-160Ms Russia has in inventory. In 2020, FlightGlobal estimated the Russian Air Force had 16 examples in inventory, and in the 2025 FlightGlobal report, that number had fallen by one to 15.
Russia’s fleet of Tu-160s
The Russian Tu-160 White Swan (NATO reporting name ‘Blackjack’) is the pride of the Russian strategic bomber force that includes Tu-95s and Tu-22Ms. The massive variable-speed wing supersonic strategic bomber was designed in response to the United States Air Force’s Rockwell B-1 Lancer. The type first flew in 1981 and entered service in 1987, shortly before the collapse of the USSR.
Production came to a halt in 1992, by which time they had only been delivered in modest numbers. Ukraine inherited 19 of them and Russia the remaining 13. After extensive negotiations, Ukraine agreed to allow Russia to purchase eight of them, while the remaining 11 were scrapped as part of an agreement for Ukraine to give up its nuclear stockpile.
Seeking to stay a strategic bomber power
Russia has been forced to put the Tu-160M back into production because its old bomber fleet is aging and wearing out and will not remain in service forever. This has been rapidly accelerated by the wartime fatigue caused by the war with Ukraine. Russia’s bomber fleet has also suffered significant losses, particularly in June 2025 during Operation Spiderweb.
Russia has a program to produce a stealth bomber called the PAK-DA project. However, the status of that project is uncertain, and the fact that the Tu-160 is going back into production suggests it may not be ready for a long time.
Meanwhile, the US moved on from the non-stealthy variable-sweep wing bombers decades ago and produced the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber as a next-generation replacement. Now, the US is building the B-21 Raider as the next-generation stealth bomber to succeed the B-2.
China, for its part, is working to develop its own stealth bomber, the Xi’an H-20. All the while, Russia is forced to fall back on aging Cold War designs.
