PAK DA - Program - 2009-2015
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.
In 1995 the commander of the Russian air force, Col. Gen. Peter S. Deinekin, stated that all versions of the aged Tupolev Tu-22 Blinder bomber and the Sukhoi Su-24 Fencerwould be replaced with a new ``multi-role strategic bomber.``
Craig Covault And David A. Fulghum, writing in Aviation Week & Space Technology, reported 10 April 2000 "Russia is pursuing the design and possible development of a medium stealth bomber aircraft that would be larger than the USAF F-117 stealth fighter, but smaller than the USAF B-2 strategic bomber. The work is underway at Sukhoi. The future of the Russian stealth bomber program will be a significant indicator of the course that new Russian President Vladimir Putin intends to follow on Russian air force modernization and issues about the country`s ability to wage modern warfare beyond its borders.... The aircraft, designated the T-60S /sometimes called the S-60/, most likely uses a variable geometry wing but with substantial stealth design characteristics embodied in the overall aircraft`s shape. The Russians also have examined flying-wing stealth bomber concepts for an aircraft that would be smaller than the B-2."
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 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.
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