PAK DA - Program - 2015-20xx
The major design works on developing the advanced PAK DA strategic bomber are due to start after 2021, the commander-in-chief of Russia’s Aerospace Forces, Victor Bondarev, said on 12 August 2015. "Currently, the design work on developing the PAK DA advanced long range aviation complex is being conducted by the Tupolev company under the contract with the Russian Defense Ministry," Bondarev said, adding that the major works will be implemented after 2021. The new strategic bomber was earlier expected to perform its maiden flight in 2019 and become operational in the Russian Air Force approximately in 2023-2025. Its development has been postponed amid plans to resume series production of a Tu-160M2 bomber in 2023.
Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Aerospace Forces Viktor Bondarev said that the main stages of the experimental design efforts for the PAK DA creation would begin after 2021. However, he said on January 2016 that the advanced strategic long-range aircraft’s prototype may take its maiden flight before 2021. He said the PAK DA creation works are underway and their progress rates were satisfactory. There is a task to conduct the (PAK DA`s) first flight in 2021. If the reached progress rates are maintained, the bomber will take the flight before the targeted time, Bondarev added.
It was earlier planned that the PAK DA bomber would start to be delivered to the Russian army in 2023-2025, and the first tests flights were planned for 2019-2020. It became known later that the creation of Russia’s new strategic bomber would be delayed because of the plans to resume serial production of Tu-160M2 that is planned to be started in 2023.
As of February 2017 it was reported that the new bomber was expected to make its first flight sometime before 2021, with the first deliveries starting in 2023. "It is impossible to build a missile-carrying bomber invisible to radars and supersonic at the same time. This is why focus is placed on stealth capabilities. The PAK DA will carry AI-guided missiles with a range of up to 7,000 km. Such a missile can analyze the aerial and radio-radar situation and determine its direction, altitude and speed. We’re already working on such missiles," Bondarev was quoted as saying by the Russian newspaper Rossiskaya Gazeta 24 February 2017.
Ruslan PUKHOV, member of the Public Council under the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation and director of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies (CAST), noted in a July 05, 2018 interview with the weekly Zvezda and the Army Standard magazine that under GPV-2020 [State Arms Program for 2018–2027] "The program for creating a promising new generation of strategic Russian bomber (PAK DA) in general, apparently, “departed” for 2030–2035. In view of this, in the next decade, the replenishment of the fleet of VKS and aviation of the Russian Navy will have to continue due to the production of modernized fourth-generation aircraft - Su-30SM, Su-34, Su-35, Tu-160M2 bombers."
Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Borisov said the PAK DA bomber may be presented to the public at large in 2018. Its parameters will exceed by far those of the existing bombers. The original plan was the first bombers would be delivered in 2023-2025, while the test flights were to be carried out in 2019-2020. Later, it was announced that the bomber’s creation was postponed in favor of resuming the serial production of the Tupolev-160 bomber.
The first prototype of the Russian PAK DA (PAK DA) was to be established in the early 2020s, a contract has been signed. This was reported 13 April 2017 by TASS source in the military-industrial complex. He said that the first stage of development work on a new strategic bomber was completed in 2016. "Now move on to the second stage:.. To develop a working design documentation and then - production of prototypes sample contract for works on this stage signed the military with the United Aircraft Corporation The first prototype is expected to make in the early 2020s", - said the source. The source said that the aircraft will be made under the scheme flying wing, which, he said, "other schemes are not considered or discussed, this option only was approved."
The head of the Federation Council’s defense and security committee Viktor Bondarev said that research and development was nearing completion on a next generation long-range multifunctional plane that will replace Tupolev-22M3, Tupolev-95MS and eventually Tupolev-160. PAK DA was slated to enter duty in 2025-2030 after testing. Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Borisov said that a new strategic bomber might be presented to the public in 2018. PAK DA, he said, may make the first flight in 2025-2026 and begin to be batch-produced in 2028 or 2029.
In December 2019, Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation Alexei Krivoruchko in an interview with the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper said that the preliminary design of the PAK DA aircraft had been approved and Tupolev PJSC (as part of the United Aircraft Corporation) had begun to develop working design documentation.
As of early 2020 the first flight was planned for 2025. It had been planned that this would happen in 2020, but the return to production of the Tu-160 delayed the creation of a new bomber. In May 2020, TASS sources reported that the production of the first prototype of the new "strategist" had begun. The final assembly will be carried out at the Kazan Aviation Plant. S.P. Gorbunova.
Russia has begun construction of the first prototype strategic stealth bomber as part of the Advanced Aviation Complex for Long-Range Aviation (PAK DA, product 80). This was reported 26 May 2020 by TASS two sources in the military-industrial complex. "One of the aircraft factories in the structure of the United Aircraft Corporation will be engaged in the manufacture of glider elements of the first machine, the development of detailed design documentation has been completed, and the supply of materials has begun," the source said. As another TASS source specified, the aircraft cockpit was already being manufactured. "The final assembly of the entire machine should be completed in 2021," he said.
A demonstration model of a promising long-range aviation complex (PAK DA) was expected to be assembled by 2023. This was reported to TASS 02 August 2021 by a source in the aircraft industry. "At present, a prototype was being manufactured. It was assumed that the demonstration model will be ready by 2023," the source said.
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