The first Tu-160M2 aircraft (serial number 08-04, Pyotr Deynekin) was demonstrated publicly during president's visit to the Gorbunov Aviation Plant in Kazan. The aircraft reportedly conducted its maiden flight in late December 2017. Also during the visit the ministry of defense and PAO Tupolev signed a contract to build ten Tu-160M2 aircraft. The cost of the ten-year contract is said to be 160 billion rubles (about $3 billion).
It is not clear if Pyotr Deynekin is included in the initial order of ten planes. It appears to have been assembled from an unfinished plane left over from the Soviet days. However, it may be considered Tu-160M2 if it is eventually equipped with new avionics. It seems that the Tu-160M2 project is largely a plan to re-start the production of Tu-160 bombers "from scratch."
UPDATE: Things may be a bit more complicated - Pyotr Deynekin is a Tu-160M, not M2 (h/t DS). Which seems reasonable - it is very much an old Tu-160 design. It gets an "M" when it gets some new avionics. The contract signed in Kazan also appears to cover the construction of Tu-160M, but at some point after 2020 these planes will be converted to Tu-160M2 (and presumably new ones would be built as M2). Other sources say that Tu-160M is a "deep modernization" of Tu-160, which means that these are not new planes. This would mean that the contract would cover only modernization and not a new construction. In this case, production of Tu-160M2 would be covered by a different contract.
UPDATE: It appears that the new aircraft will be built as Tu-160M2 after all. At least, in tenders announced by Aviastar (here and here, h/t AS) the new plane is referred to as "izdeliye 70M2".
The other strategic-bomber project - PAK-DA - may take its first flight "in mid-2020s." No significant changes there compared to the earlier plan.
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Pavel,
I believe the "M2" also has the upgraded engines (NK-32-02), while aircraft 08-04 does not. Supposedly with the NK-32-02, service ceiling increases to over 18,000 meters from the current 15,000. Thrust would have to be raised to around 30,000 kg from the current 25,000 kg to accomplish that... Does anyone here have info on the upgraded engine? There is very little publicly available.
There are two programs. The Tu-160M program which involved the completion of an unbuilt Soviet plane and the upgrade of the existing fleet, and the Tu-160M2 which involves restarting production of the Tu-160 and producing ~50 aircraft presumably to replace the Tu-95 fleet as the PAK-DA is still a ways off.
I ran an article on the Tu-160M2 roll-out for Jane's a few months ago.
The airframe used (08-04/Pyotr Deynekin) is one of the originals placed in storage in the early 1990s - likely the airframe that arrived in Kazan in 2009.
At the time of the roll-out the engines were covered either to conceal that there were not any engines installed or that they were Samara NK-32-1 turbofans rather than the Kuznetsov NK-32-2 turbofans that would give it the M2 designation.
From my investigations this airframe is fully fitted with all the required avionics/upgrades that give it the M designation - and I suspect that the flight test was with NK-32-1 turbofans, as the NK-32-2's are still in the development phase. That isn't to say that the airframe will have them installed at a later date.
There are three operational Tu-160s that have been modernised to Tu-160M standard, with others (maybe not all due to the new M2 order) due to have the same upgrade. It is also possible that the basic Tu-160's will skip straight to the M2 upgrade.
Tony
Thanks Tony,
Any idea when the NK-32-2's are supposed to be ready for flight test?
Hi Jon,
Sorry for the late reply, I've only just noticed yours.
Difficult to say, is the answer.
Handover of the first engines was scheduled for the end of January so it could well be this has already happened - and if so, there's nothing saying they weren't installed for this flight. However, I think (and I said this in the article) it would have been a bit tight getting them ready for the first flight. I actually said in the article that should they go for the NK-32-2's for first flight, that this would be delayed until May/June.
It looks like they kept to schedule for first flight, and will possibly carry out a further one later on in the year with the NK-32-2's
Cheers
Tony