As part of its strategic aviation modernization program, Russia is upgrading not only its Tu-160 bombers - Tu-95MS planes also receive an upgrade. One of the Tu-95 aircraft just returned to Engels after spending a year at the Taganrog Aviation Plant. The plane was christened "Dubna" after the Dubna city near Moscow. According to Dmitri Antonov, the chief designer of the Tu-95M, this particular aircraft was built 17 year ago. Antonov said that the Tu-95MS planes could stay in service for as long as 40 years.
UPDATE 07/09/08: As it turned out, it was not an upgrade, just a scheduled overhaul.
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Comments
Pavel
Any idea on what modifications were made to this Tu-95MS? What is the general goal of the update program?
Frank Shuler
USA
Frank: As it turned out, no significant upgrades are done on Tu-95MS during this round of overhaul.
> Any idea on what modifications were made to this Tu-95MS? What is the general goal of the update program?
- Weapon bay of Tu-95MS allow enlargening (prolongation, extension), after deletion at the aviation plant of some internal partitions; this 'weapon bay extension' allow to place Kh-102s inside the aircraft.
- Placing of Kh-102s inside the Tu-95MS, will allow to increase the plane's cruise speed with full load, from ~ 550 kmph (in the case of external weapon bays) to ~770 kmph.
The Russians better not have changed the size of the weapons bays without notifying the Americans under START.
The size of the bays are a distinguishing characteristic of the item of inspection during a data update.
If they change the size of the bays without clearing this at JCIC, they will have a hard time proving that what is presented to inspectors is in fact a Tu-95 because the dimensions of the weapons bay will not match what is in the Memorandum of Understanding.
Russian
Is the cruising speed of a Tu-95MS6 armed with 6 Kh-55 (AS-15A) 770 kmph now?
Frank Shuler
USA
Russian do you have the specs of KH-102 and what is the warhead yeald of the same.
Thanks
How many Tu-95MS have been overhauled with this program and what is the new designation?
Feanor: As it turned out this is not a modernization - the bombers just go through repair. So there is no new designation or anything. In any event, the modernization, which is planned for later, will most likely include avionics upgrade that would probably allow the bombers to use conventional (high-precision) weapons. I don't think it would include any modification of hardware.
Pavel ,did Russia reveled the KH-102 as part of START 2 exchange ? are they under obligation to revel their new cruise missile as part of treaty exchange ?
Austin: No, the only ALCMs in START data are Kh-55 (they are called AS-15A and AS-15B).
Pavel:Can Russia induct a conventional variant of the new cruise missile KH-101 , and avoid declaring it in START and at their time of choosing induct the Nuclear variant KH-102 and declare it , Thanks
> Russian do you have the specs of KH-102 and what is the warhead yeald of the same.
- Austin, - it's an old theme:
Kh-102 vs Kh-55SM vs Kh-55.
> How many Tu-95MS have been overhauled with this program and what is the new designation?
- As my source said, - no new designation, just a NIOKR (R&D) at KAPO (Kazan) and ANTK (Taganrog).
- R&D has been performed on the Tu-95 planes not listed in the Treaty (flying labs, tech. demonstrators and so on).
The main idea is to made a plane with 'convertible' payload, - i.e. a plane suitable for bearing both Kh-55 and Kh-102 internally, - in the same way like Tu-95MS6 could easily be converted to Tu-95MS16:
http://img224.imageshack.us/img224/6858/aviarutu95msx6bearkh55svz8.png
Finally, - here the report from the official ceremony of 'Dubna' christening:
http://www.rian.ru/defense_safety/20080705/113190589-print.html
As we can see from the report, - Russian Orthodox Church is everywhere...
Russian: from Your link - "full modernization planned 5-6 years later"...