Photograph by Petr Velikokotchetov
Last week ANTK Tupolev revealed their latest strategic bomber designated Tu-180. Although Tu-180 was in service with Dal'naya Aviatsia for almost five years, it remained the Russia's best kept secret until now. The aircraft was developed alongside of Tu-160 bomber and it was designed to complement the supersonic Blackjack which was to become the backbone of the Russia's strategic command. Unlike Tu-160 it incorporates considerable amount of stealth (nevidimka in Russian) and it is believed that Tu-180 RCS is about 1/20 of Tu-160. New Tupolev bomber is a first true stealth design known to be in service outside of the United States.To achieve this low RCS Tupolev chose a flying wing layout used at Northrop B-2. Tu-180 is considerably larger than B-2 with a greater wingspan (82.3 m) and length (30.4 m). According to V. T. Klimov (director general of Tupolev ANTK) new stealth has a degree of commonalty with its stablemates (for example it uses landing gear similar to that of Tu-160). Undoubtedly one can see a family resemblance including Tupolev's long main gear struts allowing unobstructed access to the bomb bays and a windshield similar to both Tu-22M3 and Tu-160. Tupolev claims that first flight was made on March 14, 1985, therefore, beating Northrop B-2 by four years (July 17, 1989).
Surprisingly, the breakup of the Soviet Union and defense cuts did not cause a noticeable slowdown of Tu-180 production which remains at the level of 5 aircraft per year at Kazan APO. The complexity of variable swept wing Mach 2.2 Tu-160 and political changes (only five aircraft are in service with Russian Strategic Command while Ukraine kept nineteen) forced to reevaluate the original plans of Tu-160/Tu-180 deployment. The Tu-180 is becoming a backbone of the Dal'naya Aviatsia with more than a dozen in service with 1096 TBAP (strategic bomber regiment) at Engels. Tu-180 is capable of carrying a wide variety of payloads, including nuclear weapons.