Russian Tu-160 Nuclear Capable Bombers Carry Out 16 Hour Flight Over Arctic - North American Defences Alerted

A pair of the Russian Air Force’s Tu-160 strategic bombers completed 16 hour flight above neutral territory in the Arctic, also flying over the North Atlantic, Black and Baltic Seas, and part of the Pacific Ocean demonstrating their considerable endurance. The flight reportedly began on January 31’s and continued into the following day. The bombers are the most capable in Russian service, with capabilities without peer worldwide, and can deploy a range of armaments including two classes of nuclear tipped cruise missile. The Russian Defense Ministry stayed regarding the long patrol: “The flight assignment lasted more than 16 hours. During the flight, planes of the long-range aviation performed aerial refuelling.”

The bomber patrol comes amid a fast growing Russian military presence in the Arctic region, including S-400 and other high end air defence systems and MiG-31 Foxhound interceptors. Tests of new Kh-47M2 hypersonic ballistic missiles, launched from the MiG-31K, have also been carried out in the region. The Tu-160 has increasingly been used as a symbol of Russian power projection capabilities, making well timed visits to Venezuela and South Africa in 2018 and 2019 respectively. While the bombers are in service in relatively limited numbers, with only 18 thought to be active, the Russian Air Force intends to upgrade the fleet to the Tu-160M2 standard and is planning to commission 50 newly built Tu-160M2 bombers under an ambitious fleet modernisation program. Bombers currently in service are capable of delivery multiple nuclear warheads with high precision at standoff ranges, and have since the mid 2010s deployed the Kh-102 radar evading long range cruise missile for this purpose. The missile, though subsonic, is difficult to intercept and has a range estimated at between 3000km and 5,500km.