Russian Tu-160 Nuclear Capable Bombers Conduct Night Flight Over Indian Ocean

A pair of Tu-160 strategic bombers from the Russian Air Force were reported to have carried out a nighttime overflight of the Indian Ocean preceding a deployment to South Africa, according to the country’s Defence Ministry. “The Tu-160 strategic missile carrying bombers performed a night flight in the airspace over the Indian Ocean as part of the international visit of the Aerospace Forces’ air group to the Republic of South Africa. The flight was performed in strict compliance with the rules of using international airspace,” the Ministry stated regarding the flight. The Tu-160 remains Russia’s foremost class of strategic bomber, and is widely considered the most capable in the world. The platform first entered service in the late 1980s and has seen significant enhancements to its design since. Russia is today the aircraft's sole operator.

While the Soviet armed forces had invested in considerable assets for global power projection, including a sizeable carrier fleet and nuclear powered heavy cruisers, Russia’s ability to project power overseas has been severely constrained due to cuts to its defence budget and the overall contraction of its economy following the Soviet collapse. Although Russian cruisers and destroyers are seeing their armaments fast ageing, and are fielded in limited numbers today meaning their ability to pay port visits overseas or otherwise deploy force far from Russian borders is limited, the Tu-160 can effectively fill such a role. The platform’s intercontinental range combined with its far lower operational cost relative to heavy warships means it can and has been used to send signals both to allies and adversaries regarding the extent of Russian power. A visit to Venezuela by two of these bombers in December 2018 was a more prolific example of this.

Tu-160 bombers are capable of deploying 12-24 cruise missiles, including radar evading Kh-101 and Kh-102 platforms with extreme ranges of up to 5,500km - the latter of which is nuclear armed. While Russia’s Tu-160 fleet is significantly smaller than its Soviet predecessor, with neighbouring Ukraine inheriting a large portion of the fleet and subsequently scrapping it under Western pressure, Russia has significantly enhanced the design as the Tu-160M and has moved to reopen production lines to increase the size of the bomber fleet. These will form a less costly complement to the upcoming PAK DA next generation strategic bomber.