Russia's 71-year-old Vladimir Putin boarded a brand-new Tu-160M "White Swan" tactical bomber on February 22, according to Russia**. This initiative is intended to send a strong message to the second anniversary of the Special War. In addition, Putin's flight is a stimulant for the Russian military aviation industry, since Russia's imports of its fighter jets have already been exhausted by sanctions imposed by Western countries.
Russian officials ** reported that Putin flew a Tu-160M on a runway at the Kazan airport in Russia.
It is worth mentioning that as early as 2005, Putin used an early Tu-160 strategic bomber in a long-distance exercise, and this test flight gave him a more direct understanding of the Tu-160M and the old model.
*: Putin is on a flight of a brand new Map-160 strategic bomber.
*: Putin drives the Tu-160M on official Russian TV, which makes people feel that the years are merciless.
*: Putin drove an old Tu-160 in 2005 with a screen full of old instruments.
Putin's trip lasted 40 minutes.
It is unclear whether the newly built Tu-160M strategic bomber can be used in the Russian-Ukrainian battlefield.
In January 2018, Russia officially announced an order for 10 new Tu-160M strategic bombers, each of which is estimated to cost around $270 million. The first has already been completed and its first flight took place in January 2022. When the Russian Air Force wanted to buy 50 Tu-160M, it never renewed the contract. It is clear that they do not have enough financial resources to support such a powerful army.
*: Tu-160M strategic bombers left the airfield under Putin's command.
*: The first new Tu-160M made its first flight in 2022.
To be precise, it is newly built, not accurate.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia also built many aircraft, but the economy was sluggish and the factory could not be supported, so it was abandoned.
Of the four Tu-160M, two were converted from old Soviet fuselages. This shows how difficult it is to create a supersonic fighter.
In this Russia-Ukraine war, the Russian Air Force rarely appears on the battlefield, and occasionally sends a squad of missiles to accurately hit key targets. Part of the reason for this is that Russian strategic bombers are old and there is not much to use. Another reason is that Russia does not have enough reserves of long-range, high-precision missiles to drop them in large quantities.
This has also led to the lack of effective strike capabilities of the Russian Air Force, and a small number of missiles are likely to be easily intercepted by the Russian army, and if you want to form a large attack group, you must dispatch more strategic bombers and more missiles. The Russians would never send so much money to bomb over Ukraine!