In early March, it was announced about the modernization of the Kazan Aviation Plant (KAZ) im. S. P. Gorbunov and the beginning of work on the restoration of production of supersonic strategic bombers Tu-160 in a new modification. The cooperation agreement between the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) and the Republic of Tatarstan was signed at a meeting between the President of the UAC Yuri Slyusar and the President of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov. Ravil Zaripov, assistant to the President of the Republic of Tatarstan for the airline complex, in an interview with Realnoe Vremya, said that in April builders would appear at KAZ to start modernizing the enterprise. It was also announced that the project to resume production of the Tu-160 will be exceptional in terms of the degree of cooperation within the UAC. “For the first time in the history of domestic aviation, engineers from almost all leading schools - Tupolev, Sukhoi, Yakovlev, Beriev, Mikoyan - are assembled and work in one team,” said Valery Solozobov, deputy general director of Tupolev for design, research and development.
NON-BATTLE LOSSES TU-160
The debate about whether the country needs heavy strategic bombers has been going on since the days of Nikita Khrushchev, who, as you know, sympathized with the missile method of delivering a nuclear warhead to the “consumer”. The same discussions went around the creation and production of the Tu-160, they do not stop now, and not only in our country, but also in the United States. Until recently, there was a certain concept of creating an absolutely new aviation complex to replace the fleet of "strategists" available to the Russian Aerospace Forces. However, last year the idea of producing the updated Tu-160 was put into operation.
Currently, the Russian Aerospace Forces is armed with 16 aircraft, while there were twice as many of them. Almost half of the aircraft produced fell victim to the collapse of the USSR. The planes ended up in Ukraine, and some of them were simply sawed. Eight Tu-160s were saved from cutting. Russia exchanged Ukraine's debts for gas for planes. The last Tu-160 currently produced by KAZ was handed over to the military in 2008. And until recently, there was essentially no coherent and, most importantly, realistic concept for the development of long-range bomber aviation.
According to open sources, the Tu-160 did not take part in the hostilities until a decision was made on the operation in Syria. Strategic missile carriers Tu-160 and Tu-95MS fired 34 air-launched cruise missiles at the targets of militants of the terrorist organization IS, banned in the Russian Federation. After completing the assignment, the "strategists" successfully returned to their airfields.
NEW TU-160 - "UNITED" BOMBER
According to Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Borisov, 10 such aircraft will be delivered to the Russian Aerospace Forces by 2020. “Tu-160M2 differs from its predecessor in a fundamentally new complex of on-board electronics and a set of weapons,” Borisov specified. - The Tu-160 in the M2 variant will be a completely new aircraft with new avionics, but with the old look of the airframe. Its efficiency will increase 2.5 times compared to its predecessor. It should be noted that more than a quarter of the airframe of the aircraft will consist of titanium alloys. The key unit made from them is the central beam and swing units with a total weight of several tons. The modernized technologies will make it possible to manufacture large-sized units from titanium alloys.
The aircraft will be produced, as before, at the aircraft plant in Kazan, which, in particular, will undergo modernization for this project, but almost all aviation design bureaus existing in our country will take part in the preparation of the project. This level of cooperation is exceptional for the domestic aviation industry. Also, for the first time, UAC will carry out a full production cycle within the corporation. In the year of its 10th anniversary, the corporation has reached such a degree of integration that it makes it possible to create products in close cooperation of enterprises belonging to the UAC.
By the beginning of work on the project, the UAC united all design bureaus and factories into a single information space. The work on the creation of a single "virtual" design bureau was completed. It included the workplaces of designers performing a single task, located at about 40 different sites - aircraft design bureaus and affiliated factories.
Especially for the project of the new Tu-160, work was carried out to protect data exchange channels, a single network was established in centralized corporate applications, and the exchange of design and engineering data. There were additional requirements for the bandwidth and security of information transmitted in a single environment.
“Within a very short period of time, we will have to create new design documentation for the aircraft modernization project,” says UAC General Designer Sergei Korotkov. - During the implementation of the project, the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the UAC and the holding's enterprises agreed on a new way of organizing work. We are confident that we can achieve the best result."
NEW CHALLENGES WILL HELP KAZ OUT OF THE CRISIS
"White Swans" at the Kazan plant get a second life. Photos courtesy of the United Aircraft Corporation
“This is a new breath for our aircraft plant,” Rustam Minnikhanov expressed his hope and stressed that Tatarstan has always been an aviation republic. “Tu-160 is a colossal project that has not been seen in the history of the post-Soviet aviation industry. This applies not only to the resources that are planned to be attracted, but also to the technological challenges that we face when restoring production that was interrupted 22 years ago … In Soviet times, the Kazan aircraft plant was the flagship of the aircraft industry, but later, in a number of positions, it lost the capabilities of high-tech production. But today he deserves to be paid attention to,”said Yuri Slyusar. According to Minnikhanov, 20 Tatarstan enterprises will participate in the cooperation, including KamAZ, Kazan Helicopters, radioelectronic companies, as well as scientific and educational structures.
Today the plant repairs and modernizes Tu-22M3 and Tu-160 missile-bombers, and also builds special versions of the Tu-214 passenger for government customers. At the same time, production volumes are small. To reach new production volumes, the enterprise needs to be seriously modernized. According to official data, it is planned to spend several tens of billions of rubles on re-equipping the plant in 2016–2020, which is comparable to the costs of launching a new production (in Soviet times).
In any case, when the program is launched and begins to be implemented, this is only a plus for Kazan. The program for the production of new Tu-160s will enable KAZ to raise the technological level, create hundreds of jobs and ensure a stable workload for many years to come.
