Tupolev Tu-95
The Tupolev Tu-95 is a large, four-engine turboprop-powered strategic bomber and missile platform. First flown in 1952, the Tu-95 entered service with the Long-Range Aviation of the Soviet Air Forces in 1956 and was first used in combat in 2015. It is expected to serve the Russian Aerospace Forces until at least 2040.
A development of the bomber for maritime patrol is designated the Tu-142, while a passenger airliner derivative was called the Tu-114.
The aircraft has four Kuznetsov NK-12 engines with contra-rotating propellers. It is the only turboprop-powered strategic bomber still in operational use. The Tu-95 is one of the loudest military aircraft, particularly because the tips of the propeller blades are supersonic. The Tu-95 is the only propeller-driven aircraft with swept wings built in large numbers. Its armament has included the Kh-55 nuclear-armed cruise missile and Kh-101 stealth cruise missile.
Soviet crews carried out long-range patrols, without nuclear weapons, until 1991. Russia resumed similar patrols from 2007. In the 1950s and 1960s, experimental variants were used for air-dropped Soviet nuclear tests, including the Tsar Bomba, and for researching nuclear-powered aircraft.
In 1981, the Tu-95MS modernized variant began production. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Ukrainian Air Force inherited 23 to 29 Tu-95s. Under the Nunn–Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction program, these were dismantled by 2001.
The bomber was first used in combat in November 2015 at the outset of Russian intervention in the Syrian civil war. It has been used for further cruise missile attacks in the Russo-Ukrainian war since 2022. On 1 June 2025, Ukraine's Operation Spiderweb drone attack destroyed 7 to 8 of Russia's Tu-95MSs at Belaya and Olenya airbases.
Design and development
The design bureau, led by Andrei Tupolev, designed the Soviet Union's first intercontinental bomber, the 1949 Tu-85, a scaled-up version of the Tu-4, a Boeing B-29 Superfortress copy. A new requirement was issued to both Tupolev and Myasishchev design bureaus in 1950: the proposed bomber had to have an un-refueled range of, far enough to threaten key targets in the United States. Other goals included the ability to carry an load over the target.Tupolev was faced with selecting a suitable type of powerplant: the Tu-4 showed that piston engines were not powerful enough for such a large aircraft, and the AM-3 jet engines for the proposed T-4 intercontinental jet bomber used too much fuel to give the required range. Turboprop engines were more powerful than piston engines and gave better range than the turbojets available at the time, and gave a top speed between the two. Turboprops were also initially selected for the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress to meet its long range requirement, and for the British long-range transport aircraft, the Saunders-Roe Princess, the Bristol Brabazon Mk 2 and the Bristol Britannia.
Tupolev proposed a turboprop installation and a Tu-95 design with this configuration was officially approved by the government on 11 July 1951. It used four Kuznetsov coupled turboprops, each fitted with two contra-rotating propellers with four blades each, with a nominal power rating. The engine, advanced for its time, was designed by a German team of ex-Junkers prisoner-engineers under Ferdinand Brandner. The fuselage was conventional with a mid-mounted wing with 35 degrees of sweep, an angle that ensured that the main wing spar passed through the fuselage in front of the bomb bay. Retractable tricycle landing gear was fitted, with all three gear strut units retracting rearwards, with the main gear units retracting rearwards into extensions of the inner engine nacelles.
The Tu-95/I, with 2TV-2F engines, first flew in November 1952 with test pilot Alexey Perelet at the controls. After six months of test flights this aircraft suffered a propeller gearbox failure and crashed, killing Perelet. The second aircraft, Tu-95/II, used four 12,000 eshp Kuznetsov NK-12 turboprops which proved more reliable than the coupled 2TV-2F. After a successful flight testing phase, series production of the Tu-95 started in January 1956.
File:Tu-202BottomView.png|thumb|Tu-20/Tu-95 "Bear-B" reconnaissance-bomber, showing its nose radome and flight refuelling probe
For a long time, the Tu-95 was known to U.S./NATO intelligence as the Tu-20. While this was the original Soviet Air Force designation for the aircraft, by the time it was being supplied to operational units it was already better known under the Tu-95 designation used internally by Tupolev, and the Tu-20 designation quickly fell out of use in the USSR. Since the Tu-20 designation was used on many documents acquired by U.S. intelligence agents, the name continued to be used outside the Soviet Union. Initially, the United States Department of Defense evaluated the Tu-95 as having a maximum speed of with a range of. These numbers had to be revised upward numerous times.
Like its American counterpart, the B-52, the Tu-95 has continued to operate in the Russian Aerospace Forces while several subsequent iterations of bomber design have come and gone. Part of the reason for this longevity was its suitability, like the B-52, for modification to different missions. Whereas the Tu-95 was originally intended to drop free-falling nuclear weapons, it was subsequently modified to perform a wide range of roles, such as the deployment of cruise missiles, maritime patrol, and even civilian airliner. An AWACS platform was developed from the Tu-114. An icon of the Cold War, the Tu-95 has served not only as a weapons platform but as a symbol of Soviet and later Russian national prestige. Russia's air force has received the first examples of a number of modernised strategic bombers in Tu-95MSs following upgrade work. Enhancements have been confined to the bomber's electronic weapons and targeting systems. Modernization of the first batch was completed in March 2020.
Tu-116
Designed as a stopgap in case the Tu-114A was not finished on time, two Tu-95 bombers were fitted with passenger compartments. Both aircraft had the same layout: office space, a passenger cabin consisting of two sections which could each accommodate 20 people in VIP seating, and the rest of the cabin configured as a normal airliner. Both aircraft were eventually used as crew ferries by the various Tu-95 squadrons. One of these machines is preserved at Ulyanovsk Central Airport.Modernization
Starting in the 2000s, the Russian Air Force started to study different options for the modernisation of its Tu-95MS fleet. Even before the start of the modernisation program, in 2003 the aircraft were made compatible with the Kh-555 missile. Then, the proper modernisation program was initiated. Development officially started when a research and development contract was issued to Tupolev by the Russian Defence Ministry, on 23 December 2009. The modernisations are applied to only the Tu-95MS16s using the K-016 Sprut missile initialisation system, and not to the aircraft using the older K-012 Osina ; in other words, only the aircraft manufactured from 1986 onwards are modernised. In total, this represents a fleet of between 30 and 35 aircraft. The program is divided into two steps: the first one consists of making the aircraft compatible with Kh-101/102 cruise missiles. These are too big to fit in the internal missile bay; hence, new external hardpoints are added. A total of eight Kh-101/102s can be carried under four double missile pylons, in addition to six Kh-55/55SM/555s in the internal rotary missile launcher. Several pieces of equipment are also replaced in this first step of the modernisation, including the satellite signal reception system, the instrument landing system, and other navigation systems. The first Tu-95 modernized to carry the Kh-101/102 missiles was the Tu-95MS Saratov, rolled out at the Beriev aircraft plant in Taganrog in early 2015. It was transferred to the Russian Air Force in March 2015. Since 2015, the serial modernisation is carried out also by the Aviakor aircraft plant in Samara at a rate of three aircraft per year. The first Tu-95 modernized by Aviakor was the Tu-95MS Dubna, transferred to the Russian Aerospace Forces on 18 November 2015. In the future, Tu-95MSs are to be upgraded with the SVP-24 sighting and computing system from the Russian company Gefest & T.The second step of the modernisation program is also the most extensive one, and is known as Tu-95MSM. It includes the installation of the new Novella NV1.021 passive electronically scanned array radar instead of the current Obzor-MS, a new S021 navigation system and the Meteor-NM2 airborne defense complex. In addition, the aircraft modernized to the "MSM" variant will be equipped with upgraded Kuznetsov NK-12MPM turboprop engines, together with new AV-60T propellers, reducing the vibration level by 50%. Lastly, the tail turret has been removed. The first Tu-95MSM made its maiden flight on 22 August 2020. A new contract on upgrading Tu-95MS strategic missile-carrying bombers to the Tu-95MSM level was signed in August 2021.
Operational history
Soviet Union
The Tu-95RTs variant in particular was a veritable icon of the Cold War as it performed a maritime surveillance and targeting mission for other aircraft, surface ships and submarines. It was identifiable by a large bulge under the fuselage, which reportedly housed a radar antenna that was used to search for and detect surface ships.A series of nuclear surface tests were carried out by the Soviet Union in the early- to mid-1960s. On 30 October 1961, a modified Tu-95 carried and dropped the AN602 device named Tsar Bomba, the most powerful thermonuclear device ever detonated. Video footage of that particular test exists since the event was filmed for documentation purposes. The footage shows the specially adapted Tu-95V plane – painted with anti-flash white on its ventral surfaces – taking off carrying the bomb, in-flight scenes of the interior and exterior of the aircraft, and the detonation. The bomb was attached underneath the aircraft, which carried the weapon semi-externally since it could not be carried inside a standard Tu-95's bomb bay, similar to the way the B.1 Special version of the Avro Lancaster did with the ten-tonne Grand Slam "earthquake bomb". Along with the Tsar Bomba, the Tu-95 proved to be a versatile bomber that would deliver the RDS-4 Tatyana, RDS-6S thermonuclear bomb, the RDS-37 2.9-megaton thermonuclear bomb, and the RP-30-32 200-kiloton bomb.
The early versions of the bomber omitted crew amenities, with dank and dingy interiors lacking a toilet or a galley. Though flying the Tu-95 was uncomfortable, especially during the routine 10-hour mission trips twice a week, constant training ensured a high degree of combat readiness and around 1,200 flight-hours annually.
Due to the nature of their mission, Tu-95 bomber crews were often some of the best available in the Soviet Air Force. As part of their nuclear strike mission, bomber crews would undertake frequent missions into the Arctic to practice transpolar strikes against the United States. Unlike their American counterparts, however, Tu-95 aircraft did not fly missions carrying "live" nuclear weapons. This practice, a result of live ammunition being housed in special bunkers on the bases and a lengthy loading process was seen as a hindrance to overall mission readiness.
During the Falklands War Tu-95s carried out intelligence-gathering flights around Ascension Island.