On Monday, May 11, 2026, former Russian military pilot Ilya Tumanov, known by the pseudonym Fighterbomber and considered well informed about developments in the military and industry, published a photograph of the upgraded Tu-160M strategic bomber, NATO reporting name Blackjack, with factory number 8-04 and the proper name Pyotr Deinekin, which has completed a lengthy modernization process.
Photo: Fighterbomber via Telegram
The aircraft was built using fuselage components from Soviet-era stocks and made its first flight in late December 2017. Its first public flight took place on January 25, 2018, during President Vladimir Putin’s visit to the S. P. Gorbunov Kazan Aviation Plant, or KAPO, in Kazan. At the time, it was incorrectly referred to as the Tu-160M2, as a contract had been signed for serial modernization.
In January 2018, the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation ordered ten serial-production Tu-160M2 aircraft for 160 billion RUB, with deliveries due by 2027. It is now known that this deadline will not be met. The first prototype Tu-160M made its maiden flight on November 16, 2014.
Then, after several test flights, the Tu-160M, aircraft 8-04 Pyotr Deinekin, returned to the plant for further modernization work, which was carried out from around 2020 until now. According to analysts from AviVector, this is the 18th Tu-160 to undergo modernization, of which only seven are expected to fly regularly.
Another first flight, this time of an aircraft in serial-production configuration named Igor Sikorsky, took place on February 2, 2020.
On January 12, 2022, the first Tu-160M2, a newly built aircraft, made its first flight and was given the name Valentina Tereshkova. By 2024, further new-build Tu-160M2 aircraft, with factory numbers 9-01 and 9-02, had flown, while a third, 9-03, was nearing completion. Two of them, Mintimer Shaimiev and Boris Veremey, were presented to Putin on February 21, 2024. However, the first flights did not mean that work on the aircraft had been completed.
On June 23, 2025, it was announced that deliveries of serial-production Tu-160M2 aircraft to the Aerospace Forces, or VKS, would begin by the end of the year, but this did not happen.
The Tu-160M2 features new onboard equipment, including systems developed for the Tu-160M, as well as new communications, flight and navigation systems, including the new ANS-2009 astronavigation system developed by Concern Radio-Electronic Technologies, or KRET, self-defense and electronic warfare systems, and the upgraded Novella NV-70M onboard radar. The aircraft are also fitted with upgraded Kuznetsov NK-32-02 engines.
In 2015, then Russian Defense Minister Gen. Sergei Shoigu announced plans to order 50 Tu-160 aircraft, but no order has been placed to date apart from the one covering ten aircraft. The Russian VKS currently operates 18 aircraft of this type, one of which, or according to other sources two or three, may have been damaged during Ukraine’s recent Operation Spiderweb special operation, although this has not been confirmed. The aircraft have been used in combat operations in Syria since 2015 against ISIS and other terrorist groups, as well as civilians, and are currently being used against Ukraine.
It is also worth noting that Ukrainian operations on Russian territory have forced the strategic bomber fleet to be dispersed across the country. According to analyses of satellite imagery, two of the aircraft are currently stationed at Engels-2 air base, once their only base; three at Ramenskoye and three at Borisoglebsk, both locations in European Russia; as well as six more at Ukrainka air base and one at Yelizovo in the Russian Far East. A further seven to nine Tu-160M and Tu-160M2 aircraft are in various stages of modernization in Kazan.