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> And 35 years later the West is still unable to match Tu-16 Does it really need to? Carrying 100 tons of bombs at mach 2... where? A single F-18 can easily

> And 35 years later the West is still unable to match Tu-16 Does it really need to? Carrying 100 tons of bombs at mach 2... where? A single F-18 can easily carry a 2Mt nuke, or two, mounted on some standoff missile with decent range on itself. And USA, unlike USSR, has a network of friendly countries to host their airforce, and aerial refuelling infrastructure spanning the whole world.

anovikov 5y ago
Especially since payload of Tu-160 is much smaller than B-1B and supersonic capability it can provide works only on very short distances - it's not for delivering bombs faster, more for running away from fighters.
- dude4you 5y ago
  It is not delivering bombs it is delivering cruise missiles.
  - anovikov 5y ago
    Which makes the supersonic capability even more pointless. If it's going to release missiles from far away there won't be any fighters to evade.
    - dude4you 5y ago
      you are a military genius
      - anovikov 5y ago
        That's the thing: original plan was to make Tu-160 capable of sustained supersonic flight, to actually get bombs (X-15 missiles - Russian clones of SRAM) - to the target faster. That didn't work out.