One carries 12 missiles: Aviation expert names Russia's most dangerous aircraft attacking Ukrainian cities

The Tu-160 strategic bombers, which carry missiles and are used by Russia to strike Ukraine from the Far East, were designed to remain in service for decades.

Valerii Romanenko, an aviation expert and senior research fellow at the State Aviation Museum, made the remarks in comments to UNIAN.

"One should not hope for that. Take its contemporary, the American B-52, for example. It entered service in 1954, and the US plans to operate it until at least 2042. Strategic bombers are engineered for decades of service," he explained.

According to him, Russia has 18 aircraft of this type.

"Tu-22M3s cannot carry Kh-101 or Kh-55 missiles. They guarded their 18 Tu-160 bombers like the apple of their eye. This is their final reserve. Furthermore, no more than half of these aircraft have been modernized," Romanenko noted.

Russia modernized Tu-160s

The aviation expert added that Russia carried out two stages of modernization for the Tu-160:

- Tu-160M

- Tu-160M1.

Different aircraft accordingly feature different equipment upgrades.

According to Romanenko, Russia highly values these bombers, which is why they were relocated deep inside Russian territory out of Ukraine's reach. A single bomber can carry up to 12 missiles.

"If they aim to launch over 28 missiles—accounting for the fact that some may crash en route—they deploy Tu-160s. Adding three or four such aircraft increases the total salvo to 34 missiles. While Tu-95s carry missiles on external hardpoints, which is quite risky, Tu-160s hold 12 missiles inside the fuselage. However, they fear fully loading the aircraft, so they mount fewer missiles," the expert said.