How Soon Can Russia Finish Its New Stealth Bomber?

Dave Majumdar

Security, Russia

The PAK-DA is a break in design from previous Russian and Soviet bombers.

The first flight of Moscow’s new Tupolev PAK-DA stealth bomber has been delayed by about three years.

According to Russian officials, the new bomber is now not likely to fly before 2021. The aircraft was previously expected to take flight in 2019. “Work on the PAK DA is coming along and the pace is suiting us,” Russian Air Force chief Col. Gen. Viktor Bondarev told the state-owned Sputnik news service this week. “The challenge remains to raise the prototype into air by 2021, but if all continues at the current pace, it will take off even earlier.”

However, 2021 represents three-year delay. “The maiden flight should be performed in 2019. State tests and supplies will be completed in 2023,” Bondarev told RIA Novosti in May 2014. Under the previous plan, the bomber had been expected to become operational in 2025. However, that timeline was always optimistic. With the first flight delayed, the rest of the PAK-DA’s schedule is likely to shift to as well—with operational testing and operational capability being delayed by several years.

Not much is known about the PAK-DA. The PAK-DA is expected to be a subsonic flying-wing aircraft that is roughly analogous to the Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit and the U.S. Air Force’s forthcoming Long Range Strike-Bomber. Flying wings lend themselves well to low observable characteristics—particularly against low frequency radars operating in the UHF and VHF bands—but manufacturing could still be an issue. The PAK-DA will likely feature advanced avionics—including a new radar, communications suite and electronic warfare systems. Meanwhile, the PAK-DA’s engines, which are being developed by the Kuznetsov design bureau, are an advanced derivative of the Tu-160’s NK-32 turbofans.