Lieutenant General Sergey Kobylash, Commander of the Long-Range Air Forces of the Russian Aerospace Forces (VKS) on September 19 said that the country’s Tu-160s, the designation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is the Blackjack that broke the record for the longest non-stop flight of any supersonic bomber in the world.
Lieutenant General Kobylash confirmed: “Two crews of the Long Range Air Force have set a new record for distance and time aboard Tu-160 strategic missile-carrying supersonic bombers. The pilots of the Russian Aerospace Forces flew for more than 25 hours, over a distance of more than 20,000 km.
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| Russian Tu-160 bomber. Photo: Rt.com. |
Lieutenant General Kobylash asserted that there is currently no other supersonic bomber in the world that has achieved the same record as the Russian Tu-160. Notably, the previous record was also set by Tu-160 bombers in 2010 when they operated continuously in the air for a period of 24 hours and 24 minutes.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, two Tu-160s flew over neutral waters in the central Arctic and Pacific regions, as well as the Kara, Laptev, Eastern Siberia, Chukchi and Barents seas. These strategic missile-capable supersonic bombers took off and landed at Engels Airfield. Commanding the two crews were Major General Oleg Pchela and Lieutenant Colonel Sergei Volkovitsky.
According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the Tu-160s have been refueled three times in the air from six IL-78 refueling planes and “received by Su-35S fighters, along with foreign aircraft.” , escorting along certain areas of the flight path”. The Russian aircraft strictly followed the rules of international airspace.
