{"id":180454,"date":"2017-04-14T20:09:00","date_gmt":"2017-04-15T01:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2017\/04\/14\/cold-war-the-sequal\/"},"modified":"2017-04-14T20:09:00","modified_gmt":"2017-04-15T01:09:00","slug":"cold-war-the-sequal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2017\/04\/14\/cold-war-the-sequal\/","title":{"rendered":"Cold War:  The Sequal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i.imgur.com\/tZvqnEm.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.imgur.com\/tZvqnEm.jpg\" style=\"cursor: pointer; float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px;\" width=\"350\" \/><\/a>We now have credible reports that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.defencetalk.com\/russia-to-launch-serial-production-of-upgraded-tu-160m2-strategic-bomber-69726\/\">Russia is relaunching production of its Tu-160 Strategic Bomber<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: blue;\">The serial production of the upgraded Tupolev Tu-160M2 (NATO reporting name: Blackjack) strategic bomber will begin in 2020, a source in Russia\u2019s defense and industrial sector told TASS.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"color: blue;\">There are plans to produce two or three Tu-160M2 planes annually, the source added.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"color: blue;\">\u201cWork to manufacture the plane has begun. Under the contract signed between the United Aircraft Corporation and the Defense Ministry, the Tu-160M2 plane is expected to perform the first flight in 2018,\u201d the source said.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"color: blue;\">\u201cThe Gorbunov Aircraft Plant in Kazan [an affiliate of the Tupolev Company] is expected to launch the serial production of the plane in 2020. It will produce two or three strategic bombers for the Aerospace Force annually,\u201d the source added.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"color: blue;\">According to the source, it will be an absolutely new plane.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"color: blue;\">\u201cThe upgraded Tu-160M2 plane will retain only the airframe of the baseline model, which meets all modern standards. The plane\u2019s equipment, including its avionics, electronics, cockpit, communications and control systems and a number of weapons, will be replaced. This will considerably improve the plane\u2019s operational capabilities, in particular, the thrust of the NK-32 engines and the unrefueled range,\u201d the source added.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>What a waste, and our response will be more waste.<\/p>\n<p>To quote Ike,&nbsp; &#8220;Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We now have credible reports that Russia is relaunching production of its Tu-160 Strategic Bomber: The serial production of the upgraded Tupolev Tu-160M2 (NATO reporting name: Blackjack) strategic bomber will begin in 2020, a source in Russia\u2019s defense and industrial sector told TASS.There are plans to produce two or three Tu-160M2 planes annually, the source &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[384,381,379,455],"class_list":["post-180454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-aviation","tag-defense-procurement","tag-military","tag-russia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180454"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180454\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}