The creation of a secret Soviet super-sound bombarder of the Middle range T-60s was prevented by counterproductive design solutions and the high cost of the relevant program, the American magazine The National Interest writes.
Edition, calling the corresponding project with a missed ability, notes that in the future the T-60 could be a platform for the development of replacement of Tu-22M3. The magazine writes that the secret aircraft was distinguished, in particular, the changeable geometry of the wing and a pair of engines with a two-dimensional controlled vector of traction.
According to The National Interest, the creation of a new aircraft assumed the use of stealth technologies, allowing almost imperceptibly to penetrate the opponent’s airspace.
“Having a range of 2,2 kilometers, T-60s, as they believed, transferred a payload to 20,000 kilograms. Arms of the bomber included the winged rockets of the X-101 and X-55/65 series, a set of controlled ammunition, as well as ordinary and Nuclear unmanaged bombs, which in armament brings the T-60C with Tu-22m3, “writes the publication.
Magazine reminds that the prototype of T-60C should have undergone flight tests in 1996, and the commissioning of the bombarder was scheduled for 2003. “The collapse of the Soviet Union laid the end of these plans, and in the early 1990s the project was completely canceled,” said The National Interest.
Nevertheless, in the publication they assure that the project of the aircraft due to its “eccentric design” was originally risky, because the Russian military chose a safer solution in the form of a Su-34 fighter.
In April, the First Deputy Chairman of the Board of the Military Industrial Commission (MCC), Andrei Yelchaninov, said that heavy shock unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) of the C-70 “Hunter”, protruding SU-57 fighter fighters, will begin to enter the troops in 2024.