ENGELS, Central Russia, May 5 (AVN) - The new TU-160 Blackjack built at the Kazan aviation factory has landed at the Engles airfield, the Military News Agency learned on Friday.
This is the first strategic bomber received by the Air Force from the defence industry in the past 15 years. Six of the bombers currently stationed at Engles were received after the collapse of the USSR. Another eight were transferred from Ukraine as repayment for gas-debts in November 1999 - January 2000.
Lieutenant-General Mikhail Oparin, commander of the long-range aviation, who attended the ceremony, said that the TU-160 Blackjacks had the lowest malfunctioning level in the Air Force, that is 7 percent (the average is 15 percent.) All of the strategic bombers were manned with highly professional crews, he added.
According to Oparin, the Blackjacks will form a strategic long-range aviation regiment which will become part of the 37th Air Force army.
The new TU-160 has received the honorary name of Alexander Molodchy, a well-known WWII pilot who was one of the first to bomb Berlin. Hero of the USSR Alexander Molodchy now resides in the town of Chernigov, Ukraine.