Best Bomber In The World?

SONofODIN

T-60S

An artist's conception of the T-60S

The T-60S (or Su-T-60S) project was started by the Sukhoi bureau in 1984 and was supposed to enter service in 2003. It was designed to replace the Tu-22M and the Su-24. The T-60S is a long-range supersonic tactical/operational nuclear-capable bomber with stealth technology developed by Sukhoi. Although its development was officially secret, the T-60S was reported to be in the prototype stage and ready for flight testing in mid-1996. Very little is known about the technical characteristics of this aircraft, which remain classified by the Sukhoi Design Bureau. The T-60S is reported to be a high-altitude, high-speed bomber. The T-60S may consist of a lifting body fuselage and a swing-wing construction. The design may be capable of supercruise at Mach 2, with engines possibly equipped with two-dimensional thrust vectoring nozzles to solve the problem of insufficient horizontal control at the aircraft's high speeds. The T-60S was intended to replace the current fleet of Tu-22M supersonic bombers, although this project has probably been aborted.

Early Version of the T-60S

The T-4 Bomber

This earlier version looks almost nothing like the current version of the T-60S. In fact, it looks a lot like the T-4, another Russian bomber. The T-4 was started in in 1963 to counter the American XB-70 Valkyrie intercontinental strategic bomber. The T-4 had completed successful flight tests, and almost reached its design requirements, when it was abruptly cancelled, because of the termination of the XB-70. After all, Russia always has to be second best - if the Americans don't have it, why should Russia? [This is actually how they think - when Russia developed a space shuttle ahead of America, the military leaders cancelled it because they saw that America didn't have one.]

SPECIFICATIONS
Type:	Intermediate-range strike/interdiction aircraft
Length:	38 m (125 ft)
Height:	10 m (33 ft)
Wing span (extended)	10 m (33 ft)
Wing span (swept)	24 m (79 ft)
Weight (empty):	32,000 kg (70,500 lb)
Main Propulsion:	2 23,500 kg (51,800 lb) turbofans
Maximum Speed:	Mach 2
Maximum Altitude:	20,000 m (65,500 ft)
Maximum Range:	6,000 km (3,250 nm)
Range (full load):	2,200 km (1,200 nm)
Armament:	Maximum of 20,000 kg (44,000 lb) of free fall nuclear and conventional bombs, guided munitions, up to 8 cruise missiles, including Kh-101, Kh-55MS (AS-15 Kent) ALCM (Air Launched Cruise Missile), Kh-15P (AS-16 Kickback) SRAM (Short Range Attack Missile).

razhar

ONLY BUFF...

mentosonline

These days, Mach 3 performance at 100 angels (100,000 feet) is not enough to get past defences. Thats why the valkerie was cancelled, along with safety issues. Not to mention Russian life support and emergency systems are rather "suspect", shall we say.
Besides, no EW and/or stealth capability is like suicide for bombers. Both Russian and Western missiles are excellent, with amraam and amraamskis capable of shooting such bombers down easily, assuming a head-on shot is attempted. With those kind of weapons, all that is needed is a good AEW&C, and the bombers are screwed.