Tupolev PAK DA

PAK DA
Role	Multi-purpose strategic bomber
National origin	Russia
Manufacturer	Tupolev, United Aircraft Corporation (UAC)
Status	Under development
Primary user	Russian Air Force

The Tupolev PAK DA (or PAK-DA) is a proposed Russian next-generation strategic bomber being developed by the Tupolev Design Bureau. The PAK DA acronym (ПАК ДА in Russian) stands for перспективный авиационный комплекс дальней авиации (perspektivnyi aviatsionnyi kompleks dal'ney aviatsii) literally meaning "prospective aviation complex for long-range aviation". The PAK DA was planned to be a new stealth strategic bomber and is expected to enter service in 2025–30, with the first aircraft previously planned for delivery in 2020, but delivery will likely be after 2023.

In 2008, it was reported that the Russian Air Force had tactical and technical requirements for a new generation of strategic bombers. According to some early reports, the PAK DA would be heavily based on the supersonic Tu-160 bomber. Later references to the new bomber, including a televised address from then-Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, seemed to imply that the aircraft would be an entirely new design.

Russian Major General Anatoly Zhikharev stated that the new bomber would replace both the turboprop-powered Tupolev Tu-95 and the supersonic Tupolev Tu-160.

In June 2012, the Deputy Prime Minister in Dmitry Medvedev's Cabinet, Dmitry Rogozin, announced that the project was in doubt and the new bomber design might not be needed. The Chief of the General Staff, Nikolai Makarov, responded by stating that work was still ongoing and that the design was superior to American aircraft. On 9 June 2012, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev stated that the PAK DA was confirmed as planned.

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