[2] Entering service in 1987, the Tu-160 was the last strategic bomber designed for the Soviet Air Forces and was built to serve as a conventional and nuclear-capable strike aircraft.

Production was stopped in 1992 following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, and the newly independent Russian and Ukrainian air forces inherited a fleet of 13 and 19 Tu-160s, respectively.

Following protracted negotiations, eight Ukrainian Tu-160s were purchased by the Russian Federation while the remaining 11 were scrapped in the late 1990s under the Nunn–Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction agreement.

Following these actions, the sole operator of the aircraft type became the Russian Aerospace Forces' Long Range Aviation branch, which still had 17 Tu-160s in service as of 2022.

[3] The type had its combat debut in November 2015 during the Russian military intervention in the Syrian Civil War, conducting numerous airstrikes using Kh-101 air-launched cruise missiles.

[10] In July 2006, the first overhauled and partially modernized aircraft was accepted into Russian service after testing; it reportedly received the capability to use conventional weapons but was not upgraded with new avionics as previously planned.

[15][needs update] On 2 February 2020, the modernized Tu-160M performed its first test flight at the airfield of the Kazan Aviation Plant named for I.

[23] On 29 April 2015, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, on order of President Putin,[24] announced that Tu-160 production would resume.

According to Dmitri Rogozin, the serial production of wholly new airframes for the modernized Tu-160M2 should begin in 2019 with deliveries to the Russian Aerospace Forces in 2023.

[citation needed] In December 2022, United Aircraft Corporation announced that the second new-build Tu-160M and the fourth modernized Tu-160M were starting flight tests.

In January 2018, Vladimir Putin, while visiting the KAPO plant, floated an idea of creating a civilian passenger supersonic transport version of Tu-160.

[55][35] On 16 September 2023, Commander of the long-range aviation Lieutenant General Sergei Kobylash announced that Russian Tu-160s were outfitted with the newest Kh-BD cruise missile with range of 6,500 km.

On 25 August 1991, the Ukrainian parliament decreed that the new nation would take control of all military units on its territory; a Defence Ministry was created that same day.

By the mid-1990s, the Pryluky regiment had lost its value as a combat unit; 19 Tu-160s were effectively grounded due to a lack of technical support and spare parts.

While Russian experts, who examined the aircraft at the Pryluky Air Base in 1993 and 1996, assessed their technical condition as good, the US$3 billion price proposed by Ukraine was considered by Russia to be unacceptable.

In April 1998, amid stalled negotiations, Ukraine decided to commence scrapping the fleet under the Nunn–Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction agreement.

[58] In April 1999, Russia resumed talks with Ukraine, proposing to purchase eight Tu-160 and three Tu-95MS bombers manufactured in 1991 (those in the best technical condition), as well as 575 Kh-55SM cruise missiles.

[10] On 22 April 2006, the commander of the Long-Range Aviation Lieutenant General Igor Khvorov reported a pair of Tu-160s flew undetected through a US-controlled sector during a military exercise in the Arctic.

[62][63] On 14 September 2007, British and Norwegian fighters intercepted two Tu-160s in international airspace near the United Kingdom and Finland, as they were patrolling the North Atlantic.

[citation needed] On 11 September 2007, according to Russian government sources, a Tu-160 deployed a massive fuel-air explosive device, called Father of All Bombs, for its first field test.

[67] On 29 April 2008, a new Tu-160 named Vitaly Kopylov joined the Russian Air Force, increasing the total number of aircraft in service to 16.

The Russian Defence Ministry said Vasily Senko and Aleksandr Molodchiy would conduct training flights over neutral waters before returning to Russia.

[71] On 10 June 2010, two Tu-160s carried out a record-breaking 23-hour patrol with a planned flight range of 18,000 km (9,700 nmi), having flown along Russia's borders and over neutral waters in the Arctic and Pacific Oceans.

During the exercise, the crews practised the combat use of cruise missiles at the Komi Test Range and performed aerial refueling.

[80][81] In November 2018, a modernized Tu-160M test-fired a full complement of 12 Kh-101 cruise missiles at the Pemboi Test Range in the northeastern region of Komi Republic.

[83] On 23 October 2019, two Tu-160s accompanied by an An-124 and an Il-62 visited South Africa as part of strengthening ties between the two nations; the aircraft performed a 13 hours non-stop flight over the Caspian Sea, Arabian Sea, and Indian Ocean, covering 11,000 km (6,800 mi) with mid-air refueling and landed at Waterkloof Air Force Base in South Africa.

According to Ukrainian sources, on 6 March 2022, a Tu-160 along with a Tu-95MS strategic bomber launched eight cruise missiles, presumably the Kh-101, at the Havryshivka Vinnytsia International Airport from the Black Sea area.

[86] On 26 June 2022, Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yurii Ihnat reported four to six Kh-101 cruise missiles were launched by Tu-160 and Tu-95MS bombers at Kyiv from the Caspian Sea area.