ldev wrote:The question that nobody is asking is what will India do with a TU-160? What is the primary use of the TU-160 for Russia? It's primary mission is as a long range cruise missile carrier to launch cruise missiles targeting the US over the North Pole while staying out of the range of NORAD's radar coverage. For that purpose it can carry a total of 12 KH-102 cruise missiles with a range of ~3000 km and a variable TN yield of 250-450 KT. The reason it cannot get any closer to the North American continent is not because it does not have the range but because it's rcs is so large and EW equipment is so dated/non existent that it will be easily shot down by AD if it gets any closer. So it is used primarily as a standoff missile carrier.
Rest assured if the Tu-160 comes, it won't be flying with empty bomb racks. The IAF is not that stupid. If the plane cannot be used in a survivable manner against its designated adversaries, it won't be procured.
But
IF it is procured, it will come with a long range weapons system - either desi or russki.
In any case, the US maintains ~ 100 B-52s in service. These are older, and significantly less survivable than the Tu-160, but they're still in active use and being re-engined. Why? clearly there are roles aside from nuclear armageddon on day 1 of a conflict. Perhaps they exist simply to be used on day 30 of the conflict when enemy air defences are no longer functional
ldev wrote:India does not have any comparable long range air launched cruise missile. Nirbhay's progress is slow and in any event even the most optimistic range estimate is about 1500 km. China's stated and written target when it designed the J-20 was to enable it to have the range so as to reach the capitals of surrounding countries, Delhi being one of the capitals besides Hanoi, Taipei and Tokyo......this was not to use the J-20 to deliver nukes but as a show of force and intimidation so as to say, "Look we can reach your capital." How will a TU-160 enable the delivery of an Indian nuke to Beijing and Shanghai? If it has to rely on a gravity nuclear bomb it stands no chance of making it beyond the first 50 km into Tibet or if it wants to go to Shanghai via South East Asia, it stands no chance of making it beyond the South China Sea.
Why do I need to reach Beijing or Shanghai if I can reach Chongqing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Chengdu with a short flight over Bangladesh and Burma with Su-30 escorts and heavy radar jamming?
ldev wrote: If the purpose is to acquire the TU-160 as a "strategic weapon", how will it ever serve that purpose with the existing munitions that India has? Unless India wants to ask Russia for KH-101 and KH-102 missiles? And if the TU-160 is so badly sought, what does that say about the effectiveness of the other 2 legs of the nuke triad? And if one really wants to look at the power or the lack of power of deterrence, just look at today's explosions at a Russian airforce base in Crimea which probably destroyed 6-8 SU-30s and 6-8 SU-24s on the ground. Russia regards Crimea as it's sovereign territory now and one would imagine that the country with ~5000 nuclear warheads would respond to such an act, but no such luck.
What exactly is your point? Its a very disjointed paragraph