Previously, the news of "India wants to buy figure 160" was printed, the commentary area broke up, and some said that Putin was too biased, 30 years ago there was no time for China to buy, but now for India.
But not long after, India's own defense magazine sprayed cold water: "Figure 160 introduction plan is completely yellow."
You know, the Tu-160 is not an ordinary aircraft. It is a "white swan" that can fly 16,000 kilometers with a nuclear bomb. Russia itself only has 16 aircraft in active service. It is a proper national treasure. How can this business be called yellow? Just yellow?
Let's first talk about China's purchase past 30 years ago. As soon as the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Ukraine held 19 Tu-160s in its hands, which was the only treasure in the world at that time.
What happened to the Chinese Air Force at that time? Long-range strikes rely entirely on H-6, with a range of only a few thousand kilometers, which is far behind Tu160. Seeing that there was inventory in Ukraine, I immediately formed a team to go to Kiev to talk.
He heard that the Chinese team was honest at the time, not only paid hundreds of millions of dollars in cash, but also proposed to cooperate with Ukraine to undertake technology transfer, thinking about both buying airplanes and learning.
But as soon as we talked about something, Russia became anxious. At that time, Ukraine owed Russia a large sum of natural gas money, and Russia came directly to the door: "You don't need to pay back the money you owe, just give me Figure 160."
Ukraine at the time of economic difficulties, no, can only promise, in 1999, eight map 160 were pulled back home by Russia overnight, China negotiations at once without a code.
Even worse, the United States, afraid of the remaining figure 160 flowed to other countries, directly sent experts to look at Ukraine, smashed the remaining 11 figure 160 and left one to the museum as an exhibition.
Later it was understood that this weapon that can change the strategic balance, is not money can buy at all, Russia is afraid of technology outflow, the United States is afraid of regional imbalances, no one will let go.
Looking at India again, the first person to shout to buy Tu160 was former Air Force Chief of Staff Raha. In 2022, he said at a foundation forum: "The negotiations have reached the final stage."
Indian netizens were excited at the time, everywhere printed "Indian Air Force to rise". after all, the figure 160 can hang 12 cruise missiles, fly faster than the US F-35, listening to it is enough to shout.
It can be exciting, the reality issue one by one, first of all the money thing, some say that the 160 single price is $ 1.6 billion, cheaper than the French "wind", but this is just the price of the naked plane.
Russia subsequently set conditions: to buy, you must first spend $300 million on an upgrade to the 160M version, and buy supported missiles and spare parts.
The Indian Ministry of Defence calculated the bill, six aircraft and supporting facilities, at least $6 billion, but India's annual defence budget is more than $70 billion, but the priority is to buy fighter aircraft and missiles, and it is not so much money.
The headache is the technical problem. Russia says that the maintenance of the figure 160 must have a professional engineer of aerospace and engine, at least 300 people. but the Indian Air Force checked, 45 people are eligible, even zero heads are not enough.
Before India equipped MiG-29, because the maintenance is not in place, fell a lot, the technical complexity of Figure 160 is 10 times higher than MiG-29, really buy back, it is difficult to say whether it can fly up.
Most importantly, India does not have the ability to deploy 160 missiles, the domestic "fearless" cruise missile has tried several times and has not been successful, even if you buy aircraft, you can only hang ordinary bombs, and there is no difference from ordinary bombers.
The Indian military itself acknowledged that even if there is a real figure 160, it is not possible to form a combat force, against China and Pakistan's air defense systems, this "white swan" may be a living target.
Some people say that Russia is partial to India, but if you think about it carefully, Russia itself is not enough. In June 2025, Ukraine used drones to sneak attack Russia's Engels Air Force Base and destroyed three Tu-95s at once.
Figure 95 is smaller, and the burden of Figure 160 is heavier.Now the Russian military has divided the 16 ships of Figure 160 into two parts, partly deployed in the European direction looking at NATO, and partly placed in the Far East defending the United States.
Speaking of the production capacity, the Kazan aircraft plant in Russia is the only factory that can make figure 160, in 2012 it was said to restart the production line, but by 2025 it will also build three new figures 160M2, a year even one is not enough.
The Russian army itself is still waiting to replace it with a new aircraft. It plans to install 10 Tu160M aircraft before 2027. How can the surplus be sold to India? Even if India is willing to wait, it will have to wait for at least 20 years. Who can guarantee that there will be such demand then?
There is also the issue of money. Six Tu160s will earn 12 billion US dollars, but Russia will earn 240 billion US dollars by selling energy alone in 2024. This amount of money is nothing to it, and it is not necessary to sell the treasure of the country.
Russia is more afraid of technology leakage, these years India bought the U.S. "Hai God" anti-submarine planes, MQ-9 drones more and more, and there is clearly a "Russia-friendly" shrinkage.
If it was to sell the figure 160 to India, India dismantled the research, then gave the technology to the United States, Russia was not too late to cry, before selling the Su-30 to India, was afraid of the outflow of technology, intentionally made a lot of restrictions.
International rules do not allow the System of Control of Missile Technology to classify the "platform with a range of more than 300 kilometers" as the subject of strict control, and any transaction must be agreed by all member states.
The United States will be the first to oppose, and other European countries will not promise, if Russia is hard-selling, it may be subjected to a new round of sanctions, which is too low-cost.
In September 2025, the officials of both Russian and Indian countries came out to clarify that the words before Rahah were "personal opinions", not counting, but blaming, that is, the previous rumors were hype, no matter.
Looking back now, even if Russia sold the figure 160 to China at the time, now we may not want it, not gambling, it is really not necessary, because the technical route has long been different.
Figure 160 relies on supersonic turboprop, the fastest can fly 2.05 Mach, but the current air defense missile, the speed can be up to 4 Mach or more, can fly faster and can not hide.
In the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, it can be seen that Figure 160 does not dare to approach the Ukrainian airspace, only to launch cruise missiles in the distance.
China's bomb 20, walking is the hidden route, like the U.S. B-2, the aircraft painted the hidden material, the radar is difficult to find, even if the air defense system is more dense, it can silently touch through the past.
Moreover, the bomber 20 is not too short, can fly more than 1,20,000 kilometers, can also refuel in the air, can fully meet the need for long-range strike.
Thirty years ago, the failure to purchase the Tu-160 forced China to engage in independent research and development, making breakthroughs step by step from engines to stealth materials. Now that the H-20 is about to make its first flight, we can build top-notch equipment ourselves.
In the past, some people on the Internet always said that "a dead furry bear is a good furry bear." They felt that Russia was deliberate when it refused to allow China to buy Tu 160. Actually, there is no need to think so. Every country cares about its own interests first.
Now Russia has deployed the new Tu-160 regiment at the Ukrainian Ka base in the Far East, only 1 kilometer away from Heilongjiang, China. This is not a threat, but a trust-putting its core forces beside its allies.
The rumor that India wants to buy Tu 160 is, in the final analysis, a drama. India wants to support the face of a big country by buying equipment, and Russia wants to win over India by rumors, but no one dares to be serious.
Putin has never been a person who does things by bias. It was "not selling" to China back then, and now it is "not selling" to India. In essence, it is all for Russia's strategic interests-Figure 160 is too important to be sold casually.
For China, the greatest revelation of this is that strategic security can never be exchanged for buying weapons from others.
As soon as the bombing 20 flies, we completely say goodbye to the day of "seeking to buy."Who will then say "Putin is not biased?"Because our own equipment has long been worse than others.
In fact, everyone quarrels and quarrels, in the end, it is not clear: there is no eternal bias between the great powers, only eternal interests.