Last of Ukraine's Tu-160 bombers is dismantled (02/11/01)

Last of Ukraine's Tu-160 bombers is dismantled

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

PRYLUKY, Ukraine - Using a giant scissor-like tool, a U.S.-made Caterpillar excavator took all of 15 minutes on February 3 to snip through the metal skin of the last of the Ukrainian-owned Tu-160 strategic nuclear bombers - in its time probably the most feared piece of military equipment in the old Soviet arsenal.

As a crowd of some 100 military officials from the United States and Ukraine looked on, the nose of the aircraft, which had already been gutted of salvageable equipment, first sagged forward and then, slowly at first, plunged to the ground of this wide-open, snow-swept airfield, landing with a thud.

At a press conference after the display, the two ranking officials from each side, Deputy Commander of the Ukrainian Air Force Lt. Gen. Leonid Fursa, and Deputy Assistant to the U.S. Secretary of Defense Brig. Gen. Thomas Kuenning (Ret.) both acknowledged that it was difficult to watch the destruction of a perfectly good high-tech aircraft. Lt. Gen. Fursa explained that the reasons for the project, however, are sound and clear.

"As difficult as it is to watch this type of equipment being destroyed, we must understand that it is being done for world peace, for our future and the future of our children," said the Ukrainian Air Force official.

During its heyday in the 1970s and 1980s, the Tu-160 strategic aircraft, known to the U.S. military as the Blackjack, carried Soviet nuclear warheads and cruise missiles, and had the ability to travel 15 hours without refueling at speeds that exceeded 1,300 mph. It could carry up to 24 cruise missiles in its two bays. Its primary targets: major U.S. cities.

Since the disintegration of the Soviet Union nearly 10 years ago, the bombers have sat idle here and at several other airbases scattered throughout Ukraine awaiting their designation to the scrap heap.

In a trilateral pact signed by Kyiv, Washington and Moscow in January 1994, Ukraine agreed to the condition of the START I nuclear disarmament treaty that called on it to destroy its nuclear warheads and missiles along with the strategic bomber fleet it inherited from the Soviet Union.

In December 1997 the United States offered financial and technical assistance in the destruction of the Tu-160 and its sister, the Tu-95MS heavy bomber as part of the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, commonly know as the Nunn-Lugar Act. Raytheon Technical Services Co. won a tender for the contract in the spring of 1998 and has spent the last three years in Ukraine overseeing the dismantling and destruction of Ukraine's strategic air fleet.

Originally 44 Tu-160 and Tu-95 bombers were scheduled for destruction, along with 1,068 air-launched cruise missiles, but in late 1999 Ukraine agreed to turn over to the Russian Federation 11 of the Tu-95 heavy bombers and 581 cruise missiles in repayment of its natural gas debt. The transaction, which was completed without U.S. involvement, at first caused much consternation among U.S. officials, but after some negotiating the two sides adjusted the conditions so that the remaining 33 bombers along with five Russian ones would be destroyed, in addition to the remaining 487 Kh-55 class cruise missiles.

The last Blackjack bomber destroyed at Pryluky was the 10th of 11 such bombers that Ukraine still held in a program that began in January 1999. One other Tu-160 had been destroyed earlier at the Poltava airbase. The elimination of the secret equipment of the last Blackjack began on December 14, 2000, with the final destruction initiated at the end of January of this year when the tail section of the aircraft was removed.

Of 27 Tu-95MS strategic bombers held by Ukraine, 20 have been eliminated. The final four will be destroyed before May, according to the schedule. Of the three remaining aircraft of this class, the Ukrainian government has transformed one (along with one Tu-160) into an exhibition piece in Poltava. Another two Tu-95MS will have their military features removed and become environmental research aircraft.

Along with the dismantling of the Tu-160, the military observers watched the destruction of the first of the Tu-22 heavy bombers, a newer but lighter aircraft U.S. officials call the Backfire. The Tu-22 project was added to the overall Comprehensive Threat Reduction Program in October 2000 at Ukraine's request. The price tag and the details of the Tu-22 project are still to be worked out. Currently, four Tu-22s have reached the end of their service life and are being readied for destruction.

Brig. Gen. Kuenning said the bill for destroying the Tu-160s and Tu-95s came to approximately $13.2 million. While Raytheon took some $6 million as the chief contractor, the balance went to more than 225 Ukrainian subcontractors, with major elimination and infrastructure work being performed by such firms as Ukrainian Cargo Airways, Mykolaiv Aircraft Repair Plant and Bila Tserkva Military Construction Department. Brig. Gen. Kuenning said another couple of million dollars would be handed out for mop-up operations.

David Hess, chargé d'affaires of the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, said the joint elimination project has given employment to 750 Ukrainians and produced several other positive benefits, including technology transfers and improvements in infrastructure and facilities at the five air bases that were involved in the project: Pryluky, Poltava, Uzyn, Bila Tserkva and Mykolaiv.

Ukraine has recycled about 2 million hrv worth of aircraft equipment, as well, which has gone to improving housing for officers. In addition, the jet engines from the Tu-95 have been redesignated and modified for peaceful purposes, several of which are being utilized in the town of Konotop as motors that pump natural gas out of the earth.

Besides making the world safer, the joint project has allowed the U.S. and Ukraine to be drawn closer, a no less important if less tangible by-product of the joint project, said Brig. Gen. Kuenning.

"What has come out of this is friendship and understanding and a basis for building stronger relations between the U.S. and Ukraine," he explained.

Ukrainian military officials have been invited to the United States in March to witness the destruction of similar U.S. strategic nuclear aircraft.

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