What Has Russia Done To The World’s Fastest Turboprop Plane? – What Is It Hiding?

CNET

Bear.

Russia’s Tupolev Tu-95 has been around since 1952 but you don’t see them very often. The Tu-95 is the world’s fastest propeller-driven aircraft capable of reaching speeds up to 516 mph. Recently a pair of F-22 Raptors scrambled to intercept this one of these aging bombers off the coast of Alaska, so what is going on with the Tu-95?

The short and sweet of it is that the Tu-95 has been upgraded with 250-kiloton nuclear missiles.Along with the weaponry, the Tu-95 has received avionics upgrades that will keep it flying until at least 2025.

“The modernized Tu-95 is equipped with advanced radio-radar equipment as well as a target-acquiring/navigation system based on GLONASS. The aircraft can carry up to eight Kh-101 strategic cruise missiles or Kh-102 nuclear-tipped missiles on the wing’s external mountings.”

There have been multiple sightings of Tu-95s of the coast of Alaska and the fact that they now have a nuclear arsenal shows that they might not be there just for recon. Russia certainly has more advanced bombers but these aging bombers could be a threat if allowed to roam free.