Tupolev
Moscow design bureau behind Russia's strategic bombers, the Tu-95MS, Tu-160 and Tu-22M3, now part of state-owned United Aircraft Corporation.
Overview
Tupolev is the Moscow design bureau whose aircraft make up almost all of Russia’s long-range bomber force. Founded on 22 October 1922 around the aircraft designer Andrei Tupolev, it is headquartered on Academician Tupolev Embankment in Moscow and since 2006 has been a division of the state-owned United Aircraft Corporation (UAC), according to Wikipedia. Its general director since May 2020 is Ronis Sharipov.
What it builds
The bureau’s military line is the backbone of Russia’s Long-Range Aviation: the turboprop Tu-95MS “Bear-H” missile carrier, the supersonic Tu-160 and the Tu-22M3 bomber. In the war against Ukraine the Tu-95MS and Tu-160 are the launch platforms for the Kh-101 air-launched cruise missile, fired from inside Russian airspace over the Saratov region and the Caspian Sea. Tupolev also designs civil aircraft. Its best-known airliners include the Tu-154 and the Tu-204/214 family, and in early 2023 UAC said the Tu-214 would be built at a rate of 20 a year to replace Western airliners lost to sanctions.
Much of the bureau’s present military work is upgrading Soviet-era airframes rather than building new ones. The Tu-95MS fleet is being modernised to the Tu-95MSM standard, with new radar, navigation, defensive systems, engines and propellers, at the Aviakor plant in Samara, Wikipedia reports.
Sanctions
The US Treasury designated Tupolev together with its parent UAC in June 2022, ch-aviation reported. The company also faces EU and other restrictions, and was added to US export-control lists before the full-scale invasion, according to the Black Sea News sanctions database.
Why it matters here
Tupolev’s bombers have absorbed some of the war’s most visible losses. Ukraine’s Operation Spiderweb in June 2025 and later long-range drone strikes on Engels air base destroyed several Tu-95MS aircraft on the ground. Because the type is no longer produced, every airframe lost cuts the cruise-missile launch capacity Russia has available for its strikes on Ukrainian cities and energy infrastructure.