MOSCOW, March 30. /TASS/. The Tupolev Aircraft Company (part of Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation) has completed the small upgrade of the first batch of Tu-95MS strategic missile-carrying bombers, the сompany’s press office announced on Monday.

"The small upgrade of the first batch of Tu-95MS aircraft was completed in March 2020. The aim of the program was to partially replace the outdated radio and navigation equipment with new systems," the press office said in a statement.

The larger part of the work was carried out in 2018-2019 on the premises of the Tupolev Aircraft Company and the Aviacor Aviation Plant. "In early 2020, the companies jointly started fulfilling the work for the small upgrade of the next batch of the aircraft," the statement reads.

The press office did not specify the number of aircraft in each batch.

The Tupolev simultaneously completed work jointly with the Beriev Aircraft Company on the first heavily upgraded Tu-95MSM bomber. Now specialists are testing its renewed systems, the press office informed.

Under the large-scale program of upgrading Russia’s strategic aircraft, the Tupolev Aircraft Company is raising the efficiency and extending the service life of Tu-95MS strategic bombers in the interests of the Defense Ministry.

The Tu-95MS strategic missile-carrying bomber is designated to accomplish the tasks of striking vital targets in remote military-geographical areas and deep in the rear of continental theaters of military operations, employing nuclear missile weapons. A modernized bomber is furnished with a new control system and hardpoints for Kh-101 missiles that have proven their efficiency in Syria.