MOSCOW, December 6. /TASS/. Specialists of the state tech corporation Rostec are carrying out work to create a testing base for airborne launchers of the next-generation strategic missile-carrying bomber PAK DA, the Rostec press office announced on Wednesday.

The Russian state tech giant made this statement after the results of the contest for the Tikhomirov Industrial Construction and Design Award were announced.

"The staff of a Rostec enterprise composed of Semyon Startsev, Dmitry Pivovarov, Alexander Malanin and Nikita Sokratov won the award in the category: ‘For Contribution to Creating the Testing Base.’ Experts singled out their work for creating a set of bench equipment for testing airborne launchers. Under the Prospective Aviation Complex of Long-Range Aviation program, the specialists carried out a full cycle of R&D and experimental design work for creating the testing base and a set of test benches," Rostec said in a statement.

Russia’s new strategic bomber

Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexey Krivoruchko told the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper in December 2019 that the conceptual design of the PAK DA aircraft had been approved and the Tupolev Aircraft Company had begun developing its working design documentation.

In 2022, TASS reported that prototypes of the latest engine codenamed Izdeliye RF for the next-generation strategic missile-carrying bomber PAK DA had undergone bench tests.

The Prospective Aviation Complex of Long-Range Aviation (abbreviated as PAK DA in Russian) has its design based on the "flying wing" scheme. The next-generation bomber will feature technologies and materials that reduce its radar signature. The aircraft will be capable of carrying existing and future strategic cruise missiles, precision bombs and hypersonic weapons and will be outfitted with the latest communications and electronic warfare systems. The bomber will fly at a subsonic speed.