Tupolev Tu-95

The Tupolev Tu-95 (Russian: Туполев Ту-95; NATO reporting name: "Bear") is a large, four-engine turboprop-powered strategic bomber and missile platform. First flown in 1952, the Tu-95 entered service with the Long-Range Aviation of the Soviet Air Forces in 1956 and was first used in combat in 2015. It is expected to serve the Russian Aerospace Forces until at least 2040.

A development of the bomber for maritime patrol is designated the Tu-142, while a passenger airliner derivative was called the Tu-114.

The aircraft has four Kuznetsov NK-12 engines with contra-rotating propellers. It is the only turboprop-powered strategic bomber still in operational use. The Tu-95 is one of the loudest military aircraft, particularly because the tips of the propeller blades are supersonic. The Tu-95 is the only propeller-driven aircraft with swept wings built in large numbers. Its armament has included the Kh-55 nuclear-armed cruise missile and Kh-101 stealth cruise missile.

Soviet crews carried out long-range patrols, without nuclear weapons, until 1991. Russia resumed similar patrols from 2007. In the 1950s and 1960s, experimental variants were used for air-dropped Soviet nuclear tests, including the Tsar Bomba, and for researching nuclear-powered aircraft.

In 1981, the Tu-95MS modernized variant began production. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Ukrainian Air Force inherited 23 to 29 Tu-95s. Under the Nunn–Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction program, these were dismantled by 2001.

The bomber was first used in combat in November 2015 at the outset of Russian intervention in the Syrian civil war. It has been used for further cruise missile attacks in the Russo-Ukrainian war since 2022. On 1 June 2025, Ukraine's Operation Spiderweb drone attack destroyed 7 to 8 of Russia's Tu-95MSs at Belaya and Olenya airbases.