Earlier this March, Russia’s Aerospace Force commander Viktor Bondarev told reporters that the new Tu-160M2 strategic bomber will be making its first flight in 2019. He now says the new bomber is expected to fly in late 2018.
By Sergey Lysenko (http://russianplanes.net/id122395) [CC BY-SA 4.0 or CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons
He added that the first production aircraft will be ready in 2021.