A Russian aerospace engineer approached the U.S. authorities in late December seeking asylum and offering to share information on Russia’s Tu-160 bomber program. The offer, if genuine, could provide an insight into Russia’s most advanced strategic bomber, a plane that has been used in the Ukrainian conflict, Yahoo News reports.
Dmitriy Pichugin (GFDL 1.2 or GFDL 1.2), via Wikimedia Commons
The engineer has claimed to have worked at the Tupolev aircraft production facility in Kazan, Russia from 2018 to 2021, and has detailed knowledge of Tu-160 program.
According to an unclassified Customs and Border Protection report obtained by Yahoo News, the agency had explained in the report why his information might be valuable to the United States.
“The TU-160 White Swan, also known by the NATO reporting name ‘Blackjack,’ is reportedly the most advanced strategic bomber in the Russian inventory and has been also used in a tactical airstrike role in the Ukraine war. According to open-source reporting, a major new construction program of an improved version of the aircraft as well as an upgrade program of existing aircraft got underway at the Tupolev facility during the past few years,” the CBP Indications and Warnings Daily wrote in bold italics.
Two government officials reported that the CBP and DHS spent around ten days verifying the man’s identity and employment history. By Jan. 11, he was considered credible and potentially valuable to the United States and was referred to the FBI for further questioning. The engineer is currently believed to be in the United States and is still being questioned by officials. The focus of the questioning is likely to be on the renewal of Blackjack production and the upgraded versions that were believed to have been in development during the period of the engineer’s employment.
Russia had resumed serial production of the Tu-160 bomber and are also modernizing it to the Tu-160M2 standard.
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