Tupolev Tu-95 variant
Tupolev Tu-95 Tu-95M-55
The Kh-55 cruise missile testbed on a Tu-95 airframe: trials began in 1978 and led directly to the Tu-95MS.
History
In the mid-1970s the Soviet Union began developing the Kh-55, a long-range cruise missile originally intended for the new supersonic Tu-160 bombers. In parallel, studies looked at fitting it to the Bear as well, and the result was the Tu-95M-55: Tu-95 bombers adapted to carry and launch the new weapon.
Trials started in 1978. They validated the integration of the missile, but once they were complete the conversion route was rejected: rather than adapt veteran airframes, the decision was to develop a wholly new missile carrier, the Tu-95MS, built on the Tu-142 fuselage with avionics designed around the Kh-55 from the outset. That aircraft entered series production in 1981.
The Tu-95M-55 therefore remains a test link in the chain: no NATO reporting name of its own, no operational career, yet decisive in keeping the Bear in service for decades more as a cruise-missile platform rather than a free-fall bomber.