{"id":32436441,"date":"2026-11-12T10:33:45","date_gmt":"2026-11-12T09:33:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/tupolev-tu-16-badger-soviet-jet-bomber-xian-h-6\/"},"modified":"2026-11-12T10:34:05","modified_gmt":"2026-11-12T09:34:05","slug":"tupolev-tu-16-badger-soviet-jet-bomber-xian-h-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/fr\/tupolev-tu-16-badger-soviet-jet-bomber-xian-h-6\/","title":{"rendered":"Tupolev Tu-16 Badger: The Soviet Jet Bomber Still Flying in China"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.et_pb_title_container h1.entry-title { padding-top: 40px !important; }<\/style>\n<!-- mfsh:top -->\n\n<style>\n.mfsh-trigger{display:inline-flex;align-items:center;gap:10px;height:44px;padding:0 18px;margin:0 0 26px;border:2px solid #0F1720;background:#fff;color:#0F1720;font-family:inherit;font-size:14px;font-weight:700;line-height:1;letter-spacing:0;text-transform:none;cursor:pointer;box-shadow:none;transition:background .15s,color 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Scenes like that were routine for three decades. Wherever the US Navy sailed, sooner or later a Tupolev Tu-16 Badger came to have a look.<\/p>\n\n<p>The Tu-16 took Soviet long-range aviation into the jet age. It carried the Soviet Union&rsquo;s first air-dropped hydrogen bomb, fired some of the first anti-ship cruise missiles, fought in the Middle East, and was turned into an airliner. Russia retired it in the early 1990s. China never did.<\/p>\n\n\n<div style=\"background:#f4f6f9;border:1px solid #e2e7ee;padding:18px 22px;margin:22px 0 26px\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:700;color:#0d1117\">Quick Facts<\/p><ul style=\"margin:0;padding-left:18px\"><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Type:<\/strong> Twin-engined jet strategic bomber, later missile carrier, reconnaissance, EW and tanker aircraft<\/li><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>NATO name:<\/strong> Badger<\/li><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>First flight:<\/strong> 27 April 1952 (&ldquo;Aircraft 88&rdquo;)<\/li><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>In service:<\/strong> 1954 to 1993 in the Soviet Union and Russia<\/li><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Crew:<\/strong> 6 to 7<\/li><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Engines:<\/strong> 2 &times; Mikulin AM-3 turbojets<\/li><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Performance:<\/strong> About 1,050 km\/h; range about 7,200 km<\/li><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Built:<\/strong> About 1,500 in the Soviet Union<\/li><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Still flying:<\/strong> As China&rsquo;s Xian H-6 family<\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n\n\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Replacing a B-29 copy<\/h2>\n\n<p>At the end of the 1940s, the Soviet Union&rsquo;s only long-range bomber was the <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/tupolev-tu-4\/\">Tupolev Tu-4<\/a>, a reverse-engineered copy of the American B-29 Superfortress. Piston bombers were already looking vulnerable to jet fighters. What changed the picture was a new engine: Alexander Mikulin&rsquo;s powerful AM-3 turbojet made a large jet bomber possible.<\/p>\n\n<p>Tupolev&rsquo;s bureau began work on &ldquo;Aircraft 88&rdquo; in 1950. The prototype first flew on 27 April 1952. It beat a rival design from Ilyushin and was approved for series production in December 1952, with three factories, at Kazan, Kuybyshev and Voronezh, eventually building it.<\/p>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/11\/tu-16r-badger-and-tu-4-bull-monino-museum.jpg\" alt=\"A Tupolev Tu-16R-2 Badger with red number 50 behind a Tupolev Tu-4 at the Central Air Force Museum, Monino\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">Old and new at the Central Air Force Museum, Monino: a Tu-16R-2 reconnaissance Badger (50 red) behind the Tu-4, the B-29 copy it replaced. Photo: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Tu-16_Badger_and_Tu-4_Bull_at_Monino_(10255110133).jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Alan Wilson \/ Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n<p>The result was a big, swept-wing bomber with its two AM-3s buried in the wing roots, a glazed navigator&rsquo;s nose, a crew of six or seven and defensive 23 mm cannon in remote-controlled turrets and a manned tail turret. It could reach about 1,050 km\/h and carry up to 9,000 kg of free-fall weapons, including the enormous FAB-9000 bomb or nuclear weapons. The first production bombers entered service in 1954, replacing the Tu-4.<\/p>\n\n\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #1565c0;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><div><em>&ldquo;With its swept wings and sleek, low-profile design, the Badger had a distinctly menacing appearance&mdash;designed not just for performance, but for psychological impact.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Vintage Aviation News<\/strong> &mdash; On the Tu-16&rsquo;s first flight anniversary, 2025<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The hydrogen bomb and the missile carriers<\/h2>\n\n<p>On 22 November 1955, a Tu-16 dropped RDS-37, the Soviet Union&rsquo;s first two-stage thermonuclear weapon, over the Semipalatinsk test site in Kazakhstan. The yield was 1.6 megatons. It was the world&rsquo;s first air-dropped multi-stage thermonuclear test.<\/p>\n\n<p>The Badger was not, however, a true intercontinental bomber. Its range, about 7,200 km, was suited to targets in Europe and Asia rather than the United States. Its real future lay at sea. From the mid-1950s, Soviet Naval Aviation fitted Tu-16s with early cruise missiles: the Tu-16KS carried two KS-1 Komet missiles, aerodynamically similar to the <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/mig-15-fagot\/\">MiG-15<\/a> fighter, intended above all for use against US aircraft carriers.<\/p>\n\n\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0 8px\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-rCS6K3N6Bg\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n\n<p style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;font-style:italic;margin:0 0 24px\">Archive footage of a Soviet Navy Tu-16 firing a KS-1 Komet anti-ship missile.<\/p>\n\n<p>Later Badgers carried the larger K-10S and the KSR-2 and KSR-5 missiles. Others became reconnaissance aircraft, electronic-intelligence platforms, jammers, tankers and even a search-and-rescue version carrying a lifeboat. In all, around 1,500 Tu-16s were built in the Soviet Union between 1954 and the early 1960s. A civil derivative, the Tu-104, became Aeroflot&rsquo;s first jet airliner.<\/p>\n\n<p>Some of the conversions were ingenious. The early tanker version used a wingtip-to-wingtip method: the tanker trailed a hose from its right wingtip, the receiving Badger snagged it with a grapnel and winched it into a fitting in its own left wingtip. From 1963, the Tu-16N tanker switched to the probe-and-drogue system to refuel the supersonic <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/tu-22-blinder\/\">Tu-22<\/a> and later the Tu-22M.<\/p>\n\n<p>It was a recurring pattern. Whenever Soviet aviation needed a big, reliable jet airframe for a new job, the Badger was already there, already in squadron service and already paid for.<\/p>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/11\/f-14a-tomcat-vf-1-escorting-two-tu-16-badgers-1984.jpg\" alt=\"A US Navy F-14A Tomcat of VF-1 flying alongside two Soviet Tupolev Tu-16 Badgers above the clouds in 1984\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">An F-14A Tomcat of VF-1 &ldquo;Wolfpack&rdquo;, deployed aboard USS <em>Kitty Hawk<\/em>, escorts two Soviet Tu-16s in 1984. Photo: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:F-14A_Tomcat_of_VF-1_escorting_two_Tu-16_Badgers_in_1984.JPEG\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">U.S. Navy photo \/ Wikimedia Commons, public domain<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Shadowing the US Navy<\/h2>\n\n<p>For the Western navies, the Badger became a familiar face. Throughout the Cold War, Soviet Tu-16s probed NATO exercises and shadowed carrier groups, and American fighters routinely rose to escort them: F-8 Crusaders and F-4 Phantoms in the 1960s, <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/f-14-tomcat\/\">F-14 Tomcats<\/a> in the 1980s.<\/p>\n\n<p>Some of those intercepted Badgers were not Soviet at all. In May 1969, during the NATO exercise Dawn Patrol in the Mediterranean, an F-8H Crusader of VF-13 escorted a Tu-16 wearing the markings of the <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/air-forces\/egyptian-air-force\/\">Egyptian Air Force<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/11\/egyptian-tu-16-badger-f-8h-crusader-vf-13-1969.jpg\" alt=\"A US Navy F-8H Crusader of VF-13 escorting an Egyptian Air Force Tupolev Tu-16 Badger in May 1969\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">An F-8H Crusader of VF-13 &ldquo;Night Cappers&rdquo; intercepts an Egyptian Tu-16 during the NATO exercise Dawn Patrol on 3 May 1969. Photo: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:F-8H_Crusader_of_VF-13_escorts_Egyptian_Tupolev_Tu-16_in_May_1969.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">U.S. Navy photo \/ Wikimedia Commons, public domain<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Combat in the Middle East<\/h2>\n\n<p>Egypt and Iraq were the Badger&rsquo;s combat users. Egypt first used the type during the North Yemen civil war, then lost most of its Tu-16s on the ground to Israeli air strikes at the start of the Six-Day War in 1967. In the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Egyptian Tu-16s returned with bombs and Tu-16K missile carriers launching stand-off weapons.<\/p>\n\n<p>Iraqi Tu-16s bombed Israel in 1967 and were later used in the long Iran-Iraq War, including raids on Tehran. Indonesia also bought the Badger, flying it during the confrontation with Malaysia in the 1960s. In the Soviet Union and then Russia, the type served until 1993.<\/p>\n\n\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0 8px\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/m4ZhKvAbkDw\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n\n<p style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;font-style:italic;margin:0 0 24px\">A Cold War US Navy recognition film teaching sailors and aircrew how to identify the Soviet Badger.<\/p>\n\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The Chinese Badger<\/h2>\n\n<p>The Badger&rsquo;s most remarkable chapter is still being written. Deliveries to China began in 1958, and the first Chinese-assembled Tu-16 flew in 1959. On 14 May 1965 a Chinese Tu-16 carried out China&rsquo;s first airborne nuclear weapon test. After the Sino-Soviet split, Xi&rsquo;an built its own copy, the <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/xian-h-6\/\">Xian H-6<\/a>, which first flew in fully domestic form in December 1968.<\/p>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/11\/xian-h-6k-bomber-zhuhai-2018.jpg\" alt=\"A grey Chinese Xian H-6K bomber, the modern Tu-16 derivative, landing at Zhuhai in 2018\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">A Xian H-6K lands at Zhuhai ahead of Airshow China 2018. The Chinese derivative keeps the Tu-16&rsquo;s wing and tail but has new engines and a solid nose. Photo: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:H-6K_landing.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Alert5 \/ Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n<p>Modern versions such as the H-6K, with new Soloviev D-30KP turbofans, a redesigned nose and long-range cruise missiles, still form the backbone of the PLA Air Force bomber force. A nuclear variant, the H-6N, carries a large air-launched ballistic missile. Afterburner told that story in <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/xian-h-6-bomber-that-wont-die\/\">The Bomber That Refuses to Die<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #d32f2f;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><div><em>&ldquo;Although China is often said to have a Triad, the air-leg is nascent and still only includes one brigade that is developing tactics and procedures for the PLAAF nuclear mission.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Federation of American Scientists<\/strong> &mdash; Nuclear Information Project, on the H-6N (2024)<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n<p>That makes the Tu-16 design one of the longest-serving bomber airframes in the world, alongside the <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/b-52-stratofortress\/\">B-52<\/a> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/tu-95-bear\/\">Tu-95<\/a>. A preserved Tu-16R-2 still stands at the Central Air Force Museum at Monino, next to the Tu-4 it replaced.<\/p>\n\n\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0 8px\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rBj-hwm16WE\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n\n<p style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;font-style:italic;margin:0 0 24px\">Chinese state media footage of PLA Air Force H-6K bombers in training, the Tu-16&rsquo;s modern descendants.<\/p>\n\n<p>The Badger was built to give Stalin&rsquo;s successors a jet bomber of their own. It ended up as a naval missile carrier, a Middle Eastern warplane, an airliner and the ancestor of China&rsquo;s bomber fleet. More than seventy years after its first flight, the shape still flies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Sources: Federation of American Scientists, Vintage Aviation News, Aerospaceweb, U.S. Navy, Central Air Force Museum Monino<\/em><\/p>\n<!-- mfsh:bottom -->\n\n<button type=\"button\" class=\"mfsh-trigger mfsh-bottom\" data-mfsh-placement=\"bottom\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\"><svg><use href=\"#mfsh-i-share\"\/><\/svg>Share this story<\/button>\n\n<!-- \/mfsh:bottom -->\n\n<p class=\"mf-photo-credits\" data-no-translation style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;font-style:italic;margin:6px 0 18px\">Header photo: <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Tupolev_Tu-16_flies_over_USS_Hewitt_(DD-966)_c1978.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">U.S. Navy photo \/ Wikimedia Commons, public domain<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n<style>.mfq{margin:34px 0 8px}.mfq h2{font:26px\/1.3 \"Gilroy semiBold\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#0d1117;padding-top:22px;margin:0 0 6px}.mfq .qa details{border-top:1px solid #5C91FF;margin:0;padding:0}.mfq .qa details:last-of-type{border-bottom:1px solid #e2e7ee}.mfq .qa summary{cursor:pointer;list-style:none;display:flex;justify-content:space-between;align-items:center;gap:16px;padding:22px 26px;font:18px\/1.7 \"Gilroy semiBold\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#0d1117}.mfq .qa summary::-webkit-details-marker{display:none}.mfq .qa summary::after{content:\"+\";font:24px Helvetica,sans-serif;color:#3568e0;flex:0 0 auto}.mfq .qa details[open] summary::after{content:\"\\2013\"}.mfq .qa details:hover summary{color:#3568e0}.mfq .qa .a{font:16px\/1.7 \"Gilroy regular\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#454e5e;padding:0 26px 24px}.mfq .qa .a a{color:#3568e0}@media(max-width:680px){.mfq .qa summary{padding:18px 14px;font-size:17px}.mfq .qa .a{padding:0 14px 20px}}<\/style>\n\n\n<section class=\"mfq\"><h2>Frequently Asked Questions<\/h2><div class=\"qa\"><details open><summary>What was the Tupolev Tu-16 Badger?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">The Tupolev Tu-16, NATO name Badger, was a Soviet twin-engined jet strategic bomber that first flew on 27 April 1952 and entered service in 1954, replacing the piston-engined Tu-4. It had a crew of six or seven, two Mikulin AM-3 turbojets and was later adapted as a missile carrier, reconnaissance aircraft, jammer and tanker.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>How many Tu-16 Badgers were built?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">About 1,500 Tu-16s were built in the Soviet Union at factories in Kazan, Kuybyshev and Voronezh between 1954 and the early 1960s, in many specialised versions. China later built its own licence-derived version, the Xian H-6, which remains in production in modern variants.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Did the Tu-16 drop a hydrogen bomb?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Yes. On 22 November 1955 a Tu-16 dropped RDS-37, the Soviet Union&rsquo;s first two-stage thermonuclear weapon, over the Semipalatinsk test site in Kazakhstan. The yield was 1.6 megatons, and it was the world&rsquo;s first air-dropped multi-stage thermonuclear test.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Which countries used the Tu-16 in combat?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Egypt and Iraq were the main combat users of the Tu-16. Egypt flew it in the North Yemen civil war and the 1973 Yom Kippur War after losing most of its bombers on the ground in 1967. Iraq bombed Israel in 1967 and used Tu-16s in the Iran-Iraq War, including raids on Tehran.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Is the Tu-16 still in service?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">The Soviet and Russian Tu-16 fleet was retired by 1993, but the design still flies in China as the Xian H-6. Modern versions such as the H-6K, with new turbofan engines and long-range cruise missiles, and the nuclear-capable H-6N remain the main bombers of the PLA Air Force.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>What is the difference between the Tu-16 and the Xian H-6?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">The Xian H-6 is China&rsquo;s licence-derived version of the Tu-16, first assembled from Soviet kits in 1959 and built domestically from 1968. Early H-6s closely matched the Tu-16, while modern variants like the H-6K have Soloviev D-30KP turbofans, a solid nose and new missiles.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Can I fly in a MiG-15?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Yes. The MiG-15, the Soviet jet fighter whose shape inspired the Tu-16&rsquo;s early KS-1 Komet missiles, is available for passenger jet flights in the Czech Republic, the country that licence-built it as the S-102 and S-103. Details and booking are on the <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/mig-15\/\">MiG-15 flight<\/a> page.<\/div><\/details><\/div><\/section>\n\n\n\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@type\":\"FAQPage\",\"mainEntity\":[{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"What was the Tupolev Tu-16 Badger?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"The Tupolev Tu-16, NATO name Badger, was a Soviet twin-engined jet strategic bomber that first flew on 27 April 1952 and entered service in 1954, replacing the piston-engined Tu-4. It had a crew of six or seven, two Mikulin AM-3 turbojets and was later adapted as a missile carrier, reconnaissance aircraft, jammer and tanker.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"How many Tu-16 Badgers were built?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"About 1,500 Tu-16s were built in the Soviet Union at factories in Kazan, Kuybyshev and Voronezh between 1954 and the early 1960s, in many specialised versions. China later built its own licence-derived version, the Xian H-6, which remains in production in modern variants.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Did the Tu-16 drop a hydrogen bomb?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Yes. On 22 November 1955 a Tu-16 dropped RDS-37, the Soviet Union\u2019s first two-stage thermonuclear weapon, over the Semipalatinsk test site in Kazakhstan. The yield was 1.6 megatons, and it was the world\u2019s first air-dropped multi-stage thermonuclear test.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Which countries used the Tu-16 in combat?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Egypt and Iraq were the main combat users of the Tu-16. Egypt flew it in the North Yemen civil war and the 1973 Yom Kippur War after losing most of its bombers on the ground in 1967. Iraq bombed Israel in 1967 and used Tu-16s in the Iran-Iraq War, including raids on Tehran.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Is the Tu-16 still in service?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"The Soviet and Russian Tu-16 fleet was retired by 1993, but the design still flies in China as the Xian H-6. Modern versions such as the H-6K, with new turbofan engines and long-range cruise missiles, and the nuclear-capable H-6N remain the main bombers of the PLA Air Force.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"What is the difference between the Tu-16 and the Xian H-6?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"The Xian H-6 is China\u2019s licence-derived version of the Tu-16, first assembled from Soviet kits in 1959 and built domestically from 1968. 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Details and booking are on the MiG-15 flight page.\"}}]}<\/script><div style=\"background:#f0f4ff;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:16px 20px;margin:32px 0 8px\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:600;color:#333\">Related Posts<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/xian-h-6-bomber-that-wont-die\/\">The Bomber That Refuses to Die<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/tupolev-tu-104-soviet-first-jet-airliner-safety-record\/\">Tupolev Tu-104: The Jetliner That Kept Killing Its Passengers<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/tupolev-tu-4-stalin-b-29-superfortress-clone\/\">Tupolev Tu-4: Stalin&rsquo;s Bolt-for-Bolt B-29 Superfortress Clone<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/operation-badr-1973-egyptian-air-force-opening-air-strike-6-october\/\">Operation Badr: Egypt&rsquo;s 200-Jet Opening Strike of the 1973 War<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n\n\n<!--mfcred1-->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Tupolev Tu-16 Badger dropped the first Soviet air-dropped H-bomb, shadowed US carriers and fought in the Middle East. As China&rsquo;s H-6, it still flies.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":32436224,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[666,664],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32436441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history-and-legends","category-military-aviation"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Tupolev Tu-16 Badger: Soviet Bomber Still in China | MiGFlug<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Tupolev Tu-16 Badger: the Soviet jet bomber that dropped an H-bomb, shadowed US carriers, fought for Egypt and Iraq and still flies as China&#039;s H-6.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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