The focus of the Chinese Air Force has shifted to dronesAlthough many people still dream of having a strategic-class bomber, the H-20 is not as attractive to the Chinese Air Force today as it was during the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. Especially with the booming Chinese UAV industry, we no longer have to focus all our attention on the H-20. Rather than investing a lot of resources in the development of the H-20, it is more necessary for us to increase investment in new UAVs such as the Twin-tailed Scorpion.
For example, in terms of **, the expensive H-20 cannot be compared with the **affordable twin-tailed Scorpion. Based on the current market price, a twin-tailed scorpion will cost about $3 million, and even if it is slightly higher, it will only cost $5 million. And to build a H-20 will cost at least $10 billion, equivalent to about 70 billion yuan. This is already a fairly conservative estimate, considering that the US Air Force spent $24 billion on a B-2 bomber in the 90s, and the dollar value was higher at that time.
So, if you convert it to the current **, it could cost $50 billion or even $100 billion. This also explains why there is a saying that "the B-2 is more expensive than the aircraft carrier." Even the scaled-down version of the B-21** has reached $600 million, and it is likely to continue to grow in the future. Therefore, China's H-20, as a strategic bomber comparable to the American B-2, is naturally expensive, and 10 billion yuan may only be a starting cost.
If you take into account the cost of research and development, first-class ammunition and logistics maintenance, the cost of a H-20 will cost at least 100 billion yuan, and this amount is enough for the Chinese Air Force to purchase hundreds of twin-tailed scorpion drones. Obviously, a twin-tailed Scorpion of several hundred has an advantage over one H-20. Dear readers, this article discusses the pros and cons of performance between the H-20 bomber and the Twin-tailed Scorpion UAV.
The author notes that despite China's strong industrial production capacity, the number of equipment is limited, since strategic bombers similar to the H-20 cannot be manufactured on a large scale. In contrast, the twin-tailed scorpion drone can be mass-produced at will due to its lower production cost, allowing the Chinese Air Force to use the drone more freely. In addition, the authors also emphasize the flexibility and economic benefits of the Twin-tailed Scorpion UAV in real combat, compared to the H-20, the impact of shooting down several Twin-tailed Scorpions on the Chinese Air Force is minimal.
Therefore, the authors have a positive attitude towards the practicality and benefits of the twin-tailed scorpion drone. Although the H-20 is a strategic bomber, in order to achieve stealth effect, it must use a built-in bomb bay. However, this design greatly limits its ability to carry large ammunition. For example, the U.S. Air Force's B-2 bombers can only carry up to 22 tons of ammunition or 16 long-range cruise missiles at a time. However, such a striking capability is now somewhat inadequate.
In contrast, due to engine limitations, the H-20 may not perform as well as the B-2. At the same time, due to the limited scale of equipment, the maximum number of H-20s that China can dispatch may only be 3, and the total number of H-20s carried by each aircraft is only 60 tons.
In stark contrast, China's twin-tailed scorpion drones are dozens or even hundreds of them once they attack in wartime, and each twin-tailed scorpion can carry 12 tons of ammunition, 100 twin-tailed scorpions are 120 tons, and 1000 are up to 1200 tons. And this is only the amount of ammunition for a single attack, if you make 10 waves of attacks, you can drop tens of thousands of tons of bombs. Israel's two-month bombing campaign on Gaza has dropped only 40,000 tons of goods, which shows how huge such an attack capability is.
In addition, the twin-tailed scorpion UAV is naturally superior to manned bombers in terms of the efficiency and frequency of sorties. For example, a H-20 can only be dispatched two or three times a day, and it can only drop dozens of tons of bombs a day. As long as the twin-tailed scorpion drone has sufficient logistics support and ground pilots, it can achieve 24-hour continuous attack, day or night, dawn or dusk.
This constant blow is undoubtedly unbearable for the enemy, because no one can bear the pain of being attacked 24 hours a day. In the future, with the continuous emergence of high-end technologies such as 6G communication technology, hypersonic missiles, quantum computers and terahertz radar, the twin-tailed scorpion UAV has huge room for upgrading. In the future, China is likely to directly develop an unmanned version of the intelligent bomber, that is, the unmanned version of the "H-20".
This unmanned bomber not only has lower cost and stronger performance, but also helps the Chinese Air Force to surpass the US and Russian Air Forces in the field of bombers, and even opens a new technology competition track.