In the 50s of the last century, the Tu-16 that came all the way from the Soviet Union gave the Chinese Air Force its first taste of the sweetness of bombers, and at the same time strengthened China's determination to build a bomber force. By the end of the sixties, China had succeeded in copying the famous H-16 bomber based on the Tu-6.
At that time, no one expected that the H-6 bomber had been in service since 1969, and had even developed as many as a dozen sub-models in more than 50 years, and had forcibly changed a medium-sized tactical bomber into a strategic bomber with aerial nuclear strike capabilities.
H-6 bomber.
Since the beginning of the 21st century, the H-6K and other H-6K have adopted a large number of advanced technologies and subsystems, and their comprehensive combat effectiveness is very different from the H-6 A, which simply imitated the Tu-16 in the early days. However, the design of the H-6's fuselage configuration and battlefield positioning still seriously limit the development of China's strategic bomber forces. As early as the beginning of this century, China's leaders had foreseen the Chinese Air Force's demand for a new type of strategic bomber in the future, and started the research and development of the H-20 stealth strategic bomber at an early stage.
Today, when the situation on the modern battlefield is constantly changing and China's strength is developing rapidly, the task that China's strategic bombers need to undertake is no longer limited to dropping nuclear bombs on the enemy's hometown
The H-20 imaginary is larger and farther.
Constrained by the limitations of the original design, even the most advanced H-6K bomber with Russian-made engines can only effectively strike military targets located in the second island chain, and the combat radius of only 3,500 kilometers is difficult to pose a direct threat to potential hostile areas such as Hawaii and Australia.
On the other hand, in the event of a war, the United States can take off B-2 and B-52 strategic bombers from Australia or Hawaii and use cruise missiles to strike at the Chinese mainland with the assistance of tankers. Regardless of the effectiveness of such an out-of-zone strike, the embarrassment that "others can hit me but I can't fight back" will inevitably make China fall into a passive position in a conventional war that may break out -- after all, we can't always think of using ballistic missiles to solve everything.
B-2 bomber.
Therefore, China's future strategic bomber is bound to be larger and have a longer range than the H-6, which can not only further increase its bomb load, but also solve the problem of the short hand of China's bomber unit.
The United States believes that the H-20 strategic bomber being developed by China will be similar in size and size to the B-2 strategic bomber of the United States, with a maximum take-off weight of more than 175 tons, a combat radius of about 7,000 kilometers under combat load, and a direct attack on Hawaii with the assistance of tankers. In addition, it will have better high-altitude and high-speed flight performance to support the ...... demand for cruise missiles dropped outside the stand-off zone
At present, China does not have a publicly available aero engine that is strong enough to support this idea. In the early days, some scholars believed that the H-20 may use the same model as the Tu-160 imported from Russia - the NK-321 engine, but due to the great progress made in recent years in domestic turbofan-10 and turbofan-15 engines, the H-20 may be equipped with turbofan-10 as a transition, and finally the improved and upgraded turbofan-15 engine. Multi-purpose.
In the fifties of the last century, the task of strategic bombers was very single, that is, to drop nuclear bombs on the enemy's homeland. However, with the advent of land-based strategic ballistic missiles and submarine-launched ballistic missiles, air-based nuclear strikes are no longer the most important means of strategic nuclear deterrence. Coupled with the advent of cruise missiles and precision-guided bombs, strategic bombers have been given a new mission: an aerial firepower delivery platform that is more powerful than fighter jets.
Carrying cruise missiles is already one of the core tasks of the H-6.
Today, the B-21, the latest development of the United States, emphasizes the battlefield positioning of multiple tasks and multiple identities, and the H-20, which will partially replace the H-6 series bombers, obviously has to be an all-rounder.
According to military expert Malziko's analysis, if the H-20 will replace more than 40 percent of the H-6 bombers, then it will have the following four combat capabilities: First, it will carry cruise missiles or large aerial bombs equipped with nuclear warheads and carry out penetrating strategic air raid strikes outside the defense zone with the J-20 fighter formation, which is also the core combat mission of the H-20.
Second, carry more conventional air-launched cruise missiles (such as the Long Sword-10 100, etc., which may be equipped with more advanced hypersonic ground-to-ground missiles in the future).
1. Military targets in the second island chain shall carry out conventional strikes outside the defense zone to ensure the absolute superiority of the Chinese Air Force in this area
Imaginary diagram of the H-20 fighting in formation with the J-20.
Third, considering that China is pursuing an overseas strategic layout (such as the Djibouti military base), the possibility of participating in local wars in the future cannot be ruled out, so the H-20 should also be able to carry a large number of precision-guided bombs, play the role of bomb trucks in asymmetric warfare, and carry out air-to-ground precision bombing missions for a long time;
Fourth, considering that the H-6 needs to carry anti-ship missiles to carry out sea attack missions, the H-20 also needs to be able to carry enough large anti-ship missiles (such as the YJ-12) to ensure that it can carry out effective saturation strikes against the enemy fleet outside the air defense circle of the enemy Aegis system - this is also one of the most feared capabilities of the US Navy.
YJ-12 anti-ship missile hanging under the wings.
In addition, Fu Heng, an expert on Chinese affairs, also pointed out that as F-35 fighters continue to settle in East Asia, China's future air combat will be the world of stealth fighters. In this case, the use of a large air stealth platform such as the H-20 to carry a large number of Thunderbolt-15 long-range air-to-air missiles and fight with the J-20 or stealth reconnaissance aircraft that serve as the terminal of the forward battlefield will greatly enhance the dominant position of China's fighter formation in air combat, so that fighters no longer need to be constrained by the limited capacity of the bomb bay.
What's more, neither Japan nor South Korea has a similar air platform that can match China's, and only the American B-21 bomber has proposed a similar hybrid air combat concept, which is one of the advantages that the H-20 can bring to China.
The Thunderbolt-15 missile in the J-20 bomb bay, the H-20 may also be installed.
Some experts also believe that the H-20 should be equipped with more advanced information sensors, such as ground-to-sea optical observation radars, to become a reliable battlefield information acquisition and transmission terminal. In addition, it can carry more advanced electronic warfare pods, provide electromagnetic suppression and control when operating in formation with fighter jets, and even be able to carry drones, among other things.
Although the idea is very good, with China's existing avionics level and air combat informatization capabilities, it is difficult to achieve the same intelligence in air combat as the United States in a short period of time. Therefore, the H-20, which will come out in recent years, may not have these capabilities.
Cheaper. The B-2 Phantom, the world's first strategic bomber with stealth capabilities, costs as much as $2.1 billion per unit and requires extremely high-standard logistics and maintenance support, making it only a few military bases outside the United States that can be deployed, severely limiting its deterrent.
Therefore, in the B-21 generation, the US military began to find ways to reduce production costs and maintenance requirements in order to expand its stealth strategic bomber establishment. The H-20 is also a stealth strategic bomber, so it is extremely important to reduce costs.
At present, the Chinese Air Force has about 140 H-6 bombers, except for some advanced H-6K and other temporary will not be decommissioned, the Chinese Air Force is expected to need to purchase about 100 H-20 in the future. If you want to benchmark the B-21 in the United States, then the number of purchases may expand to about 150 aircraft. If the H-20 is too expensive, it is clear that the Air Force will not be able to afford it.
B-21 bomber.
In addition, it would have to be easier to maintain, as existing military airfields would require significant improvements before they could be deployed, and the cost of using them would quickly increase. At the same time, it will have to reduce its operating costs, otherwise the Chinese Air Force, which spends less on military resources than the U.S. Air Force, will be squeezed out of a lot of money to support these expensive bombers.
Finally, it had to have at least the same number of maintenance hours as the B-52 bomber (around 53 hours) – the B-2 bomber had 119 hours of maintenance, which was clearly not conducive to high-frequency front-line bombing missions in wartime.
B-52 bomber is written at the end.
On the whole, the core task of the stealth strategic bomber required by China will be to carry out tactical strategic strikes outside the penetrating defense zone, to become the backbone of the Chinese Air Force's air-based strategic deterrence, and at the same time, to a certain extent, to meet the needs of a variety of missions, a general-purpose air platform. This also coincides with the development of the B-21 strategic bomber in the United States.
As the completion of the H-20 is getting higher and higher, and the day is getting closer and closer to the official disclosure, the day of the change of dynasty of China's strategic bombers is also getting closer and closer. From the H-6 50 years ago to the H-20 today, China's strategic bomber force has achieved all the preparations before the quantitative change to the qualitative change after more than half a century of accumulation and precipitation.
It is foreseeable that with the H-20 entering service in the future, the Chinese Air Force, which has greatly increased its strength, will continue to brave difficulties and break through the wind to defend China's blue sky and the 1.4 billion Chinese people under the sky.