The bomber is one of the "trinity" of the country's nuclear strategic forces, it has great maneuverability and diverse combat capabilities.
At the moment, the Chinese H-6K is already in service, but due to its limited range, some consider it to be only a "semi-strategic bomber".
Therefore, many believe that only the United States and Russia have real strategic bombers.
Well, how many strategic bombers are there for the United States and Russia? To what extent have Chinese bombers developed?
U.S. Bombers In recent years, the U.S. military has been cutting military spending, but in terms of bombers, the U.S. military has not hesitated to invest heavily in bombers, and has planned to spend $55 billion to buy strategic bombers in 2016.
The US military believes that strategic bombers are the core of its strategic forces, and it still maintains the situation of coexistence of "old, middle, and young" three-generation bombers, and is accelerating the research and development of a new generation of bombers.
The U.S. military did not disclose the exact number of bombers, but it is estimated that the U.S. military has at least 158 bombers.
The three main bombers in active service with the U.S. military are the B-52H, B-1B, and B-2A.
The B-52 family of bombers was manufactured by Boeing and there were 8 models, but now the US military only uses the B-52H, with a total of 76 units.
The B-52H entered service in 1961 and is more than 60 years old, and the U.S. military is still maintaining and upgrading it, and it is expected to remain in service for several more decades.
The B-52H may become a "star of longevity" in the history of American bombers, and the reason why it is valued by the US military is mainly because of its performance.
With a combat radius of more than 7000 km and a load of more than 60 tons, the B-52H can carry both conventional and nuclear.
But these properties of the B-52H also led to its large size, and its maximum take-off weight reached 220 tons, hence the name "Big Fat".
In order to reduce fuel consumption and maintenance costs, Boeing proposed to reduce the size of the engine. The U.S. military believes that it can switch to more advanced and stable engines, but it does not have to pursue excessive weight reduction.
In addition, some components of the B-52H are outdated, for example, its APQ-166 radar can no longer meet the operational requirements, so the US military decided to switch to an active phased array radar, which can increase the detection capabilities of bombers, etc.
In general, the modification of the engine and radar has a great impact on the overall performance of the B-52H, which will be the biggest change since the birth of this model.
Next is the B-1B, which now has 45 B-1Bs in service with the US military, which made its first flight in 1984 and formed its initial combat effectiveness two years later.
Initially, the U.S. military mainly let the B-1B carry out low-altitude nuclear strike missions, but after modification, the B-1B's conventional strike capability has been significantly improved, and it can also use lasers to carry out precision strikes on ground targets.
After testing, the real life of the B-1B was twice as long as the design life, and it is expected that it will remain in service until about the forties of this century.
Finally, there is the B-2A, which made its first flight in 1989, later than the previous two bombers and is also the least in service.
According to the original plan, Northrop Grumman was going to produce 132 B-2As, but only 21 were actually produced.
One of the B-2As crashed in 2008 at a U.S. military base, and now the U.S. military has only 20 B-2As ready to fight.
Compared with the previous two bombers, the B-2A has many problems, such as difficult maintenance, high operating costs, aging equipment, etc., so the US military is renovating it.
But most likely, the B-2A will be the first of the three bombers to be eliminated, and its replacement will be the B-21, which is also manufactured by Northrop Grumman.
According to the U.S. military and manufacturers, Northrop Grumman will be the first bomber to be born in the United States and even in the world in 30 years, and it is top in terms of stealth capabilities and other aspects.
However, the United States now refers to the B-21 as a "sixth-generation fighter", suggesting that the United States may combine aircraft and bombers when developing the B-21. The payload of the B-21 is inferior to that of the B-2, but it also has nuclear strike capabilities.
In addition to having a powerful strike capability, the B-21 can also collect enemy information and transmit it to other combat equipment, which shows that its lethality and intelligence are very high.
Russian Bombers The three main bombers currently in service in Russia are the Tu-22M, Tu-95 and Tu-160.
The "Schema" fighter is an evergreen in the Russian armament system, and these three bombers are the leaders of the "Schema" family.
Of the three fighters, the Tu-95 has the longest history, which first flew in 1954 and entered service in 1956.
The Tu-95 is also a big guy, it has a maximum take-off weight of 190 tons and a range of about 170,000 km and can carry 20 tons**. It can use both conventional and nuclear **, similar to the B-52.
The Tu-95 is the workhorse of the Russian bomber family, and more than the Tu-95 is in service.
Then there was the Tu-22M3, and in the fifties of the last century, the USSR began preparations for the development of the Tu-22.
At that time, the Soviet Union built more than 300 in one go, and this model entered service in 1962, but the Soviet military found that the performance of this model was not satisfactory.
The Soviet military considered it necessary to develop a new fighter to replace the Tu-22, but considering factors such as cost and the international situation, the Soviet Union finally decided to modify the Tu-22.
But the modified Tu-22M has little to do with the original model, the maximum take-off weight of the Tu-22M reaches 125 tons, and the range reaches 120,000 km and can carry 24 tons**.
The Tu-22M has also been in service for more than 40 years, and Russia is still upgrading and improving it.
The last is the Tu-160, the largest strategic bomber in the world, which is very large, with a fuselage length of 54 meters. Its maximum take-off weight reached 275 tons, and the range reached 160,000 km.
You might think that such a big guy would be bulky, but the Tu-160 can fly at speeds in excess of Mach 2 and can fly up to 2At an altitude of 10,000 meters, it can be said that he is an "agile fat man".
Initially, the USSR intended to build 100 Tu-160s, but due to the end of the Cold War, the USSR built only 25, of which 6 were given to Russia and the rest to Ukraine. Later, in order to pay off its debts, Ukraine sold 10 of these Tu-160s to Russia.
So, now Russia should have 16 Tu-160s, but they are rarely involved in real combat and did not appear on the Syrian battlefield until 2015. Based on the number of these three bombers, it can be estimated that now Russia has at least 134 bombers.
The number of bombers in the United States and Russia has exceeded 100, so how many bombers are there in China?
Chinese bombers At present, only the H-6 series bombers are in service in China, of which the H-6K is the most advanced.
There are different international opinions about how many H-6s China has, and some United States ** say that China already has more than 200 H-6s.
It is believed that the range of the H-6K can reach 5000 km, but in the process of improvement, it is not clear whether it has a range of more than 10,000 km.
If the range of the H-6K can reach 10 thousand km, then it can be called a real strategic bomber.
However, some Canadians believe that the H-6K can be equipped with CJ-10A air-launched cruise missiles, which shows that it already has the characteristics of a strategic bomber.
The range of this missile reaches 2,000 kilometers, which means that the H-6K has a strike range of more than 5,000 kilometers, and it is capable of striking a number of key military targets in the Pacific Ocean.
For China, the H-6K may not be the most advanced bomber in the world, but it can basically meet China's current needs.
Now there is news that China is developing a new generation of stealth bomber - H-20, and there were some suspected H-20 *** before
Perhaps in the near future, China will usher in the first stealth strategic bomber, once again achieving a technological leap.