H-20 bomber (with H-X, JH-XX)

taxiya said:

China has never built internal weapons bay for fighter before J-20 either. There is always a first time for everything.

And I don't see a technical reason for a bomber's bay being more challenging than its fighter counterpart. Remember, without speed depth and weight aren't problems, the aerodynamic impact when opened especially the shock from incoming air flow is the challenge. While bomber's deeper bay is a thing, fighter's much higher speed is even more challenging in terms of stability of the aircraft and stress to the structure.

Click to expand...

Once they build it, everyone will say 'COPEied'

Philister said:

Dude, they’d want you to know the maiden flight actually, there’s really no point hiding this thing since deterrence is the whole point here, having said that it’s unlikely that they would officially publish anything about it but they would definitely allow images going around

Click to expand...

Well nukes and midrange ballistic missiles already seems deterrent enough, the existence of a stealth bomber doesn't fundamentally change the equation for a US led defense/offense of Taiwan, only increase the cost of such an operation, it is unlikely to be a decisive advantage but just another useful tool in the toolbox to further threaten carrier groups.

tankphobia said:

Well nukes and midrange ballistic missiles already seems deterrent enough, the existence of a stealth bomber doesn't fundamentally change the equation for a US led defense/offense of Taiwan, only increase the cost of such an operation, it is unlikely to be a decisive advantage but just another useful tool in the toolbox to further threaten carrier groups.

Click to expand...

Well, that is not true. The existence of a stealth bomber means the bases in Japan, Guam, the Philippines, even Australia will be at risk of persistent bombing. That is a capability that the PLA never had before. There are only so many DF missiles and they are expensive. Their H6 will not really be survivable in a contested environment.

reservior dogs said:

Well, that is not true. The existence of a stealth bomber means the bases in Japan, Guam, the Philippines, even Australia will be at risk of persistent bombing. That is a capability that the PLA never had before. There are only so many DF missiles and they are expensive. Their H6 will not really be survivable in a contested environment.

Click to expand...

I'm still not convinced that it'll ever be a good use of a stealth bomber to do strategic bombing on any sufficiently advanced enemy, we can see it even from the Russians who are limited to lobbing cruise missiles using their tu-160s. The cost of one of those stealth bombers would be equivalent of lobbing hundreds of cruise missiles. A job of which the h-6 would be also capable of doing.

The H-6K lacks the range and payload for a lot of missions. A large flying wing like the H-20 would enable much larger payloads to be delivered.

tankphobia said:

I'm still not convinced that it'll ever be a good use of a stealth bomber to do strategic bombing on any sufficiently advanced enemy, we can see it even from the Russians who are limited to lobbing cruise missiles using their tu-160s. The cost of one of those stealth bombers would be equivalent of lobbing hundreds of cruise missiles. A job of which the h-6 would be also capable of doing.

Click to expand...

Today, strategic bombing does not mean you have to fly your bird right on top of the target and drop bombs. Even with H-20, the bombs will have some propellent and smart targeting at the end. However, if you send in your H-6, which can be detected from a long ways off, there will be many ways to take out the plane from a long distance. The cost will be better than missiles but not nearly as good as if you have stealth. The payload will also be infinitely better if your bombs didn't have to travel along ways. Also as I understand it, the H-20 can carry more load and fly a lot further than the H-6.

tankphobia said:

I'm still not convinced that it'll ever be a good use of a stealth bomber to do strategic bombing on any sufficiently advanced enemy, we can see it even from the Russians who are limited to lobbing cruise missiles using their tu-160s. The cost of one of those stealth bombers would be equivalent of lobbing hundreds of cruise missiles. A job of which the h-6 would be also capable of doing.

Click to expand...

The American SDB / GBU-53 at 150k a piece can glide 50-75 miles. My hope would be that China will also have similar type of arsenal if it wanted to use the h-20 as a bomb truck. The Russians seem to be missing smart bomb capability or not using them which sometimes I think is the case of the PLAAF when all we see are them firing unguided rockets from their most advance aircrafts.

daifo said:

The American SDB / GBU-53 at 150k a piece can glide 50-75 miles. My hope would be that China will also have similar type of arsenal if it wanted to use the h-20 as a bomb truck. The Russians seem to be missing smart bomb capability or not using them which sometimes I think is the case of the PLAAF when all we see are them firing unguided rockets from their most advance aircrafts.

Click to expand...

Yes, China has many types of glide bombs, upto 90KM range. They have shown them in previous Zhuhai Airshows. I am sure they will display them again in this year's airshow.

lcloo said:

Yes, China has many types of glide bombs, upto 90KM range.

Click to expand...

Would there be newer glide bombs from China that are able to kick that range up further? Like into the 200s or 300s of kilometers?

ACuriousPLAFan said:

Would there be newer glide bombs from China that are able to kick that range up further? Like into the 200s or 300s of kilometers?

Click to expand...

I don't know if they have these, but I believe for that range AGM (Air to Ground Missiles) would be a better choice, eg. CM-802-AKG.