H-20 artist expression, it is from CCTV-4, not CCTV-7, so don't take it too serious. The translation to airspace i accurate. Aerospace includes outer-space which is nothing for H-20.
H-20 bomber (with H-X, JH-XX)
- Thread starter Deino
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maddogy4645
New Member
My humble opinion is that H20 will not merely be a conventional stealth bomber as this may not be sufficient to justify to the frugal PLA budget departments the exorbitant cost associated with an arguably non-essential weapon platform. I think the selling point presented to the leadership that is too sexy to forgo is that H20 will have the concurrent role of being a stealth tanker accompanying the J20’s and wingman UAV’s on deep strike and deep interdiction missions to thwart any expected attacks from B2 and B21 bombers. This essential element would have elevated the strategic importance of the H20 project to the highest priority in the same light as J20 and Y20.
If my wild speculation is on point, we can anticipate the technical challenges associated with such duel role stealth aircraft. Also H20 may feature certain level of air to air combat capabilities for self defence deep in the West Pacific. I just don’t think that a mere conventional stealth bomber is sexy enough for PLA leadership, nor the confident and ambitious engineers and designers at the height of their game.
If my wild speculation is on point, we can anticipate the technical challenges associated with such duel role stealth aircraft. Also H20 may feature certain level of air to air combat capabilities for self defence deep in the West Pacific. I just don’t think that a mere conventional stealth bomber is sexy enough for PLA leadership, nor the confident and ambitious engineers and designers at the height of their game.
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if it is a stealth tanker convertable, then it'll sacrifice some tanking ability since it'll need a tank + drough net module that can be placed in the internal weapons bay. this is typically less efficient than purpose built fuel tanks that are a part of the fuselage.
Air to air combat duties should be carried out by 6th gen stealth fighters.
maddogy4645
New Member
When you are deep in the West Pacific flying a billion-dollar plane, the last thing you want to worry about is that don’t have any PL-15 on board your plane just in case.
Just to speculate a bit more, the lead experts for the H20 project would actually be the members of the design team for J-20. Those guys would for sure strive to optimize the H20 (the stealth milk mom) to serve their baby J20.
Just to be sure, this is only a speculation from your side? And why? AFAIK the team leaders of the J-20 are actively involved in developing the new 6th generation fighter and XAC surely has its own competent engineers.
As such, I would beg you all to stick to the facts in this thread even if there are only few and not turn it into a wild speculative what-if-thread, since otherwise we are soon discussing Warp-dives and Klingon cloaking devices!
The H-20 is certainly designed with the role of air-to-air missile trucks in support of allied fighters that are dueling against enemy aerial units in mind. They will never be pure bombers.
However, if the H-20 themselves need to carry PL-10 or PL-15 for the purpose of self-defense when going on long-range strike missions, then something must've gone wrong somewhere.
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I think the H-20 will be used for much the same roles as the H-6 is used today. Regular bombing, cruise missile truck, sea lane patrol, and yes as a fuel tanker. The main difference vs the H-6K besides the stealth will be its much higher endurance and range.
And no, it is highly doubtful that the designers of the H-20 will be the same as in the J-20. Xian has huge experience on its own in designing aircraft. They designed the JH-7 fighter bomber, the H-6K bomber, the Y-20 transport aircraft, the MA700 civilian airliner, and others.
And no, it is highly doubtful that the designers of the H-20 will be the same as in the J-20. Xian has huge experience on its own in designing aircraft. They designed the JH-7 fighter bomber, the H-6K bomber, the Y-20 transport aircraft, the MA700 civilian airliner, and others.
I think H-20 doesn't necessarily need to be a stealthy missile truck, since Chinese loyal wingman should already be doing such a job. You also won't be risking the most expensive airframe in the PLA arsenal for only AA duties. H-20 should be reserved for high density AA penetration HVT missions.
The H-20 will be able to carry much larger cruise missiles than the loyal wingman drones available. Which means it will be able to attack well outside the range of opposing enemy aircraft if required. As for it being expensive to use for aerial refueling, a refueling variant of the H-20 would likely not need any of the expensive weapon systems, bomb bay, and radar as on the bomber variant. So how expensive would it be really?
The refueling variant would only be used for operations close to the front line. I am fairly sure something like the tanker version of the Y-20 would be used further behind the lines. Another possibility would be a tanker variant of the C929 once that comes out. Similar to A330MRTT.