asif iqbal
Lieutenant General
H-20 come on !
Imagine China flew one over Taiwan lol
Imagine China flew one over Taiwan lol
H-20 bomber (with H-X, JH-XX)
- Thread starter Deino
- Start date
Wouldn't it just go one of three ways though?
Of course ignoring the wide reaching geo-political effects.
1.They see it, shoot it down. Freak out.
2.They see it, don't shoot it down. Freak out.
3. Don't see it. Nothing happens. PRC press release, ROC denies *freak out internally*.
Again, depends whether you mean literally over Taiwan, or near.
Skywatcher
Captain
Wait until a scramjet powered UAV starts flying over Taipei.
I also very much think there is a role for both a strategic H-20 (B-2 sized) VLO subsonic flying wing bomber, as well as a regional VLO "JH-XX" VLO supersonic bomber. The latter in particular would be very useful for rapid on demand strikes as well as penetrating environments that are more well guarded, as well as conducting anti shipping missions, with a secondary air to air role.
Alas, it seems like only the H-20 is being pursued and the JH-XX is not.
Puzzling. I should think that anti-shipping (particularly with Zircon style hypersonic missiles) would be the primary mission for a Chinese bomber.
With the 30m length, it just seems to me like an over-glorified, stealthy SU-34, in the multi-role strike jet role (albeit quite a bit bigger). Which could be the role it could assume given its supposed specifications. However, such a mix of capabilities in such a role, in such a specifically designed airframe feels quite confused and unnecessary IMO especially with the J-16 being able to perform most of most of what a multi-role strike aircraft can do, minus the stealth and payload of course. Again, under the assumption that this is a live program.
I'm sure H-20 will be capable of carrying out regional anti shipping missions to some extent simply by carrying AShM payloads, but it would be far from as optimized for that mission as the JH-XX would be, namely due to the inability to rapidly ingress/egress through supersonic dash.
The flipside of that is JH-XX would not be able to have the payload capacity or range for the strategic bombing missions that H-20 would do, so on balance I can see why pursuing H-20 might be better than JH-XX if the air force could only choose one of the two.
I find a tactical bomber pretty crucial for PLAAF and PLANAF needs. J-20 can be modified only so much. I doubt it will ever be heavily modified, elongated by a few meters, getting new wings etc, carrying large missiles. And no non-stealthy plane can really be a proper replacement for JH7 in this day and age. As we can see, even the J16s are really replacing fighters units, so PLAAF is using them more as multirole fighters, a continuation of their J11 procurement to replace old fighters.
So i think it's very likely we will see such a plane in the next 5-10 years. H-20, however, has priority right now, so i think 5 year estimate for tactical bomber is on the low end.
(all of this says nothing about whether the new tactical bomber will be unmanned or not. It's a possibility, certainly.)
So i think it's very likely we will see such a plane in the next 5-10 years. H-20, however, has priority right now, so i think 5 year estimate for tactical bomber is on the low end.
(all of this says nothing about whether the new tactical bomber will be unmanned or not. It's a possibility, certainly.)