New turbofan
H-20 bomber (with H-X, JH-XX)
- Thread starter Deino
- Start date
IMO better described as BS
@Cute Orca posted something on Weibo back in June that now appears to be the clearest hint regarding the H-20's design:
#H20Design#
“
A combat radius of 6500km-7000km would enable stealth penetration via the Arctic route. Launching 5000km-range HGVs/HCMs from over Canada could cover virtually all of North America except Mexico, including the entire territories of Canada, the continental United States, and Alaska.
Achieving standoff coverage over the entire continental US from Northeast China would require a combat radius of at least 11500km, which is highly demanding. While the B-2 has an 11000km combat radius, it comes with exploding costs and low payload efficiency. Alternatively, a one-way suicide mission could be considered... Therefore, covering the continental US still depends on air-launched long-range weapons.
From Northeast China or the Sea of Japan, with aerial refueling, it could reach and loiter near the third island chain.
”
Given the increasing rumors, I suspect the H-20 is a B-2-sized optionally-manned stealth bomber with a 6500km-7000km combat radius, featuring a cranked-kite configuration. While its stealth capabilities might be slightly inferior, it could carry longer missiles, including specially developed compact HGVs/HCMs with a 5000km range. Besides the mentioned Arctic route for striking the entire US (which relies on Russian cooperation, requires penetration of Canadian airspace, and is likely reserved for nuclear missions), a more conventional approach would involve aerial refueling over coastal areas before striking the US West Coast. This would serve to counterbalance the political and economic impact of the US and its allies targeting China's developed coastal cities.
#H20Design#
“
A combat radius of 6500km-7000km would enable stealth penetration via the Arctic route. Launching 5000km-range HGVs/HCMs from over Canada could cover virtually all of North America except Mexico, including the entire territories of Canada, the continental United States, and Alaska.
Achieving standoff coverage over the entire continental US from Northeast China would require a combat radius of at least 11500km, which is highly demanding. While the B-2 has an 11000km combat radius, it comes with exploding costs and low payload efficiency. Alternatively, a one-way suicide mission could be considered... Therefore, covering the continental US still depends on air-launched long-range weapons.
From Northeast China or the Sea of Japan, with aerial refueling, it could reach and loiter near the third island chain.
”
Given the increasing rumors, I suspect the H-20 is a B-2-sized optionally-manned stealth bomber with a 6500km-7000km combat radius, featuring a cranked-kite configuration. While its stealth capabilities might be slightly inferior, it could carry longer missiles, including specially developed compact HGVs/HCMs with a 5000km range. Besides the mentioned Arctic route for striking the entire US (which relies on Russian cooperation, requires penetration of Canadian airspace, and is likely reserved for nuclear missions), a more conventional approach would involve aerial refueling over coastal areas before striking the US West Coast. This would serve to counterbalance the political and economic impact of the US and its allies targeting China's developed coastal cities.
Looks like there is a misconception here.
B-2 has an unrefuelled range of 11000 KM. The combar radius will be half that, that is 5500 KM.
A combar radius of 7000KM for H-20 will put its unrefueled range at 14000 KM. B-52 has a unrefueled ferry range of 16000 KM.
So, this whole post seems misleading and confusing.
The next sentence suggests, "Alternatively, a one-way suicide mission could be considered..." He likely konwn that B-2 bomber, under normal payload conditions, could only achieve standoff coverage over the entire continental US by conducting a one-way mission. Therefore, the previous statement should imply that while a B-2-class bomber might theoretically achieve an 11,000 km combat radius with certain extreme design, the associated costs and trade-offs would render such a capability impractical or strategically untenable.
A hypothetical H-20 with a pure flying wing (if not a cranked kite) VLO design that is somewhat/slightly larger than the B-2 (<60 meters wingspan, hence larger fuel capacity) while potentially using more fuel efficient medium-bypass engines than the B-2 (i.e. bypass ratio of 1/2-4) should enable achieving greater range and combat radius than the B-2.
This certainly isn't out of the realm of reality.
(And while high-bypass engine is a possibility given certain tender documents/academic papers from sometime ago, it remains to be seen whether this will be achiveable with a VLO airframe.)
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Highly likely FWS-30, which is a F118 equivalent, but given the time and rumors of “redesign” , maybe it would be some kind of enhanced model of the original FWS-30