H-6 Bomber Aircraft Discussions

challenge said:

when carter decided to cancel the B-1A is due to soviet introduction "look down shoot down" radar equipt aircraft such as MiG-31 ,later join by RAM-L (Mi-29" and RAM-k (SU-27).and new generation of AWACS,such as A-50 "mainstay" .
by the time it was modified and reintroduced in reagan era,it reduced her over RCS to less than 1 meter (I am not sure)
unless H-6K undergoes similiar transformation ,reducing her overall RCS,give her some chance,but giving AESA equipt F-18C ,that will long shoot to get within 500km of CV.

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SampanViking said:

The question which has been on my mind, is whether the H6 could be used to air launch an MRBM? and yes I am specifically thinking of the ASBM system when operable.

I am sure I don't need to tell anyone just how much this would increase the range of the missile and still give a role to the plane that would not take it anywhere near hostile air defences.

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ZTZ99 said:

Yeah I didn't think about that. That's probably true. On the other hand it's not likely a plane like the H-6K will get anywhere near Iraq or Guam before it's shot down, though I can imagine Afghanistan since it directly borders China. They will probably be tracked and intercepted as soon as they leave Chinese airspace given the US almost certainly has radars it either directly controls or can tap into in places like Afghanistan, Taiwan, Phillipines, and Okinawa. The only way a force of H-6K's will get into a position to launch cruise missiles against a place like Guam is by already having defeated the USAF and USN in that region.

To attack a place like Iraq, some gutsy -stan country will have to allow China to overfly and possibly launch a standoff attack from within their airspace. The likelihood of that is close to zero. If you remember the lengths Reagan had to go to in order to arrange a flight of F-111's from the UK to go around the entire European subcontinent through the Straits of Gibraltar to teach Qaddafi a lesson in manners, just because Spain and France refused overflight privileges. China doesn't even nearly have that kind of pull with its neighbors.

H-6's used to attack distant international targets are asking to be shot down. They are not stealthy. They are large and easily trackable. They are slow. They cannot evade any fighter attack. A single enemy fighter that gets through an escort screen (if there can even be one at that range) will kill as many bombers as it has missiles to fire. I think the H-6's are much better and more safely used in the antishipping role, or in a land attack role against nearby targets in Korea and Japan, where the concentration of escorting friendly fighters can be much thicker than what you would be left with trying to reach out as far as Guam, or even within a 1,000km of Guam tbh.

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rhino123 said:

US is still using B-52, I do not believe these aircraft is that stealthy, plus with today's radar, AWAC, do you think that the B-1A can sneak past any advance defences? So what if China's H-6K had very low RCS, it is not stealth bomber and so her potential opposition like the US, other western nations, Japan, SK and even many of the ASEAN nations will have no problem detecting her.

And note that the US had use the B-52 to great effects during Iraq and Afgan war... but that is to note that Iraq and Afgan do not have that sophiscated a detection system as countries like Japan, countries in EU (most notably, France and Germany), SK and most probably China.

If US used the B-52 against the abovementioned nations, I think the outcome will be pretty much different. This is the same as using the B-1.

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challenge said:

But USAF and USN has strong confidence on achieving air superiority,therefore they do not have to worry about B-52 getting shot down.

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SampanViking said:

The question which has been on my mind, is whether the H6 could be used to air launch an MRBM? and yes I am specifically thinking of the ASBM system when operable.

I am sure I don't need to tell anyone just how much this would increase the range of the missile and still give a role to the plane that would not take it anywhere near hostile air defences.

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Roger604 said:

Is it possible that H-6K is finally being shown to the world because the large turbofan (WS-18) is ready for small batch production? After all, the small turbofan (WS-10A) is a mature platform being mass produced for J-11B.

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