New Chinese Bomber

China has been building up an impressive defensive force that extends out to the first island chain.  China considers the first island chain and all land and water within to be sovereign Chinese territory – a claim that the US has done little to dispute.  Having all but formally announced the annexation, China is now engaged in solidifying their gains via the construction of island bases. 

The next logical step is to transition from a defensive force aimed at holding the South and East China Seasto an offensive force intended to forcefully expand China’s holdings to the second island chain and beyond.  To this end, China is developing a far ranging submarine force, major ocean-going surface ships, and, most alarming, a modern strategic bomber force.

China is actively developing a long range, supersonic, penetrating, stealthy, strategic bomber, according to a recent report (1) and is on the verge of unveiling it.  The new bomber will replace the existing H-6 (derived from the Soviet Tu-16).

“China Daily reported on July 2015 that, according to Chinese military officials, a new strategic bomber should be capable of striking targets beyond the second island chain without aerial refueling, while carrying a payload of at least 10 metric tons.” (1) [emphasis added]

The phrase, “beyond the second island chain”, is clearly a reference to Guam and Pearl Harbor.

Additional features are suggested:

“Subsequent reports assess the new bomber to be a stealthy design in order to evade modern air defense systems and penetrate deep into the enemy’s territory. Its range has to be dramatically longer than the current H-6K’s (range of more than 10,000 km, and combat radius of over 5,000 km and in-flight refueling-capable) while able to carry a heavy weapons load (smaller load than the B-2A’s 23 tons, but larger than H-6K) for both nuclear and conventional ordnance. The few images published so far suggest a single center weapons-bay—albeit there are artworks depicting two bays—capable of carrying at least six KD-20 ALCMs or any other precision strike munition on a rotary launcher.

Consequently, the new bomber is expected to feature a modern avionics system built around an Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar with conformal antennas again similar to the U.S. AN/APQ-181 LPI radar. Additionally, it is said to feature a modern electronic warfare-capability and to be also capable [of] acting as a C4ISR node to interact with other sensor platforms like UAVs, AEW- and strategic reconnaissance aircraft to share information and target data (data fusion).” (1)

The article suggests that the bomber will be a flying wing similar to the US B-2 bomber.  However, more recent articles suggest a more conventional delta wing shape with angled tails. (2)  Moreover, references to Chinese bomber development have labeled the bomber variously as H-X, H-20, and JH-XX.  Whether these are all the same development programs or whether there are multiple bombers under development remains to be seen.

Artist's Concept of Chinese Bomber

Regardless, this bomber is obviously intended to threaten the US military’s ability to operate anywhere in the Pacific.  Given the extreme paucity of military bases in the Pacific, it doesn’t require much strategic imagination to see that if China can incapacitate Guam and Pearl Harbor, the US would be hard pressed to deny China control of the entire Pacific Ocean right up to the west coast of the United States.

Development of a bomber with this type of range should also suggest to the United States what direction to take with its fighter/air superiority force and it isn’t the F-35.  We need a very long range fighter with good speed and capable of carrying a large weapons load and operating a powerful sensor suite.  This suggests a much larger aircraft than has traditionally been considered a “fighter”.

Such a bomber is clearly offensive in nature and is intended to be used.  Chinese apologists can’t even pretend to call such an aircraft “defensive”.  China has their sights solidly set on the Pacific and removing the United States from it.  The first island chain annexation - masterfully accomplished, it must be acknowledged - is merely a first step towards global domination.  The United States needs to recognize and admit China’s goals and begin taking action to counter their ongoing global conquest.

____________________________________

(1)Jamestown Foundation website, “The PLA Air Force’s “Silver-Bullet” Bomber Force”, Publication: China Brief Volume: 17 Issue: 10, Andreas Rupprecht, July 21, 2017,

https://jamestown.org/program/the-pla-air-forces-silver-bullet-bomber-force/

(2)Popular Mechanics website, “Is This China’s Stealth Bomber?”,  Kyle Mizokami, Apr 9, 2018,

https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/aviation/a19724568/china-stealth-bomber-render/

Bagikan Artikel ini