Chinese Stealth Bomber META Thread

Worked with Chinese Ship welders.Very skilled at what they do but not very good at thinking outside the box.

Steering the topic back on track. Aviation Week discusses more of what the JH-XX might be:

If a WS-15 installation is combined with the F-111F’s thrust loading (mass compared with thrust, strongly affecting flight performance), the Chinese tactical bomber would have a gross weight of 72 metric tons (160,000 lb.), making it 60% larger than the old U.S. type. At the lower end of the scale, a WS-10 engine set combined with the JH-7’s relatively low thrust loading (and therefore high performance) results in a gross weight of 41 metric tons; in that case the tactical bomber would be a little smaller than the F-111. Other combinations of thrust loading and engine type give intermediate sizes.

The smallest size seems unlikely, because of the DIA’s reference to the aircraft as having medium range, in comparison with a strategic bomber’s long range. A highly powered 41-metric-ton aircraft is not likely to achieve anything like the “medium” range of the H-6K. The medium-range description also probably rules out the possibility of the tactical bomber having a new and relatively small engine.

The “fighter-bomber” designation sets an upper limit on the possible size of the aircraft. Conceivably, a twin WS-15 installation could be combined with a high thrust loading, like that of the Tupolev Tu-22M3 supersonic medium bomber. In that case the aircraft would have a gross weight of 90 metric tons—but neither the Chinese nor the Pentagon could call that a fighter-bomber.

aviationweek.com...

a reply to: anzha

A little more on the JH-XX:

www.thedrive.com...

The YF-23/Replica/MD JSF bid mix bomber art may actually have been the JH-20 and we just didn't realize it.

a reply to: anzha

They really dont need a "JH-XX" as an AtG launch platform. They already have various long range ground based missiles available for tactical strikes in their neighbourhood. And for extreme distances the H-20 will replace the H-6s at some point.
The gap between fighter jets / ground based missiles and strategic bombers / long range ballistic missiles is too small to warrant the procurement an intermediate platform.

Hence if they build it i'd take a very close look at its AtA capabilities. A Chinese long range LO AtA platform is much more dangerous to the US ability to project airpower in the Pacific than a intermediate missile carrier.
PCA not FB-22 2.0 basically.

a reply to: mightmight

Perhaps. Or maybe they feel differently about their capabilities or want alternatives just in case or have another use case than we see.

They have their own 6th gen underway and its separate from the JH-XX. That, I would expect, would be more PCA.

a reply to: anzha

Here is the latest I have seen on China's proposed B2 bomber clone and the JHXX medium range bomber (5000 miles) ... Both are guesstimated to be fielded by 2025. youtu.be... all I will say is do not judge China by the junk they export.. They are very smart and capable of turning out missiles and aircraft along with their associated sensors and electronics.

That's in the AVIC magazine or whatnot in China.

Interesting tail there, bub.

At this stage I'm honestly expecting something the size of B-21 (tailless) but here's the real kicker, the engine exhausts will be exposed as they are on the J-20, think Okhotnik but twin.

originally posted by: anzha
116 million Chinese have university degrees.

67 million Americans do.

That statistic has no context, what you should be doing is using that figure as a per capita percent which shows ours is significantly higher.

So same engines as Y-20 I assume?

a reply to: TaiHaChen

We don't know yet. It might be the ones from the fighters. We will see.

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

That statistic has no context, what you should be doing is using that figure as a per capita percent which shows ours is significantly higher.

The US has about 32% of the adult population with a college degree. China has about 14% of its adult population.

If percentage of population is the measure, Norway should be the center of technological innovation as they have 35%. except...their total population is 5.38 million.

Absolute numbers of educated people matter, not just percentages.

originally posted by: anzha
The US has about 32% of the adult population with a college degree. China has about 14% of its adult population.

Exactly. Now your figure has context and that context shows we have a higher per capita education level as I said earlier.

What’s the per capita higher education rate of, say, Luxembourg or Lichtenstein? Maybe they should be world leaders in defense and technology? No… oh. That’s why per capita isn’t the best measure here.
I’d rather have a million diplomas out of 7 million population than 100 degrees out of 300 population if I’m looking to innovate. And also implement.

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

originally posted by: phansett
What’s the per capita higher education rate of, say, Luxembourg or Lichtenstein?

Don't know and don't care, the conversation was about China vis a vis the United States.

Some claims about the H-20 that have been dumped on the sinophonic internet:

H-20:

6 demonstrators have been built and one ground test article.

First two were with twin engines and the design was abandoned PDQ as the performance was nowhere near what they wanted. Flying wing with ~198k lbs takeoff weight and a payload of 35k lbs +/-. Didn't work. This was circa 2016/2017.

Next two were built with 4 engines. Some say these were too ambitious and used too much in the way of bleeding edge composites. May have been 'just' static test rigs or as we called them in space stuff 'flat sats' where everything was a functioning satellite but on a bench rather than fully assembled. The translations are not great and I'm barely more fluent than my Google-fu. This is circa 2018.

5 & 6 were redesigns of 3 & 4 with more conservative materials. Less composites, more metals. They were completed in October 2022 and are supposedly flying. A 7th has been doing static testing (why I said a ground test article), but some claim it is now flying with 5 & 6.

So, I am guessing they are roughly where the B-21 was at in 2018? OTOH, they do tend to move faster than we do. *shrugs*

Also supposedly, only 40 will be bought and it will be called the Night Owl.