Interesting Pictures Leaking From China: are they the rumored JH-XX tactical bomber?

There are a few projects running along in China that have long been rumors. Some are officially acknowledged, like the H-20 bomber, the J-XY (5th gen carrier aircraft) and the Chinese space planes. Others are mere rumor and have stuff float up occasionally, but never quite persuasively. Among those are the VSTOL aircraft, a 5th gen light fighter and the JH-XX.

The JH-XX is supposed to be a tactical or regional bomber. The estimates of size vary wildly. Sometimes the estimates are as large as a Tu-22, the Backfire bomber. Other times, they are F-111 Aardvark sized. Still others they are as small as the Su-34 and F-15E. It's all supposition and speculation. It's existence is even disputed and almost pure rumor as well. There have been magazine prints of something like a love child of a drunken night between an YF-23 and an Su-34, but...not much else.

Until now.

Two pictures have emerged and have been claimed to belong to the JH-XX or as it has been claimed to be designated, the JH-21:





TBF, the pictures looks like they are NOT from the same aircraft, IMO. The latter looks more like one of the trainers they have been talking about, their equivalent of the T-7A. However, the picture has been attributed to the JH-21 on the sinophonic internet. I'm skeptical of either image being the aircraft in question: there have been a lot of false starts in the past with various pictures being fake or not for the program being attributed to.

OTOH, I'll be d*mned if the first picture doesn't seem to fit the magazine pix that were released for the JH-XX in the past...



So. What does ATS think? Have our Chinese competitors come up with a 5th gen tactical or regional bomber? Or have we a case of misattribution and photoshopping?

DOD is real silly letting the CCP get a hold of the stealth tech don't you think? I personally find the entire US military derelict of duty about now, they are letting this monster build itself in front of them. Kind of like watch Nazi Germany arm itself with tanks, and making grand speeches. Its almost as if someone could stop Hitler (Xi) if they just got the stones now. We going to just let Hitler (Xi) rise to power?

a reply to: av8r007

An all out war is more profitable!

I was going to say, judging by the graininess of some of the photos, that this could possibly be Bigfoot.

Literally a looks like the back of a YF-23 with a SU-34 Duckbill front end/nose

be interesting if they have the "materials science" to make the exhaust work but they'll probably just bang on two engines without any form of exhaust IR reduction stealth capability

a reply to: TritonTaranis

be interesting if they have the "materials science" to make the exhaust work but they'll probably just bang on two engines without any form of exhaust IR reduction stealth capability

Their material science is very good. Not as good as the US in many areas - like the metallurgy for engines - but damned impressive all the same. They have been training their MatSci guys in US universities for 40 years now, keep in mind, and have established their own independent tech tree, so to speak, as a result.

Back on topic, the rest of the world got a nice shot in the arm for their stealth tech development when the F-117 was shot down in Serbia. The pilot kept taking the exact same route from bombing runs and the Serbs dropped a SAM right in its path. Material recovered filtered out to China, Russia and elsewhere. Whomever had the cash got a sample or three. Add that to the material scientists China now has and...

originally posted by: anzha
a reply to: TritonTaranis

be interesting if they have the "materials science" to make the exhaust work but they'll probably just bang on two engines without any form of exhaust IR reduction stealth capability

Their material science is very good. Not as good as the US in many areas - like the metallurgy for engines - but damned impressive all the same. They have been training their MatSci guys in US universities for 40 years now, keep in mind, and have established their own independent tech tree, so to speak, as a result.

Back on topic, the rest of the world got a nice shot in the arm for their stealth tech development when the F-117 was shot down in Serbia. The pilot kept taking the exact same route from bombing runs and the Serbs dropped a SAM right in its path. Material recovered filtered out to China, Russia and elsewhere. Whomever had the cash got a sample or three. Add that to the material scientists China now has and...

We'll see when it is unveiled i guess

So far both Russia & China haven't successfully built a true 5th Gen aircraft, the likes of the Raptor vs F-117 are also 3 generations of stealth apart

a reply to: TritonTaranis

So far both Russia & China haven't successfully built a true 5th Gen aircraft, the likes of the Raptor vs F-117 are also 3 generations of stealth apart

I - and Aviation Week - beg to differ on the J-20. It's a really impressive bird.

originally posted by: Terpene
a reply to: av8r007

An all out war is more profitable!

That's for sure. Gives you a wonderful opportunity clearance out all your old, stale inventory and get Daddy Warbucks to build you some nice, new shiny high-tech weapons that will line the pockets of the CEOs of all the semi-private companies attached to the government's teat. Because the rich must get richer.

The F117 and the Stealthhawk tail plus the downed Rq170 put things onto the open markets.But they are at least a generation or 2 behind whats current at the moment..Hi tech planes are cool but pilot training has a big part of it.

originally posted by: av8r007
DOD is real silly letting the CCP get a hold of the stealth tech don't you think? I personally find the entire US military derelict of duty about now, they are letting this monster build itself in front of them. Kind of like watch Nazi Germany arm itself with tanks, and making grand speeches. Its almost as if someone could stop Hitler (Xi) if they just got the stones now. We going to just let Hitler (Xi) rise to power?

The military is at the mercy of our civilian leaders. Sadly, many of our civilian leaders admire China. Specifically, they admire the kind of control the CCP has managed to get over the lives of their citizens. Our leaders have no interest in putting a curb on China. Until that changes, our military can't do anything.

These things along with a lot of “stealth” tech is actually obsolete anyway…
I’ll raise you the also somewhat secret and already obsolete hopeless diamond which actually works everywhere and has total superiority…
And keep the rest of the black projects hidden cause nobody needs to know atm…

a reply to: anzha

Do you envision their bomber force as a command and control centre for crewless vehicles? Are they considering a maritime strike force? Yet another possibility is strategic bombing campaigns against targets in the U.S.?

For military planners, the range and payloads of the aircraft count for more than any stealth fetish. Any reliance on inflight refuelling is an open target for enemy forces. So the "native" range of these platforms is worthy of greater levels of attention.

a reply to: xpert11

I think it is safe to say that going forward, command and control of 'Loyal Wingmen' type aircraft is going to be pretty standard on the next generation of combat aircraft. This will be the case with the 6th gen fighters and even any heavier combat aircraft.

However, I think the primary use case of this aircraft will be theater level bombing - think like the F-111 - or like the Tu-22 for antiship strikes. Some of the latter can be done by the current bombers, but it would be wise to have something more survivable in the oncoming era of hypersonic missiles, including SAMs and AAMs.