After the official media announced the H-20, China has once again unveiled a new intercontinental stealth bomber, which is shocking. What other top-tier equipment is still hidden? With a combat radius exceeding 10,000 kilometers, it can strike the U.S. mainland at any time. Has the gap in nuclear forces between China and the U.S. finally been closed? American media reluctantly admitted that this time, the U.S. is truly lagging behind.

Several days ago, China's official media, Xinhua, reported that the H-20 may arrive in 2026. But it hasn't been long since then, and we might not have to wait much longer. Because the People's Liberation Army has exposed another new intercontinental bomber, which left American media greatly shocked.

According to reports, the American magazine "Military Observation" published an article at the beginning of this month, mentioning a photo that has been widely circulated on the Chinese internet, and clearly stated that the aircraft in the photo is the long-awaited intercontinental stealth bomber by the entire Chinese people.

American media mentioned in their report that although the current designation is unknown, from the latest image, it can be seen that the belly of this flying wing aircraft has two obvious internal bomb bays, indicating that its purpose is not a long-range strategic reconnaissance aircraft as previously speculated, but a real bomber with the ability to conduct surface attacks.

Moreover, based on satellite images taken in June last year in northwest China, the size of this new bomber is very large, with an actual wingspan of 52 meters. In comparison, the B-2 bomber has a wingspan of only 52.4 meters, and the more advanced B-21 has a wingspan of only 40 meters. Moreover, this Chinese bomber is not a manned aircraft but a drone, allowing for further removal of life support systems originally intended for pilots, thus providing larger internal space for carrying weapons or fuel, and further increasing the actual range.

Based on existing data, without aerial refueling, the B-2 bomber's actual range is about 11,000 to 12,000 kilometers. In recent conflicts, the B-2 has repeatedly conducted long-range strikes across continents. Although this new Chinese bomber is slightly smaller in size, it is a drone, so its actual range is roughly similar, and it can be conservatively estimated to reach over 11,000 kilometers. This is why American media dare to call this bomber an "intercontinental bomber."

American media has given high praise for this new Chinese bomber, because,放眼 the world, currently only Russia's Tu-160M is in mass production stage. However, this new Chinese bomber has extremely strong stealth capabilities, meaning it has stronger penetration capabilities than the Russian Tu-160, capable of directly penetrating the enemy's tightly defended air defense network.

At the same time, although the U.S. is currently the only country with stealth bombers, the B-2 bomber was developed in the early 1980s, using a lot of 1980s technology, which now seems completely outdated. It has a limited number of less than 20 units, poor reliability, frequent accidents, and high operating costs, making it far inferior to the new Chinese bomber.

The B-21, as a replacement, has made significant compromises in procurement costs, leading to the fact that its strike range and weapon-carrying capacity are far weaker than the B-2, let alone comparing with the new Chinese bomber.

Of course, from a military technology perspective, the emergence of this new Chinese bomber, along with the underperformance of the U.S. B-21, actually means that there has been a major change in the military warfare concepts between China and the U.S.

We all know that for a major country's air force, the importance of a strategic bomber is not carpet bombing, but rather relying on its extremely long range, it can directly launch precise strikes against hostile targets located overseas, without relying on overseas bases, and will not cause strategic misperception in other countries.

At the same time, the larger size of strategic bombers also means that when facing some heavily reinforced targets, specific weapons can be deployed to attack them.

For example, during the strike operations against Iran in June last year, the U.S. B-2 bomber dropped the GBU-57 bunker buster, and since this type of bomb is carried internally, it does not disrupt the aerodynamic shape of the stealth bomber, allowing the B-2 to freely fly into Iranian airspace to carry out strike missions.

In the nuclear strike field, if combined with more powerful hypersonic nuclear missiles or nuclear cruise missiles, the strike range of stealth strategic bombers can be further extended, forming an important part of the air-based strategic nuclear deterrence.

However, the current U.S. B-21 bomber lacks these capabilities, or performs poorly. Not only because of its reduced size, it cannot carry large-scale attack weapons, but its actual operational range is also far worse than the B-2, which is like going backward, fully proving that after the end of the Cold War, the U.S. has experienced serious regression in both technology and strategic planning, shifting from a demand-driven approach to a research-driven one in equipment development.

In contrast, this large stealth bomber of the PLA has in fact filled the biggest gap in the Chinese Air Force.

Because in terms of fleet composition, the PLA currently only has the H-6 as a large aerial strike platform. Although it has been upgraded to H-6K and H-6N, the platform itself is still based on the Soviet Tu-16, and its potential has almost been exhausted. Even if it can launch the Jinge-1 strategic nuclear missile or the YJ-21 hypersonic anti-ship missile, it cannot change the biggest weakness of the H-6, which is its poor penetration capability.

Moreover, the PLA's tactical aircraft fleet has already shown a trend towards full stealth. Imagine, in a campaign offensive operation, a large number of stealth tactical aircraft perform penetration air superiority tasks, while the H-6 would appear like a big light bulb on the enemy radar screen, completely losing the element of surprise for the campaign launch.

This is why this new strategic bomber was needed. And looking at the sixth-generation fighter jets of the PLA, whether it's the J-20 or the J-36, they have already far exceeded traditional tactical aircraft in size, with a conservative combat radius of over 3,000 kilometers. If supported by aerial refueling, they are likely to be able to escort the new bomber, forming a fully stealthed attack spearhead, directly striking Guam and eliminating the node through which the U.S. intervenes in the Asia-Pacific region.

As for why the new bomber is a drone, it also relates to the valuable experience gained from past wars. In today's era of widespread precision-guided weapons, the importance of the pilot in such large-scale strike platforms is gradually decreasing, especially in tactical strikes, where a large number of surveillance and strike drones have completely replaced the role of attack aircraft. As artificial intelligence technology continues to evolve, even removing the real person from the ground control station has become a major trend. This is the inevitability of technological development. As American media said, this time, we have already surpassed the U.S.

Information source in the article: Looking forward to the official unveiling of the H-20, CCTV News

Original: toutiao.com/article/7592828285212000810/

Statement: This article represents the views of the author.