China’s New H-20 Stealth Bomber Is Now Delayed Until 2030s

Key Factors: The Pentagon’s 2024 report on China’s navy revealed that the much-anticipated Xi’an H-20 stealth bomber could not enter service till after 2030.

-Designed for nuclear and standard missions, the subsonic flying-wing bomber is predicted to have a spread of over 10,000 km, doubtlessly extending globally with aerial refueling.

-The H-20 will possible prioritize stealth and vary, posing a problem to U.S. defenses within the Pacific. Regardless of ongoing growth because the early 2000s, the bomber was absent from latest airshows, with Chinese language officers stating it stays unready for debut.

-The H-20 represents China’s ambition to rival U.S. strategic airpower capabilities.

China’s H-20 Bomber Received’t Fly Till 2030s, Pentagon Report Suggests

The U.S. Division of Protection (DoD) annual report back to Congress on China’s navy capabilities warned that among the many platforms Beijing is now targeted on including to its arsenal is the Folks’s Liberation Military Air Pressure’s (PLAAF’s)  a lot anticipated Xi’an H-20 bomber – however, it steered the plane could not enter service till someday after 2030.

“The PLAAF is in search of to increase its energy projection functionality with the event of a brand new H-20 stealth strategic bomber, with official PRC state media stating that this new stealth bomber can have a nuclear mission along with filling standard roles,” acknowledged the Pentagon’s unclassified model of the “Army and Safety Developments involving the Folks’s Republic of China 2024.”

The annual report back to Congress, pursuant to the Nationwide Protection Authorization Act, is launched in each a categorised and unclassified type. It addresses the present and possible future course of Beijing’s navy expertise and growth.

Of notable curiosity often is the H-20 bomber, which has been teased by the PLAAF for a number of years. Whereas particulars are nonetheless skinny, it has earned comparisons to the U.S. Air Pressure’s B-2 Spirit, the world’s first profitable flying wing stealth bomber.

The Pentagon report supplied few new particulars, nonetheless.

“The H-20, which can debut someday within the subsequent decade, can have a spread of greater than 10,000 km, enabling the PLAAF to cowl the Second Island Chain and into the western area of the Pacific. The H-20 bomber’s vary might be prolonged to cowl the globe with aerial refueling. It’s anticipated to make use of standard and nuclear weaponry and have a stealthy design,” the report added.

“The Second Island Chain talked about right here refers to an space of the Pacific to the west of a boundary stretching between Japan and japanese Indonesia and consists of the U.S. territory of Guam,” The Conflict Zone famous, including, “The remarks right here concerning the H-20 are additionally largely similar to what the Pentagon included in its China report final yr.”

H-20 – A No Present At The Airshow China

Beijing pulled out all of the stops finally month’s China Worldwide Aviation & Aerospace Exhibition – often known as the Zhuhai Airshow or Airshow China – the place it debuted its Shenyang J-35 twin-engine, all-weather stealth fighter. The occasion additionally featured a flight demonstration of the PLAAF’s Chengdu J-20 Mighty Dragon stealth fighter, amongst different plane.

But, noticeably absent was the Xi’an H-20, whilst there had been hypothesis the stealth “flying wing” long-range plane would make an look.” It was in March that Newsweek quoted Folks’s Liberation Military Air Pressure Deputy Commander Wang Wei as stating, “It’s coming quickly, simply wait!”

That had appeared to point on the time that the bomber would make its debut on the high-profile biennial airshow, however the state-run World Instances in September squashed any rumors. Fu Qianshao, a Chinese language navy aviation professional informed the information outlet that the H-20 wasn’t able to make its debut.

The H-20: What We Know

The bomber has been a very long time coming, and it’s believed that the Chinese language protection contractor Xi’an Plane Industrial Company’s (XAC’s) 603 Plane Design Institute started creating the H-20 practically 20 years in the past. The group had thought of each subsonic flying-wing and supersonic delta-wing configurations, whereas round 2011, the designers had reportedly settled on a subsonic flying wing, possible with 4 engines.

H-20 Bomber Picture. Picture Credit score X Screeenshot.

Primarily based on what can be identified at this level, XAC has prioritized stealth and distance over velocity – which might allow the bomber to strike distances beforehand exterior the vary of the PLAAF bombers.

Brent M. Eastwood, writing for 19FortyFive, supplied some perception on the bomber: “The H-20 is predicted to have radar-absorbing coatings to cut back discovery by air defenses. Curved engine inlets and a hidden engine will assist radar evasion. It should in all probability not be as stealthy as American airplanes, but it surely ought to have sufficient stealth attributes to sneak by means of American and Allied air defenses. The H-20 possible has trendy avionics and digital warfare capabilities to jam enemy radar on the bottom and enemy fighters within the air.”

Probably the most detailed “tease” of the H-20 got here in an early 2021 PLAAF recruiting video titled, “Dream of Youth”, proven under”

It was produced by the state agency Aviation Business Company of China (AVIC) to mark the sixtieth anniversary of the founding of the XAC. The early 2021 video adopted an identical promotional “sizzle reel” launched in Might 2018, which additionally included a short glimpse of a similar-looking plane partially uncovered from underneath a sheet.

Creator Expertise and Experience: Peter Suciu

Peter Suciu is a Senior Editor specializing in protection points for 19FortyFive. He has contributed to greater than 4 dozen magazines, newspapers, and web sites with over 3,500 revealed items over a twenty-year profession in journalism. He often writes about navy {hardware}, firearms historical past, cybersecurity, politics, and worldwide affairs. Peter can be a Contributing Author for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. You possibly can comply with him on X: @PeterSuciu – and on Bluesky: @petersuciu.bsky.social.