Rumors about the development, in China, of a new generation bomber, similar to the American B-2, have found confirmation.
According to the Defense-aerospace website, the official journal of the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology Science and Technology Daily published an article in which the commander of the Chinese Air Force Ma Xiaotian confirmed the development by China Of a new H-20 strategic bomber. This means that the rumors on a new plane were not without foundation.
The article reports that it is a bomber that conceptually resembles the American B-2. The latter is currently the only strategic stealth bomber in the world, built in 21 specimens only because of its high price.
The Chinese do not have the experience of developing strategic bombers in their own right. Their Xian H-6 bomber is a Soviet copy built under license of the Toupolev Tu-16, referred to as a heavy duty multi-purpose aircraft. China must have just over 60 H-6 bombers, but these planes are currently obsolete.
The new bomber could embark nuclear weapons and high-precision conventional weapons.
It should be noted that the development of such an aircraft is an important step for China. Competition between Asia-Pacific countries for regional influence will increase, and the H-20 could become an additional argument in favor of China.
New strategic stealth bombers are being developed in Russia and the United States. The American was baptized B-21 Raider and the Russian, PAK DA. Both will be subsonic aircraft of the flying wing formula. It was previously announced that China was developing a stealth tactical bomber. Its concept resembles that of Sukhoi Su-34 Russian and American F-111.
from :
https://translate.google.fr/translate?hl=fr&sl=fr&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Ffr.sputniknews.com%2Fdefense%2F201612091029090695-bombardier-furtif-developpement-chine%2FA new long-range strategic bomber design (H-20?) has been under development at 603 Institute/XAC since early 2000s. Various configurations were studied in detail. One configuration was a supersonic bomber with a conventional design (delta wings with canards?), another was a 4-engine subsonic stealth flying wing design similar to American B-2. Scale-down models were built. By 2011 the overall configuration was finalized which appears be the flying wing design. Some of the technology including the design of flying wing, dorsal engine intake and exhaust as well as the flight control system might have gained some help from the experience of the Sharp Sword UCAV. The engine is likely to be the modified WS-10 without A/B. The aircraft is expected to feature an AESA radar with twin conformal antennas below the leading wing edges similar to American AN/APQ-181 LPI radar. For armaments it can carry KD-20/DF-10K ALCMs internally on a rotary launcher or conventional bombs on bomb racks. H-20 is believed to be able to evade modern air defence systems and penetrate deep into the enemy territory. It was reported in March 2013 that the development of H-20 (referred to as the "strategic project") is gaining full speed at 603/XAC after the successful flight of Y-20. It was reported in November 2015 that the aircraft could feature twin dorsal S-shaped engine intakes with saw tooth lips similar to those of B-2. Consequently the engines are sunk into the main wing structure to further reduce the RCS. It was reported in December 2015 that a 3D digital mockup was constructed. The first prototype could fly as early as 2018.