Before reading this article, please click "Follow", which is not only convenient for you to discuss and share, but also brings you a different sense of participation, thank you for your support.
On February 18, 2023, the American "Military Watch" conducted a simple inventory of the world's top five active bombers, and the Tu-160 "White Swan" undoubtedly won the first place, the American B-2A second, and the Chinese H-6N ranked fifth in the world, ranking behind the American B-52H.
This is not the first time that the H-6N has won the favor of foreign media.
As early as September 7, 2020, Greg Waldron, editor-in-chief of Singapore Airlines' website FlightGlobal, posted an article to correct the H-6's name.
Waldron claims that Superpower has released a report on the combat power of global fighter jets, and the H-6N appears as often as 33 times, and the J-20 is mentioned only 11 times.
From this, it can be seen that the "Sixth Master" has quietly come out of the circle in places that we have not paid attention to, but why do the Chinese people seem to not buy the magic change of the "Sixth Master"?
Chinese netizens said that the "Sixth Master" is indeed very strong, but no matter how strong it is, it will not affect our desire for H-20!
The "Sixth Master" of Super Longevity
At the end of 1950, two Tu-16 prototypes were shipped from their homeland in the Soviet Union to China, accompanied by a full set of design drawings and Soviet experts.
The "Badger" fighter is a famous superstar in World War II, it is the "eldest son" of Soviet jet bombers, with a strike radius of up to 3,000 kilometers and a bomb load of up to 9 tons, which is basically equivalent to a bomb truck flying in mid-air.
Coupled with a flight speed of 1,050 kilometers per hour, the Tu-16 can be said to be invincible under the fire of the fascists.
However, the glory of the past does not mean that the Tu-16 is sufficient to cope with the new war situation, and both Soviet experts and Chinese technicians are well aware that some of the Tu-16's World War II colors have lowered its adaptability to the times.
The USSR sent it to China simply because there was no better option.
China knows very well that if it wants to develop, it must understand the basic principles, so even in the face of the "antique" Tu-16, we have not shown any contempt.
In 1959, with the help of Soviet experts, the mainland finally completed the assembly of the Tu-16, and completed the first test flight on September 27 of that year.
Also in the same year, when the mainland wanted to negotiate with the Soviet Union to introduce Tu-22 bombers and air-to-air missile systems, Sino-Soviet relations cooled sharply.
All parts and related documents were destroyed, Soviet experts were all withdrawn, and the mainland could only rely on reverse imitation technology to continue research and development.
However, reverse imitation work is not easy to say, and the mainland is tantamount to starting from scratch once again.
No matter how difficult and dangerous the road ahead is, it cannot stop the Chinese from enterprising, and under the leadership of Lu Songshan, chief engineer of Xi'an Aircraft Factory, they sent good news that the first bomber independently developed by the mainland has a preliminary model.
However, the first H-6A was not thoroughly "made in China".
Due to the late start in the field of continental aircraft engines, there was no technology to independently produce engines at that time, so the "heart" of the first generation of H-6A prototypes used the Soviet Tumantsev engine.
Lu Songshan
On June 17, 1967, the H-6A dropped a "fat girl" on the endless Gobi Desert.
A few minutes later, a large mushroom grew on the lifeless Gobi Desert, and China's first atomic bomb was successfully exploded.
Until December 24, 1968, the H-6 equipped with a domestic turbojet-8 engine roared in the blue sky, and the mainland's first domestic bomber officially met with everyone.
Objectively speaking, there is a certain gap between the strike performance of the H-6A and the Tu-16, and the strike radius of 3,000 kilometers seems to be an invisible barrier to it, and its ultimate range can only reach about 5,760 kilometers.
The maximum flight speed is also slightly slower than that of the Tu-16, which can fly 1014 kilometers per hour.
But it doesn't matter, as the bomber with the most magic changes in the world, the H-6 means that the initial "skin" is nothing!
Twenty-six letters are not enough
The first modified model of the H-6 was called the H-6B.
At least in the 70s of the 20th century, mainland technicians naively believed that the numbers "A, B, C, D, penthexylheptanine" should be sufficient.
The H-6B is equipped with an Hangding-42 infrared camera, which also means that the mainland's bombers finally have medium and long-range reconnaissance capabilities.
Bombers doing reconnaissance work?
Sometimes I really have to admire the imagination of the technicians, in addition to the infrared camera, the bomb bay of the H-6B is also equipped with three large reconnaissance cameras, and even the wings can be mounted with reconnaissance pods.
For quite some time, the H-6B has been engaged in "part-time photography" in the South China Sea of the mainland, asserting sovereignty over the Nansha Islands.
Later, the Bomber-6 electronic reconnaissance aircraft and other models were developed, and our bombers also began to emit a little glimmer in the field of electronic warfare.
There are reconnaissance planes, and if they don't do some other magic changes, it doesn't look like a Chinese style.
Under the renovation of Xi'an Airport, the bomb bay of the H-6 has been transformed into a fuel tank, a refueling pod has been installed under the wings, and even the position of the shooter gun at the tail has been changed to a refueling control cabin.
In 1990, the H-6 officially completed the factory test flight, and at the end of 1991, it completed the air docking and refueling mission with the J-8 fighter for the first time.
The H-6 can refuel two fighters in the air at the same time, and more than 18.5 tons of aviation fuel can be stored in the fuel tank, which directly realizes the breakthrough of China's air tanker from 0 to 1.
The magic reform business has done well, and he can't forget his old job.
On August 29, 1981, our researchers had realized that "A, B, C, D" was not enough to number, so they began to use 26 letters.
As the first anti-ship bomber of New China, the H-6D also successfully flew in this year.
In 1985, after a series of assessments, the H-6D was officially installed as an anti-ship missile-carrying aircraft, and was equipped with anti-ship missiles such as YJ-6 and C-801.
This also means that the mainland navy finally has a long-range anti-ship capability, and the naval strength has been unprecedentedly strengthened.
Later, there was the H-6K, the Russian-made D30-KP-2 turbofan engine gave the H-6K more powerful power, compared with the previous turbojet-8, the thrust of the new engine increased by nearly 30%, but the fuel consumption was reduced by nearly 1/4.
In addition to the engines, the H-6K has also made improvements to the shape and fuselage structure, the original position of the cockpit glass has been transformed into a black round radome, and missile pylons have been installed under the wings. The fuselage has been greatly equipped with new materials and processes, and the overall weight has been reduced.
The engine is more powerful and the fuselage is lighter.
This also further increases the bomb load of the H-6K, with a maximum bomb load of 12 tons increased by 50% compared to the previous one.
The maximum range has also increased from the original 6,000 kilometers to 8,400 kilometers, and the combat radius of the domestic bomber has finally broken through the 3,500 kilometers mark, and it can fly directly from Shanghai to Hawaii.
In terms of weapon systems, the Long Sword-20 air-launched cruise missile with a range of more than 1,500 kilometers, the YJ-12 supersonic anti-ship missile, the YJ-12 83K anti-ship missile, and so on are all in its bag.
In 2019, the more outstanding turbofan-18 will replace the original D-30KP2 little by little, and the H-6K with a domestic heart will be loaded, and the strength will be even stronger.
H-6N and H-20
On October 1, 2019, at the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the H-6N made its first public appearance.
As the close-up of CCTV gradually advanced, everyone was pleasantly surprised to find that the H-6N had a long refueling gun on the door of the head, and the big guy hidden under the wing of the H-6N turned out to be the latest Dongfeng-17 missile.
On November 1 and 15, 2017, China successfully completed two strike tests of the DF-17.
Compared with the aircraft carrier killer Dongfeng-21D, Dongfeng-17 has a unique advantage, that is, speed, with the blessing of hypersonic gliding warhead, the fastest speed of Dongfeng-17 can reach Mach 10 per hour.
Coupled with Qian Xuesen's ballistics, the anti-missile system of the US aircraft carrier is almost impossible to carry out effective interception.
As an anti-access/denial strategic missile, the DF-17 does not have a strike radius of 1,800 km to 2,500 km.
But luckily, we used combos!
What does it mean to be refueled in the air?
The size of the DF-17 is quite large, which means that the H-6N will definitely make some sacrifices in terms of fuel capacity.
However, the presence of air tankers can almost completely wipe out the disadvantage of the H-6N's fuel carrier. With only one refueling in the air, the combat radius of the H-6N can be expanded to 4,000 kilometers, and it is conservatively estimated that it can carry out military strikes against targets at a distance of 6,000 kilometers.
If two mid-air refueling sessions are completed, the H-6N can even fly directly from northeast China to the west coast of the United States, which is definitely the best weapon for carrying out strategic deterrence missions.
It's just that no matter how powerful the H-6N is, it can't appease military fans to wait for the H-20, and there is no way who will call this moment It's been too long to wait.
On July 26, 2023, the Changchun Air Show officially opened, and unfortunately we still haven't been able to see the H-20 at the new air show.
At this time, seven years have passed since the development of the H-20 strategic bomber at the 2016 Changchun Air Show was confirmed for the first time, and the J-20 has only experienced 3 years and one month from the establishment of the project to the first flight.
Why are military fans looking forward to the H-20 so much?
From the performance point of view alone, the H-20 is really too rebellious. Stealth function, supersonic flight, transcontinental strike ...... These are not enough, the H-20 must also have a large bomb load, which is simply a collection of the strengths of all people, and it is an absolute cross-era work.
But seven years have passed, why hasn't the H-20 come out yet?
On the one hand, the difficulty of developing the bomber itself is higher than that of other models, and the development cycle of the American B-21 is also as long as ten years, so it is understandable that the time is slightly longer.
On the other hand, the mainland's missiles have been updated, the H-20 was designed to carry conventional missiles when the project was first established, and now the hypersonic missile has been successfully launched, and the H-20 will inevitably carry out a series of reforms.
Therefore, please also ask the general public to be less restless, "self-made" we will definitely devote more energy to research and development projects, what we need to do is to believe in the country and wait for good news.
Bibliography:
- "China.com: The United States evaluated the world's top five bombers, and the H-6N was selected, and the reason for being on the list was ......"
- "China Youth Daily: How strong is the latest H-6N? Two new pods and one tube are the key"
- CCTV4: "God of War" H-6K just flew to the Sea of Japan, and soon H-6N is about to take off again?!"