As early as November 2023, the B-21 "Raider" stealth bomber developed by Northrop Grumman in the United States announced the success of its first test flight.
And the Pentagon announced that it would purchase at least 100 B-21s to create an unprecedented stealth bomber group.
However, shortly after the B-21's maiden flight, Hong Kong's South China Morning Post reported on a huge breakthrough in Chinese military technology: China's super-missile had successfully shot down a B-21 bomber in a simulated battle.
Chinese super-missiles are introduced
According to the South China Morning Post, the simulated battle was conducted by Northwestern Polytechnical University, one of the "Seven Sons of National Defense", which has been placed on the U.S. government's list of sanctioned entities.
A research team at the Western University of Technology published a paper in the journal Journal of Aeronautics and Astronautics, detailing the whole process of how to use a "hypersonic air-to-air missile" to shoot down a U.S. B-21.
Although the Western University of Technology did not specify the model of this missile, it is mentioned in the paper that the missile has surpassed China's most advanced air-to-air missile, the "Thunderbolt-15", with a maximum speed of an astonishing Mach 6, equivalent to 7,350 kilometers per hour.
And thanks to the use of a new solid-fuel pulse engine, it also has a range of more than 400 kilometers, making it the longest known air-to-air missile in the world.
For this super missile with advanced performance, foreign media generally believe that it is likely to be the "Thunderbolt-21" that China has rumored but has never been confirmed.
In fact, it has been seven years since the first appearance of the Thunderbolt-15, and at the rate of development and iteration of China's military industry, a series of more advanced air-to-air missiles such as the Thunderbolt-17 and Thunderbolt-21 should have blossomed.
However, the B-21 is also the result of the most advanced aviation technology in the United States.
According to Grumman, the B-21 is the world's first real "sixth-generation fighter", which has a high degree of stealth performance and strong long-range strike capabilities, which can effectively meet the needs of combat and survival in the "anti-access/denial" environment.
So, why did the Thunderbolt-21 air-to-air missile developed by China shoot down the B-21?
The source of confidence in shooting down the B-21
First of all, it should be noted that the shooting down of the B-21 requires not only advanced missiles, but also advanced radars for guidance.
In this regard, China has developed a supporting anti-stealth radar, which can disable the full set of stealth means of stealth aircraft with strong transmission power and special monitoring frequency band wavelengths.
Although the stealth capability of the B-21 is excellent, it is just a routine upgrade compared to the B-2 and has not achieved a qualitative leap.
Secondly, in terms of launch routes, the J-20 will serve as the launch platform for the Thunderbolt-21 air-to-air missile.
Compared with other types of fighters, the J-20 has a lower radar reflection area and a longer combat radius, and can go out to ambush B-21 bomber groups flying to the Chinese mainland over the first island chain.
As a result, the response window left for the U.S. B-21 to maneuver and evade will be greatly shortened.
Finally, there is the performance of the missile itself.
Since the Thunderbolt-21 is capable of reaching speeds of Mach 6, it is a hypersonic missile, which means that it can fly a range of 400 kilometers in no more than 2 minutes.
In contrast, the cruising speed of the US B-21 is only at the subsonic level, that is, between 0.8~0.95 Mach, which is basically no different from hitting a fixed target in front of the Thunderbolt-21.
According to the simulated battle of the research team of Western University of Technology, the ground radar station of the PLA and the air early warning aircraft will form a perception system, while the J-20 will be ambushed in the vast airspace between the coastline of Chinese mainland and the first island chain, and will connect with the data link of our army's perception system.
When the U.S. B-21 bomber group enters the range of the Thunderbolt-21, the J-20 will launch missiles outside the B-21's sensing radius, and the target can be shot down in just tens of seconds.
The B-21 is backward when it comes out?
In fact, if you evaluate the B-21 fairly, it is still the best strategic bomber in the world at present, except for a slight reduction in size, it has been significantly upgraded compared with the B-2 in all other aspects.
But the problem is that China's military technology development in recent years has far exceeded US estimates, so that routine upgrades of the level of the B-21 have to face the embarrassing status quo of "falling behind when it comes out".
Perhaps also aware of this problem, the US military plans to significantly increase the number of B-21s in service.
The US magazine "National Interest" once reported that the top brass of the US Air Force is discussing a budget to increase the originally planned purchase of 100 B-21s to 180 in order to cope with the possible large-scale losses of B-21s in future wars.
Obviously, the top of the US military also knows that the B-21 is definitely not invincible, and it even needs to be prepared for large losses.
However, even if the production capacity and number of B-21s in service are increased, the US military is not capable of threatening China's skies.
In terms of fighters, China's J-20 has entered a production capacity ramp-up period, at least 4 new pulsating production lines are under construction, and the annual output of J-20 is expected to increase from 40~50 to more than 100 in the future.
According to this rate, it is estimated that by 2027, the number of J-20s in service with the Chinese Air Force will reach more than 500.
At that time, China will become the country with the highest density of stealth fighters deployed in the Asia-Pacific region, and if the US B-21 bomber group rashly intrudes into China's air defense identification zone, it will only become the prey pursued by many hunters.
Although the B-21 is the most advanced bomber of the United States at this stage, it can only be used to intimidate other small countries at best, and for an opponent of China's class, the B-21 is not an invincible weapon at all.