Engineer
Major
A model with underside intakes is much more believable in my opinion.
H-20 bomber (with H-X, JH-XX)
- Thread starter Deino
- Start date
Engineer
Major
My understanding is as follow; JH-XX and H-18 will compliment MRBM in being able to strike anywhere within the second island chain. Hypersonic gliders will replace traditional warheads on top of ballistic missiles.
No. The story goes, and has been going for the past few years, is that China think tanks expect a high probability of a military conflict from 2017 and onward. So, military projects have a deadline before that time. Hence, as that date moves closer, more and more projects come to fruition.
Take what I have said with a grain of salt.
JayBird
Junior Member
I'm also no expert on military equipments as most guys in this forum are more knowledgeable than me. But JH-XX or H-18's estimated combat radius is around 3000KM-3500KM that means it can only reach around the second island chain, Japan, South China sea and Guam at the most. The distance between China and U.S mainland is 11,000 km plus!
I assume the role of JH-XX will be another option/tool for China's strategy of Anti-Access/Area Denial against intervention of U.S CVBGs and military bases within second island chain in case of war if Taiwan declare independent or Diaoyu islands dispute flare up with Japan? It could be used as stealth bomb truck against high value land targets or for anti-shipping against DDG and resupply ships. But let's end the conversation on war scenarios that will only lead to nationalistic chest thumping sooner or later.
Hypersonic UAV on other hand will probably have the capability of global strikes and long range reconnaissance. But it's a long way from reality like skywatcher and Bltizo mentioned. Besides, I don't think any world power will use it against each other even if they have it, but more like strategic weapons mainly for deterrence and leveraging with each other.
I'm sure anti Corruption program will help future projects in China and give the competent scientists more opportunities and better working environment to show case their talent. I'm just saying the current technological breakthrough news from China lately have nothing to do with the anti Corruption program as these projects started 8-10 plus years ago and you only hear about the fruitions of them now.
I would be very impressed with a combat radius of over 3000km... if it were to do any kind of supersonic flying at all. I'd be more than happy with a 2500km combat radius myself.
How so? It is a bomber primarily, after all, it won't have to conduct any high alpha maneuvers, I imagine there should be very little disruption of airflow to its air intake during level flight.
2500 km is a huge figure. f111 managed 1750 km radius on 16 tons of fuel (all internal) carrying 10 tons of bombs and flying high and at cruise speed all the way.
adding a third more fuel (external tanks) and carrying 4 tons of bombs should be able to stretch it to 2500 km. (two 1 ton bombs internal, two external) but again that's cruise speed all the way, and we're talking about a plane that while good for comparison as it has internal weapon bay, is still smaller than what is expected for jh-xx.
Something with larger weapon bays should suffer in performance a bit, and suffer more so due to low rcs requirements. So, talking about a cruise speed all the way mission - a 50-60 ton mtow plane might do 2500 km carrying 2 large-ish missiles internally. to do a few hundred long dash at, say, mach 1.6 - that is going to drop to under 2000 km.
Unless we're talking about something thats closer to h-6 in weight class, a 70+ ton mtow plane.
adding a third more fuel (external tanks) and carrying 4 tons of bombs should be able to stretch it to 2500 km. (two 1 ton bombs internal, two external) but again that's cruise speed all the way, and we're talking about a plane that while good for comparison as it has internal weapon bay, is still smaller than what is expected for jh-xx.
Something with larger weapon bays should suffer in performance a bit, and suffer more so due to low rcs requirements. So, talking about a cruise speed all the way mission - a 50-60 ton mtow plane might do 2500 km carrying 2 large-ish missiles internally. to do a few hundred long dash at, say, mach 1.6 - that is going to drop to under 2000 km.
Unless we're talking about something thats closer to h-6 in weight class, a 70+ ton mtow plane.
JayBird
Junior Member
My thought as well! It will also instantly be one of the most unique and cool flying aircraft in the world. That's why my avatar is JH-XX all this time because I'm dying to see this prototype flying in real life. I hope SAC at least build a technology demonstrator like the S-37. That will make me happy for a long long time. Just imagine all the potential......
Engineer
Major
Take offs, and especially landings are high-alpha maneuvers. They may not be as high as 9-G maneuvuers, but still high enough where dorsal intakes may be problematic. Also, JH-XX implies a fighter-bomber, so there still need to be some requirements for maneuverability.
I'd prefer to work backwards, based on what we know about the model, which depicts quite obvious top mounted intakes on the black model, and I think it's also possible to reconcile the rumoured JH-XX role of this aircraft with its top mounted intakes.
The black model was also depicted with side bays for AAMs, and I wouldnt' be surprised if its internal weapons bay could carry a large number of AAMs as well. So I think it is plausible for this thing to be a sort of "uber long endurance interceptor" which would fulfill the "J" part of its role, without having to be very maneuverable at all.
As for take off and landings, it's hard to say if the disruption in air flow would be significant enough to mean it actually cannot take off and land, and I'm not sure if there's enough for us to say they can't make it work.
I mean, I would agree with you that if we knew nothing about the plane and if we hadn't seen the black model, that bottom mounted intakes would be more conventional and expected... but the presence of the model with its rather obvious top mounted intakes, imo, means that we should probably be operating based on the assumption of top mounted intakes and seeking to consider if anything makes it implausible.
I think a 50-60 ton normal stealthy TOW aircraft would be quite viable of doing 2500km for high subsonic the whole time.
I see JH-XX as having 70-80 ton MTOW when it is fully externally loaded.... but such a loadout wouldn't be used against a high tier opponent when their air defences are intact anyway.