Recently, a formation composed of the Tu95 strategic bomber of the Russian Aerospace Forces long-range strategic aviation company and the H-6K bomber of the Chinese People's Air Force conducted a joint cruise in the Sea of Japan and the East China Sea.
The entire cruise lasts about 8 hours. As part of this joint patrol, the Russian Aerospace Forces plane landed at a Chinese airport for the first time; and the Chinese Air Force formation also flew directly from China to Russia, completing the landing at the Russian airport.
This is also the first time that the H-6K and the Oil Transportation-20 flew abroad to perform combat readiness training missions, landed on the Russian airport, creating the "two firsts" of the Chinese Air Force.
After having the oil transport 20, the Chinese Air Force finally has the ability to "draw a circle" around Japan. In the past, we have developed the H-6 and introduced the Il-78. However, the former is the foundation of the bomber and the fuel it can carry is very limited, and it cannot even be used with heavy fighter jets like the Su-30; the latter is too small to meet the growing demand for air refueling in the People's Air Force.
After years of hard work, the People's Liberation Army has now begun to equip the latest oil transport-20 refueling aircraft, which has suddenly upgraded my country's air refueling platform to the world's advanced level, truly upgrading the "small legs" of the Air Force in the past to "long legs", and allowing the Chinese Air Force to truly step into the threshold of "strategic".
With the support of oil transport 20, the theoretical range of H-6K will be greatly extended. Even if its own internal oil is insufficient, it will actually have the potential to fly around the Japanese archipelago like Tu-95 in the future. You should know that in the 20s when the People's Air Force had not yet transported oil, this was the "patent" of the Russian Aerospace Forces Map 95 strategic bomber.
H6K after one or more aerial refueling, its combat radius can double. Not only Japan, but also Guam and even Hawaii, are within the cruise and strike range of the H6/Fuel Transport 20 pair.
In addition, in addition to China's "two firsts", for Russia, this is also the first time that the Russian Aerospace Forces' strategic bomber has landed at China's airport. Although the Chinese and Russian militaries have landed on each other's airports for support in the past joint exercises, it was the first time that they sent professional teams in advance, such as this time, and the other side's ground staff provided fueling and other support, took off and continued to carry out the mission.
China-Russia Asia-Pacific joint strategic air cruise has been going on for several years, and the cooperation and mutual trust between the two sides are constantly strengthening.
From the first few times, the two sides took off their own formations, and after a joint cruise over the East China Sea, they returned to their own flights; then the People's Air Force went to the Sea of Japan first, and Russia then joined, and the joint formation carried out long-distance orbiting joints on the waters around Japan; then the Chinese and Russian bombers crossed the other side's airspace and flew a very long range; and now, the two sides directly landed at each other's combat readiness airports, carrying out more joint missions such as refueling and supply.
Once China and Russia's joint mutual trust guarantee model is further formed, the two militaries will have more and more flexible response methods when dealing with regional emergencies. For example, now our warships often go to the Sea of Japan for various exercises and training. Once the Navy and Air Force is needed to cooperate, the Navy and Air Force aircraft have to circumvent the Korean Peninsula and the Tsushima Strait. Not only is it wasted time, the ships carrying out the mission will also be in a state of lack of aviation cover for a long time.
If this model of mutual trust guarantee can be normalized, then the aircraft of the PLA's Northern Theater Command Navy and Air Force can fly over Russian airspace after simple coordination and directly fly to the Japanese Sea to cooperate with our warships. The Russian army can also provide cover for ships moving south through our airspace, which is very valuable to both sides.
On the other hand, the US military has intensively hyped in the past two years to invest more strategic strike forces in the Asia-Pacific. On the one hand, it actively expands major air bases on the second island chain. Bombers from various bomber wings of the US Air Force take turns to train, and wander around the East China Sea and the South China Sea from time to time; on the other hand, it is considering deploying a new generation of B-21 strategic bombers to the surrounding areas of the Asia-Pacific region, and at the same time to achieve normal deployment, so we need more bombers and strategic cruises as a means to check and balance the regional situation.
For the Americans who use the strategic air force to the Asia-Pacific region to carry out so-called deterrence cruises, the best response is to use strategic deterrence to deal with strategic deterrence. If you use strategic bombers to fly around the first island chain and the South China Sea, I will also send bombers to Japan and South Korea to fly around the first or even the second island chain with you, and even major powers join forces to deterrently fly around the important targets on the island chain. Who can lack this kind of strategic deterrence?
For countries around the Asia-Pacific region, they must also recognize the situation and not be tied to the US chariot. After all, the United States is far away, and China and Russia are close to each other. Once chaos comes, the United States, which has always been treacherous, may not sell its own lives for these insignificant chess pieces, and the only ones who are injured in the end are these countries themselves.
