The big country heavy weapon H-20, will it debut this year?

At the beginning of the new year in 2021, blast-20 , which has been worried by countless military enthusiasts, suddenly has a new trend. In the Air Force’s new promotional film, an aircraft is parked in the hangar and is tightly covered by a curtain. The outline of the flying wing layout is the same as the height of the "mysterious aircraft" in the 2018 AVIC promotional film. Similar, and in a subsequent shot, the front windshield of the pilot's helmet shows a clear reflection of the aircraft. Isn't this the legendary H-20?

In the Chinese Air Force "20 series" aircraft family, although the H-20 has not yet officially debuted, it has firmly occupied the "C position". Any clues about it can make military enthusiasts talk about it for a long time. Behind everyone's eagerness to complete the last piece of the "20 era" puzzle with the H-20 is the ardent expectation for the Chinese Air Force's long-range strike capability and even the construction of the "Trinity" nuclear power system. As the good news about the H-20 appears more and more intensively, it seems that the hard expectations of military fans will soon come true. The H-20 is very likely to officially appear in the public eye in 2021.

H-20 chooses flying wing layout, not technically "radical"

At the beginning of H-20's publicity, the discussion about its appearance and layout has been very intense. Some people think it is a supersonic bomber similar to Tu-160. Some people think it is a four-shot heavy-duty version of H-6 , but more people think it will be a stealth bomber with flying wing layout similar to B-2 . Facts have proved the last guess. There are many reasons why the B-2 scheme was chosen.

The first thing to note is that choosing this option is not technically radical. Thirty years ago, when the B-2 was first publicized, the sci-fi shape of its flying-wing layout was indeed a trend-setting “black technology”, and its technical difficulty was also very difficult. However, after so many years of technological development, especially for electronics The gradual maturity of the transmission control system in the aviation industry around the world has effectively solved the biggest obstacle-the control problem of the flying wing layout.Therefore, we see that the next generation of stealth unmanned fighter in many countries have chosen this configuration. As far as China is concerned, as early as November 2013, China had developed a flying-wing-type stealth unmanned attack aircraft with the "Sharp Sword". In the National Day military parade in 2019, the domestically-made flying-wing layout was also adopted. The "Attack"-11 was born, marking that China's aviation industry has achieved fruitful results in its technical exploration of flying wing layouts. This also paved the way for the development of a larger H-20 bomber.

When it comes to flying wings, many people’s focus is on excellent stealth capabilities. Of course there is no problem, but we also cannot ignore it. For large aircraft such as bombers/transporters, flying wings The advantage of the style layout is only stealth, which can also bring better flight performance. Among the aircraft of the same quality, the flying-wing-type aircraft can obtain a greater range, carry more equipment and combat equipment, perform more diversified and complex combat missions, and can stay in the air for longer. This also means that the H-20 with a flying wing layout can carry more internal fuel and weapons than using a large aspect ratio, small swept wing and variable swept wing layout under the same takeoff weight. , Get a longer voyage. The range and ammunition carried are the two most important indicators of a bomber.

Foreign media generally speculate that the stealth layout design of the flying wings of the Chinese Bomber 20 bomber is similar to that of Northrop Grumman’s B-2 "Ghost" bomber in terms of body size and aircraft. The shape of the bow is more similar to the American B-21 "Raider" bomber. As the "forerunner" of the flying wing layout, the B-2's appearance design is very successful. It is inevitable for other aircraft to learn from its outstanding features, just like the fifth-generation fighters will more or less have the shadow of the F-22. For example, the backpack-style big S-curved intake can be seen on the H-20 under the curtain. Of course, the general layout is similar, but the specific details of the H-20 must have its own unique features. Depending on the sweep angle, the H-20 may also adopt a supersonic scheme with a medium sweep angle and a smaller aspect ratio.A layout similar to the eleven large-scale long-endurance drones shown in the National Day parade will enhance the aircraft's high-speed performance.

WS-10A engine can be used

As for the H-20 engine, it is not the rumored turbofan -18 or turbofan-20. This kind of turbofan engine with a large bypass ratio, although it has a very Good fuel economy, but the H-20b fuselage with flying wing layout does not have such a large space to accommodate a turbofan with a large bypass ratio. If installed forcibly, it will only destroy the shape of the wing body fusion, and even make the aircraft If the body does not meet the transonic area rate, the gain is more than the loss. The most suitable engine type for the H-20 is the WS-10 with a small bypass ratio (without the afterburner). The WS-10 Taihang engine has been stable and mature around 2013. Its early WS10A with a small bypass ratio has a maximum afterburner thrust of 132Kn and a thrust-to-weight ratio of 7.5. It is widely used in domestic fighters; while the Taihang mid- and late-stage small bypass ratio improved version is the largest Afterburner 140-145Kn, thrust ratio 8 or more, in recent years has been widely used in J-10C, J-20, etc.; while the medium bypass ratio Taihang improved version is dedicated to bombers, thrust ratio 8 level, the maximum afterburner obviously exceeds 150Kn, about to mature. The performance of the WS-10A is similar to the F101 series engine of the American B-1B strategic bomber . The four-engine design can meet the maximum take-off weight of 200 tons (more than B2 level), the maximum range is more than 12,000 kilometers, and the magazine has a bomb load of 30- A 40-ton strategic bomber is used. If a medium bypass is adopted compared to the Taihang improved type, the aircraft performance will be significantly improved.

Compared with H-6, the ability of H-20 will increase exponentially.

The size of H-20 is another controversial issue. The current consensus is that its data will be close to B- At the level of 2, the maximum range is about 12,000 kilometers, the bomb load reaches 20 tons, and its maximum take-off weight will reach 150 tons. There are also opinions that the maximum take-off weight of the H-20 can reach 200 tons, and the bomb load can reach 30-40 tons.

Even according to conservative data,Compared to the H-6, the H-20's capabilities will be doubled. After the current H-6N adopts aerial refueling technology, it can go through one or two refueling in the air, greatly extending its combat radius from the current 3000 kilometers to more than 5000 kilometers, plus the mounted US experts believe that it can strike Hawaii and even parts of the west coast of the United States. But this is only the best data in theory. In fact, the H-6N, as an improved version of the old bomber Tu-16, has its own radar reflection cross-sectional area that is dozens of times that of fighters. Due to the strategic requirements of the first and second island chains, There are complete and rigorous air defense and anti-missile early warning networks on the ground. Therefore, the H-6NK is very dangerous when it penetrates and selects airspace for air refueling. Without the protection of fighter jets, it is difficult for the H-6N to fly 3000 Up to 5000 kilometers without being intercepted or attacked by enemy fighters. This allows it to carry nuclear warheads, but due to the very limited penetration capability of the platform, the substantial nuclear deterrence capability is very limited.

H-20 is different. It uses flying-wing stealth layout and advanced stealth coating materials. Compared with H-6, it has a qualitative breakthrough in stealth capability. At the same time, it can reach 5000 kilometers without refueling. Radius, possesses the "stealth penetration" ability to unknowingly break through the enemy's air defense early warning network. In this way, the H-20 carrying nuclear missiles will have a more realistic and substantial nuclear deterrent.

In order to produce great strategic deterrence and actual combat effects, the H-20 can carry a variety of weapons: carrying nuclear weapons can produce a deterrent effect; carrying "Sword-10" and other air-launched cruise missiles can perform off-zone attacks; carry The "Fei Teng" series of precision guided bombs can perform precision strikes. The miniaturization of aviation weapons allows the H-20 to carry a larger number of bombs and attack more targets in a single attack; the intelligentization of aviation weapons makes the H-20's attack more accurate, using precision strikes to replace large-area bombing.

technology is improved and cost is reduced

is the first generation of the stealth aircraft ,The radar absorbing coating technology of B-2 is relatively primitive. In addition to the inconvenience caused by maintenance, the biggest problem with B-2 is that it is expensive and cannot be equipped in large quantities. According to the Selective Acquisition Report issued by the US Department of Defense on June 30, 2008, the ex-factory unit price of the B-2 aircraft is US$1.3 billion. With the advancement of radar absorbing material technology, the cost of large stealth aircraft has been effectively controlled. The unit price of the next-generation B-21 bomber in the United States does not exceed 550 million U.S. dollars, which has a greater advantage in economic affordability. The Air Force will purchase 80 aircraft in the future.

After the development of two stealth fighters, the J-20 and FC-31, China’s aviation industry department also has sufficient technical reserves in radar absorbing materials, and the cost of using large models must be determined. Once it has fallen to an acceptable range, the future H-20's stealth capability will not be weaker than that of the B-2, while its production and life cycle costs will inevitably drop significantly, at least reaching the level of B-21. However, even this will not be very cheap. Therefore, the number of purchases of the H-20 in the future may be quite limited. In the future, it will play the role of stealth penetration/global strike. The conventional bombing missions may still have to rely heavily on the H-6. , Or the newly developed conventional layout strategic bomber in the future will cooperate with the H-20 to achieve a strategic mission together.

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