Military

Article | Xiaoyin

Recently, strategic bombers from China, Russia and the United States have made new moves.

Although it seems that the US military is about to have a new generation of large stealth bombers, and China and Russia have not yet produced similar products, this does not mean that China and Russia have nothing to do in the field of strategic bombers.

For China, indeed, we are also looking forward to the launch of our own real strategic stealth bombers and becoming a series.

01

Let’s first take a look at the US military’s new generation strategic stealth bomber—the B-21. For the United States, this is the first time in more than 30 years that a new large bomber has been launched. The last time this happened was back in 1988 when the B-2 "Phantom" was launched.

"B-21" strategic bomber unveiled

On December 2, local time, the U.S. Air Force publicly displayed the B-21 "Raider" stealth large bomber for the first time. The unveiling ceremony took place at Northrop Grumman's Palmdale, Calif., facility.

From the name of the B-21 "Raider", it can be seen that the main combat method of this aircraft is to break through the opponent's air defense system and carry out precision bombing, used to attack time-sensitive targets . In other words, the mission is to take the enemy by surprise and attack them unprepared.

B-21 factory photos previously taken and released after the press conference

Xiaoyin would like to say that for the United States, from the time the B-52 was developed in the middle of the last century, to For example, the development of the B-2 in the 1980s not only gave the large bomber field a variety of models and series, but also gave it more combat methods.

Now that the B-21 has come out, it is said that the US military will purchase more than 100 aircraft to replace the B-1B and B-2 bombers.

But Xiaoyin has to say that the US military has not completely given up on old models such as the B-1. In June 2021, there were media reports that a U.S. military "Watchman" B-1B bomber was transported overland from Tinker Air Force Base, Ohio, to the National Institute of Aeronautics at Wichita State University, where it was dismantled into Individual parts are cleaned and each part is 3D scanned and reverse engineered to create high quality CAD models. What is this for? Isn't it to retain the B-1B's manufacturing capabilities or even improve the B-1B's manufacturing capabilities?

B-1B Bomber

Some commentators believe that the development of hypersonic weapons has broadened the direction of future bomber development, and this is the direction that the B-21 cannot take into consideration. Whether it can adapt to this trend is the key to determining the strength of the new strategic bomber. So, will the US military develop a new generation of unmanned hypersonic aircraft? I believe this is also an inevitable development direction.

02

Just before the US military announced the launch of the B-21 bomber, on November 30, the bombing aviation unit of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Air Force and the long-range aviation unit of the Russian Aerospace Forces implemented this year's The second joint strategic air patrol mission.

Sino-Russian joint cruise pictures: screenshots of CCTV military reports

The biggest highlight of this cruise is that the large bombers of the Chinese and Russian armies landed at each other's airports. For example, the Russian Army's Tu-95MS landed at an airport in Zhejiang; and the Chinese People's Liberation Army's H-6K landed at an airport in the Russian Far East.

In Xiaoyin’s view, this shows that the current strategic mutual trust between the Chinese and Russian militaries has further improved. At the same time, what should I say about the joint patrols of the two countries’ air forces in the Sea of ??Japan, East China Sea, and Western Pacific? Although the relevant departments of China and Russia have said that this is "not targeting a third country," on the other hand, how exciting is this joint cruise?

Of course the surrounding people reacted. For example, South Korea claimed that during the joint patrol between China and Russia, the South Korean Air Force dispatched multiple F-15K fighters. Japan not only dispatched Self-Defense Force aircraft to "greet" the Chinese and Russian bombers, its Defense Ministry Chief of Staff Koji Yamazaki also threatened at the press conference to express Japan's concerns through diplomatic channels.

Picture-95MS landing

Hey, what should I say? If you don't do anything wrong, how can you worry?

What are South Korea worried about? In fact, its main concern is Russia. Under the Russia-Ukraine conflict, South Korea suddenly became the world's major arms trade country, accelerating the production of various artillery shells and exporting them to the United States.

It seems that South Korea does not particularly support Ukraine on the Ukrainian issue, but many of the artillery shells it produces are ordered by the US military and then transferred to the Ukrainian battlefield. South Korea also exports tanks to Poland and other countries to replace Poland's old Soviet-made tanks. And all those Soviet-made tanks were sent to the Ukrainian front line.

Can Russia not be angry with South Korea? Regardless of whether Russia is angry or not, South Korea feels guilty!

Japan’s concerns are more intense, or in other words, it is more afraid. There are two reasons - first, in history, Japan has committed heinous crimes, but has not been completely liquidated; second, at present, Japan is following the United States in its so-called containment of China, Russia and other countries, and is also preparing to purchase a considerable amount of of long-range cruise missiles. At this time, he was naturally wary of the joint patrol between China and Russia.

In fact, what Japan should really worry about is themselves. If we uphold the peaceful constitution, we will naturally not die unless we do something. On this point, it is best for Japan to understand clearly!

03

Compared with the American B-21, it seems that both Chinese and Russian large bombers are old. Regardless of Russia's strategic bombers, as far as China is concerned, the H-6K was born out of the Tu-16 bomber in the Soviet era. When the Chinese People's Liberation Army H-6K was about to land at the Russian airport, a joke came online - "The commander of the 182nd Regiment of the Russian Aerospace Forces saw the Chinese Air Force bomber landing. His first reaction was probably to curse into the radio:' I told you to welcome comrades from friendly countries, but I didn’t ask you to take the plane out of the museum!'"

However, Xiaoyin said that the joke was just a joke. What is the status of the Tu-16? This is Russia’s own business. For China, the H-6K has already been reborn. From the Tu-16 to the H-6, and then to the H-6K, they are of course the same type of aircraft. But now, apart from the slightly similar appearance, the combat capabilities of the H-6K, especially the electronic warfare capabilities, are different from those of the Tu-16. -16 or its imitation H-6, they are no longer the same.

H-6K

I believe that with China’s military industry today, better, more advanced and larger bombers will be available in the future to make up for the shortcomings of strategic bombers. The Chinese People's Liberation Army's bomber configuration can also be similar to that of the United States and Russia, with a variety of aircraft models available. Moreover, bombers made in China will definitely catch up with the world's advanced level and maintain world peace!

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