China’s little-known H-20 stealth bomber not a concern for US: Pentagon official
- Anonymous defence intelligence bureaucrat casts doubt on system design of first Chinese strategic weapon of its kind
- The existence of the H-20 development programme was revealed in 2016 but it has yet to be officially announced
The official, who spoke to the online Breaking Defence news portal on condition of anonymity, said the Xian H-20’s capabilities would not be able to keep up with its US counterparts.
“The thing with the H-20 is when you actually look at the system design, it’s probably nowhere near as good as US LO [low observable] platforms, particularly more advanced ones that we have coming down,” the official said in the article published on Monday.
“They’ve run into a lot of engineering design challenges, in terms of how do you actually make that system capability function in a similar way to, like, a B-2 or a B-21,” the official added.
Little is known about the development programme, first revealed in 2016, of China’s first strategic bomber, which has been referred to as Beijing’s answer to Northrup Grumman’s B-2 Spirit or its new B-21 Raider, as well as other US platforms.
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According to the Pentagon’s annual report to Congress in 2021, the H-20 is likely to have a range of at least 8,500km (5,280 miles), with a payload of at least 10 tonnes and the capability to employ conventional and nuclear weapons.