China Said Its New H-20 Stealth Bomber has “5th-Gen” Capabilities

By Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization

(Washington D.C.) China’s emerging “B-2 copycat” H-20 stealth bomber is expected to introduce an entirely new sphere of threat dynamics to the U.S., as it further cements China’s nuclear triad and massively extends its nuclear attack range to include major portions of the continental U.S.

While there is much still to be known about the H-20, there are many reasons why U.S. weapons developers are likely to take it very seriously. For instance, if the H-20 can extend its range beyond the first Island Chain off the coast of China, then it could not only hold the Philippines, Japan and areas of the South China Sea at risk, but also threaten Guam, a US territory.  Certainly if extended with a refueler, the H-20 might be in position to threaten Hawaii or even parts of the continental US. 

The Pentagon’s “China Military Power Report.” report as far back as 2018 and 2019 said China’s new H-20 long-range stealth bomber would potentially introduce paradigm-changing threats as it is expected to operate with an 8,500km range. This would hold key, previously unreachable areas of the US at risk in new ways.

A reported range of 8,500km appears slightly less than a B-2 bomber’s range of more than 6,700 miles, however Pentagon reports have raised concerns that the Chinese “may also be developing a refuelable bomber that could “reach initial operating capability before the long-range bomber.”

Perhaps of even greater concern, the Pentagon assessment states, is that such a refueler could “expand long-range offensive bomber capability beyond the second island chain.” A refueler could also substantially change the equation and enable it to rival the mission scope of a B-2 which, as many know, successfully completed 44-hr missions from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri to Diego Garcia, a small Island off the Indian coast during Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.

Added to this threat equation, a report from the London-based Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies report writes that the state-of-the-art H-20 can carry a massive weapons payload of 45 tonnes and fly great distances without mid-air refueling.”

While the exact composition of its stealth properties or radar-signature reducing technologies may not be fully known, available photos and renderings reveal an aircraft which one could say seems in some respects to be indistinguishable from a U.S. B-2. There is nothing surprising about this, given China’s well known and well-documented habit of attempting to steal or copy U.S. weapons designs, it seems particularly apparent in the case of the H-20. It features a similar rounded upper fuselage, blended wing body, curved upper air inlets and essentially no vertical structures. There appears to be a fair amount of evidence, simply available to the naked eye, to demonstrate China’s potential “copycat” maneuver.