China’s H6K Bomber “Encircles” Taiwan With New Air Launched YJ-21 “Hypersonic” Missile

By Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization

(Washington DC)

China’s “hypersonic missile” – armed H6K bombers will now be conducting “routine” all-weather, around the clock “encirclement” patrols around the island of Taiwan as a warning to what the PRC-backed Global Times newspaper referred to as “secessionist provocations.”

The Chinese claims, as articulated in the People’s Republic of China’s government-backed “Global Times” newspaper, align with China’s broader and quite “transparent” effort to massively increase its pressure on Taiwan through patrols, exercises and close-in military training operations. The night-time “encirclement” patrols seem significant in a number of key respects, apart from merely applying added and somewhat expected intensified pressures upon Taiwan, as they appear to involve specific technological upgrades and weapons enhancements integrated into the H6K bomber.

“The H-6K bomber is capable of carrying a wide variety of munitions including the KD-20 land attack missile, the YJ-12 supersonic anti-ship missile and the YJ-21 hypersonic missile,” the Global Times reports.

The YJ-12 is certainly a known weapon as a supersonic cruise missile, as is the KD-20, yet their presence on the H6K may indicate the presence of new kinds of fire-control and weapons guidance technologies intended to improve the strike range and accuracy of the bomber’s stand-off threat to land targets in Taiwan. The most significant part of this June 19, 2023 report in the Global Times, however, is that it claims the H6K is now armed with a YJ-21 “hypersonic missile.”  The YJ-21 air-launched hypersonic missile can reportedly reach speeds of Mach 6. 

Being armed with or capable of carrying the missile does not necessarily mean the H6K night patrols over Taiwan are now carrying hypersonic missiles, yet the potential existence of an air-launched variant is extremely significant.  If true, it potentially places the People’s Liberation Army – Air Force and Navy ahead of the US services. The Air Force has recently “paused” its hypersonic Air Launched Rapid Response Weapon and the Navy does not plan to arm its destroyers with the Conventional Prompt Strike hypersonic weapon until 2025. 

Military Watch magazine and Naval News both cite the existence of the YJ-21, yet only terms of a surface-ship-launched application. Both reports cite a People’s Liberation Army – Navy video showing the test-firing of the YJ-21 “hypersonic missile” from its emerging, quasi-stealthy Type 055 Destroyers. However, neither report from 2022 mentions an “air-launched” YJ-12 hypersonic missile variant, so the H6K-launched variant cited in the Chinese paper may be something China has developed quite recently. While Naval News’ essay from 2022 is clear to point out that there is still much “unknown” about the YJ-21, the publication quotes a Naval News analyst H I Sutton as saying the JY-21 is appears to be based upon the CM-401 design.