China’s New H-20 Strategic Stealth Bomber Can Be Summed Up in 3 Words – “A Real Threat”.

December 2025: China’s coming H-20 stealth bomber would give Beijing its first true strategic air leg, completing a nuclear triad and pushing Chinese strike reach far beyond the First Island Chain. Modelled on flying-wing designs like the B-2 and B-21, the bomber is expected to combine long range, large internal payloads, and low observability to hit U.S. bases, carrier groups, and logistics hubs across the Indo-Pacific.

For the United States, that means rethinking basing, dispersal, air defences, and bomber deterrence. The H-20 is less about matching one airplane and more about China signalling it wants peer status with the United States.

Today, only two countries on Earth operate a strategic bomber: US and Russia. But China, currently developing the H-20, is likely to be the third. The H-20 would be China’s first true strategic stealth bomber, a product of the Xi’an Aircraft Industrial Corporation.

Intended to give the PLA Air Force a long-range, penetrating strike capability (comparable to the B-2 Spirit, or forthcoming B-21 Raider), the H-20 symbolizes China’s transition from a regional power to a true global player. Much remains classified about the H-20 program, with most information coming from satellite images, model reveals, controlled leaks, but what’s clear is that the design will give China a complete nuclear triad.

The H 20 bomber aircraft is believed to be a flying-wing, low-observable design, which is very similar in appearance and concept to the B-2 and B-21. The expected mission will include long-range nuclear and conventional strike, including deep-penetration missions against US bases and naval assets. The emphasis will be on stealth, range, and large internal payload, not speed.

The technical specifications are confidential, but open-source assessments suggest the following: potentially intercontinental range, in excess of 10,000 kilometres; a combat radius of 5,000 kilometres; subsonic speed; 20 metres length; 45 metres wingspan; possibly four engines, likely indigenous; an internal payload, with estimates ranging from 20 to 45 tons.

The H-20 is expected to carry nuclear gravity bombs, air-launched cruise missiles, hypersonic weapons, and anti-ship strike payloads. The crux of the design will be low observability, namely a blended flying-wing structure, buried engine intakes, serrated engine nozzles or cooled exhaust channels, radar-absorbent material coatings, and internal weapons bays only.

China currently relies on the H-6K/N bomber, which is an upgraded version of a 1950s design. The non-stealth H-6 variants have long range but no penetration capability against modern air defences, meaning their application is limited against a near-peer like the US. The H-20 potentially solves this limitation, however, giving China a survivable first-strike or second-strike nuclear option; deep-strike capability against US regional bases; and the ability to threaten US assets farther than the First and Second Island Chains.

The H-20 will be used for a variety of missions. Penetrating strike, for example, where the aircraft will enter heavily defended airspace (Guam, Okinawa, Korea, Australia) to strike hardened targets. Standoff missile attacks, where the aircraft will be used to launch cruise missiles and hypersonic weapons from outside defended zones.

Maritime strike, in support of anti-carrier operations, delivering long-range anti-ship cruise missiles.

Logistics disruption, targeting fuel depots, runways, ports, and command centres.

And of course, nuclear deterrence, the H-20’s survivable airborne component, ensures China’s second-strike credibility.

For the US, the strategic implications of the H-20’s arrival could be profound. The H-20 expands China’s strategic reach, allowing it to project power across the Indo-Pacific, perhaps as far as Hawaii, and refuel from the US West Coast. The US basing strategy will be complicated, as US forces at Guam, Darwin, Japan, and the Philippines will have to account for stealth-bomber threats.

Carrier groups will be challenged as stealth bombers equipped with long-range anti-ship missiles introduce a new vector of vulnerability for carrier strike groups. Nuclear stability will be affected, too, as an air leg of China’s triad improves survivability and flexibility, offering symmetry with US and Russian doctrines.

China’s A2/AD network will be enhanced, with the H-20 adding a new attack layer. And with tanker support, the H-20 could give China a truly global presence, enabling missions in the Indian Ocean, the Middle East, or Africa.

From an industrial perspective, the bomber represents something of a coming-out party. The project demonstrates China’s capacity to design large-scale stealth airframes and shows maturation in Chinese aerospace modelling, composite manufacturing, and radar-absorbent materials.

The H-20 serves to boost China’s prestige, signalling parity ambitions with the US, although it has not yet been revealed publicly, that will likely come within the next few years. But full force integration could take years, as stealth bombers are technologically complex.

Team Maverick.