Summary Satellite images show Chinese H-20 likely a stealth drone, not strategic bomber. The facility in the images is not Chengdu; object resembles stealth drones vs bombers. Chinese aircraft's visibility indicates intention to mimic US designs, not top secret.
While the US Air Force's new B-21 Raider strategic stealth bomber is now in low-rate production , the Chinese are known to be developing their own flying-wing strategic bomber called the Xi'an H-20. China has been teasing that it will be unveiled "soon," and speculation is mounting. However, it seems the public will need to wait sometime more as new satellite images doing the rounds online claiming to show that the H-20 is likely a stealth drone and not the H-20 bomber.
Not the right facility The War Zone has reviewed and dismissed the satellite images purporting to show the new Chinese H-20 bomber. At the same time, The War Zone acknowledges that China is likely in the late stages of developing the new strategic bomber. It is thought that China's new H-20 bomber could be more comparable to the older US B-2 Spirit stealth bomber than the new B-21 Raider.
Online rumors claim the satellite images (claimed to be of Chengdu) show China clandestinely rolling out the bomber in June. Chengdu is where China's Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group (which builds the Chinese J-10 and J-20 jets) is based. However, the satellite image is not of Chengdu but of a fairly new radar cross-section measurement facility near a town called Gaobeidian just southwest of Beijing.
China is known to be developing stealth bombers and 5th—and 6th-generation fighters, but their development is secret, so little is known about them. Not the right size Instead of matching the profile of a new strategic stealth bomber, the flying wing found in the satellite image better matches stealth drones - such as Northrop Grumman's X-47B demonstrators (a 'cranked kite' design). While the X-47B has a wingspan of 62 feet, the object in the image has an overall wingspan of around 50 feet.
A wingspan of 50 feet is much too small to be a stealth strategic bomber—such an aircraft would likely have a wingspan at least three times that. That said, it could be a sub-scale mock-up to test the design's radar cross-section. But even that seems likely as the facility near Beijing seems to be more tailored to unmanned aircraft (aka drones) than manned aircraft like strategic bombers.
The War Zone summarizes that it could copy or mimic US designs. Finally, The War Zone points out that the fact that the aircraft is sitting outside and readily visible to satellites, suggests the Chinese wanted the US to see it and that the object isn't top secret. The object first appeared there between the 9th and 12th of July.
The US has a number of secret and semi-secret flying wing stealthy long-range recon drones like the RQ-180 and the RQ-170 Wraith (which has never officially been seen in public)..
