War games signal growing China-Russia nuclear threat

FPI / December 5, 2024

Geostrategy-Direct

By Richard Fisher

An unprecedented two-day joint China-Russia bomber exercise and Russian suggestions they will deploy new nuclear capable missiles to Asia point to a growing China-Russia nuclear threat to that region.

On Nov. 29 and 30, China and Russia conducted their 9th and largest joint bomber exercise designed to coerce Japan, Taiwan and to threaten U.S. military bases in Hawaii, Alaska and the western Continental United States.

This exercise constituted a doubling of previous bomber exercises, with two days of flying featuring combined combat strike groups of PLA Air Force (PLAAF) and Russian bombers escorted by PLAAF and Russian fighters, airborne early warning and control system (AWACS) aircraft, YY-20 refueling aircraft, and Shaanxi Y8/Y-9 electronic warfare (EW) aircraft.

On Nov. 29, PLAAF and Russian air forces launched 4 bombers, two Xian H-6N and two Tu-95MS bombers, and 11 aircraft in total, with the objective to blockade the Sea of Japan side of Japan, with a Russian A-50 AWACS flying off of Hokkaido and a PLAAF AWACS flying off of Southern Kyushu, and this exercise also violated South Korea’s air defense zone.

The next day, Nov. 30, the same mix of H-6N and Tu-95MS bombers and ten other fighter and electronic support aircraft, poured though the Miyako Strait practicing blockade and attack operations aimed at Taiwan’s east coast.

While these bomber exercises have all featured the nuclear weapons capable Tu-95MS, there was a clear escalation in that for the first time, the 9th joint bomber exercise featured the PLAAF’s nuclear-capable and refuellable Xian Aircraft Corporation H-6N.

First revealed in 1999, the H-6N is the first PLAAF bomber that the U.S. Department of Defense acknowledges as “nuclear capable,” in that it can launch a nuclear warhead armed 3,000km range air launched ballistic missile (ALBM).

While the 8,000-kilometer range Russian Tu-95MS bombers can also threaten United States forces on Guam, Hawaii, and Alaska, the PLAAF’s inclusion of its new Xian YY-20 aerial refueling tanker means that the H-6N could also be repeatedly refueled to threaten U.S. military forces in Guam, Hawaii, Alaska and the U.S. West Coast.

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