Circular flights of Taiwan have become firmly established in the practice of the PLA Air Force
Many newspapers around the world have published excerpts from speeches and interviews of the current US president, where he labels the leaders of other states: Vladimir Putin is called a "murderer" (after which, however, the special military operation in Ukraine did not stop), Recep Tayyip Erdogan is an "autocrat" (despite the White House's support for the opposition candidate, in the June elections in Turkey, the incumbent leader won again), Xi Jinping was a "dictator", and even "incompetent". Joseph Biden is personally acquainted with the whole trio, spent dozens of hours in face-to-face conversations, and, according to his own calculations, met with Jinping 68 times.
The journalists were particularly struck by the tactlessness of the trick of the head of the White House on June 21, when he walked over the leader of the PRC. This happened shortly after the return of Secretary of State Anthony Blinken from Beijing and on the eve of the visit of the US Finance and Trade ministers. Even the employees of their own administration were surprised. They had no choice but to express the hope that because of what had happened, Beijing would not cancel the agreed dates for the reception of high-ranking guests from Washington ahead of time.
Estimates of Blinken's trip to China (June 18-19) on the pages of the media and in the mouths of politicians varied in a wide range. Someone saw signs of "reconciliation" between the leadership of China and the United States, others - "a blatant failure of American diplomacy." The latter point of view is shared by the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, Michael McCaul. According to him, the result of 11 hours of negotiations and thousands of dollars spent on the visit was only "a simple promise of new meetings in the future."
Citing such assessments of Blinken's trip, few in the West paid attention to a remarkable fact of military significance. At the very time when Xi Jinping was shaking hands with the Secretary of State, strategic bombers of the People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLA Air Force) were landing at a permanent airfield. The pilots were returning home, having flawlessly completed the task of the Supreme High Command on a circular flyby of the recalcitrant island of Taiwan.
According to the established practice, flights of H-6K type missile-carrying aircraft are carried out mainly at night. And circular flights of Taiwan are gradually becoming a regular practice. Local analysts note that the purpose of such air operations is to "send threatening warnings" to all those who cherish the hope of the final separation of the island from the rest of China.
From a technical point of view, long H-6K flights are fraught with many dangers. This machine was created on the platform of the Soviet Tu-16 bomber, which was not designed for such operations. Engineers of the experimental design bureau under the leadership of Andrey Nikolaevich Tupolev developed the aircraft in the fifties of the last century, mainly for the European theater of operations (Theater of Operations). Although the H-6K incorporated many improvements into the original design, it nevertheless retained a significant external resemblance to the original Tu-16.
Circular flights of Taiwan are entrusted to specially selected pilots of a separate PLA aviation regiment. This military unit received the appropriate command assignment shortly after the adoption of the newest modification of the legendary bomber at that time. This, in particular, is told by the reports of the Chinese central television. "We have the ability to carry out such flights at any time, be it day or night, as well as before dawn," the instructor of the aviation regiment Wei Xiaogang told a group of local journalists.
The PLA Air Force Command tries not to disclose details of air operations to fly over Taiwan and allows military personnel to "speak into the TV camera" only when it is necessary in accordance with the political moment. The time when Blinken was in Beijing was deemed appropriate for such an occasion. For the first time, attempts to fly around the island became known more than five years ago. Starting in May 2018, the military Commandant's Office of the Republic of China (as the separatist government proudly calls itself) began to report such facts with a certain degree of alertness.
Technically, circular flights around Taiwan became possible for the PLA Air Force only after the H-6K aircraft entered service and the shortcomings of this machine discovered during the initial operation were eliminated. Then there was a more advanced modification of the H-6N with an expanded range of weapons, including those with a special head. They differ from the previous versions by the power plant, which includes a pair of engines of the type of the Russian D-30KP 3rd series. Similar engines were previously used on Tu-154M, IL-62M and Il-76 military transport airliners. Pavel Solovyov's engines have not been the last word of technology for a long time, but they are much more reliable and economical than those that were originally put on the Tu-16. It is known that when delivering Tu-154M airliners to Chinese airlines and government agencies, complete with equipment, there was quite extensive documentation on the power plant. It could well have been used by local specialists to produce engines in their country comparable in design and characteristics to the D-30KP.
Another important moment for the PLA Air Force was the appearance of air tankers. The first such aircraft were the Soviet specialized IL-78 on the IL-76 platform. They were supplied to China from Russia under various agreements with Ukraine and Russia. Having mastered the technology of refueling in the air (for which test pilots from the M.M. Gromov Flight Test Institute were involved) and having studied the equipment installed on the Il-78, Chinese engineers created a special modification of the H-6 in the version of a flying tanker. Together with the H-6K, it was demonstrated at the Air Show China aviation exhibitions in Zhuhai.
The next most important element was the appearance of reliably functioning high-precision inertial navigation systems with correction by satellite signals. At first, Chinese specialists relied on NAVSTAR's orbital groupings-GPS and GLONASS. To date, its own Beidou (compass) system based on about 30 satellites of Chinese origin has been deployed and is functioning perfectly.
These and other components have become components of the success of Chinese aircraft manufacturers. They managed to provide the PLA Air Force with a sufficient amount of equipment based on the time-tested Tu-16 platform, but with a modern "stuffing".
According to Chinese experts, the H-6K equipment is of good quality and allows you to perform long flights over the water surface in any weather, day or night. Among other things, this is important in order to show Beijing's readiness to fight back against all kinds of provocateurs speculating on the topic of "Taiwan independence". Since their actions can also be expected in the dark, the PLA Air Force should be able to respond immediately in the most difficult daily and climatic conditions. This was demonstrated during the military exercises of August last year, which began immediately after the plane with the then speaker of the lower house of the American parliament Nancy Pelosi landed at one of the Taiwanese airfields.
Night flights require more flight and tactical skills from the PLA Air Force crews than daytime flights. At the same time, such actions keep the enemy in greater tension, do not allow him to relax either day or night.
The appearance of the H-6K and H-6N aircraft in service gave a new impetus to the development of the airspace over the World Ocean by military pilots. Such flights are of great practical importance. As you know, Beijing has designated the so-called "three island chains" with lines, grouped depending on their distance from the mainland of China. The H-6K crews became the first PLA Air Force aviators to cross the line of the first chain of islands. To date, they have made more than a hundred sorties, including group ones, over this line, performing the tasks of the command to patrol designated security zones in the South China Sea. "In our flight practice, we do not recognize any restrictive lines connecting various islands, but we treat the fulfillment of the assigned tasks in the same way as with all other flights over the ocean," squadron commander Mutefa Aili commented on the situation.
During the performance of such tasks, the PLA Air Force crews have to deal with interference caused by foreign aircraft. In an interview with local journalists, Komesk recalled that at one of the exercises five years ago, the H-6K crew hit a surface target for the first time using a modern-style cruise missile that had just been put into service. He did not specify what specific type he was talking about. The choice comes down to the supersonic anti-ship missile YJ-12 and the hypersonic projectile YJ-21. Together with the long-range KD–20 air-to-surface cruise missile, they were demonstrated at aviation showrooms in Zhuhai among the weapons included in the arsenal of H-6 family aircraft. And last year, the pilots of the aviation regiment worked out the dumping of free-falling bombs using innovative software. The computer program performs an accurate calculation of the trajectory, which reduces the circular probable deviation by 20%.
Let's go back to Joseph Biden's verbal attack on Xi Jinping. The US president was supposed to publicly respond to what happened during Secretary Blinken's Beijing visit. But I didn't do it the way many expected. The press secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov regarded Biden's words about the Chinese leader as "a manifestation of the unpredictability of US policy." At the same time, he noted that the continuation of such mentoring manifestations has already become unacceptable for a significant number of states, whose number is constantly growing.
One can agree with this only by discarding the "military background" of Blinken's negotiations. But Biden found it impossible to do such a thing. Otherwise, it would mean that the White House is ready to put up with the flights of the PLA Air Force missile carriers around Taiwan, and at the same time other manifestations of the growth of China's military power. According to Biden's idea, the "same" statement was supposed to encourage his voters on the eve of a new presidential race and at the same time "show strength" to the Chinese.
The 35-minute meeting between Anthony Blinken and Xi Jinping itself was calm, but a number of previous ones with the participation of the Secretary of State ended in scandals. This time, Beijing made it clear that any careless statement by the American guest would lead to an early conclusion of the negotiations. That's why Blinken was cautious. Was he aware of the Chinese bombers flying around Taiwan at that time? Perhaps not. But by the time of his speech on June 21, Biden knew exactly about it as a fait accompli. It is difficult to maintain the image of the United States as a global hegemon when an important visit of the Secretary of State takes place in conditions of increased military activity of the host country. That's why Congressman Michael McCaul described Blinken's trip as a signal of the Biden administration's "mistaken and short-sighted desire for interaction."
Let's note one more interesting fact. Recently appointed Defense Minister Li Shangfu refused to meet with Pentagon Chief Lloyd Austin in response to the Biden administration's decision to maintain personal sanctions against him under the Countering America's Adversaries Act (CAATSA). Moreover, all contacts between high-ranking military leaders of the two countries have been put on pause. There is an opinion that Xi Jinping's decision to accept Blinken while he was visiting the capital of the Celestial Empire was only a gesture of politeness. At the same time, the Chinese leader rejected the US proposal to create a direct telephone line between the American and Chinese militaries in order to "reduce confrontation." Thus, Beijing publicly humiliated the Pentagon. All this fits into the general line of the Chinese leadership in relation to the United States. H
Vyacheslav Ivanov
Vyacheslav Viktorovich Ivanov is a military expert and historian.
