Posted on 11/11/2013 5:19:29 PM PST by raptor22
Military Superiority: As China does its own Pacific pivot, a new report reveals that Beijing's strategic bomber is equipped with a land-attack nuclear missile and an armed drone nearly identical to one of ours developed through cyberespionage.
To the casual observer, the Chinese Hongzha-6 (H-6) bomber is not that impressive. The two-engine medium-range jet is a variant of the old Soviet Tu-16 Badger. That plane first flew in 1959 and versions have been deployed by the Chinese Air Force since 1968.
A prototype H-6 was used to airdrop China's first three-stage thermonuclear device at the Lop Nor Nuclear Weapon Test Base in Malan, Xinjiang, on June 17, 1967.
To military observers, however, its latest incarnation, the Chinese H-6K, is a significant advance in China's military capability and is continuing evidence of China's determination to dominate the Western Pacific and challenge U.S. dominance in the region.
As noted in the Oct. 8 draft of the forthcoming report of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission to Congress, the People's Liberation Army in June accepted the first of 15 new H-6K bombers, each with an important new difference:
They'll be able to carry four nuclear-capable Changjian-10 (long sword) cruise missiles on four underwing pylons plus two more in its weapons bay. This effectively extends the bomber's combat range to Okinawa, Guam and even Hawaii from China's mainland.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.investors.com ...
They are never known. Commercial flights are not painted, they report their IFF, and on oceanic flights there is no one providing positive control. Essentially, you check in when you get there and flight times/routes are sequenced. But that sequence changes minutely as flights are delayed or have to alter course for weather.
You would have to have someone positively identfying every outbound track of everyone of the thousands of commercial airliners leaving daily. Then you would have to also have to delouse every single one of them to ensure that a Badger bomber didn’t slip up into trail on them.
Reality is not even close.
Space debris is not below the radar horizon and maintains an extremely predictable orbit.
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