China’s CCTV aired a film on Nov. 11 to commemorate the 72nd anniversary of the Chinese Air Force, in which footage showed an H-6K bomber flying over the mountains, indicating it had been sent to the Himalayas.
The H-6K bombers of China were armed with short-range KD-63 missiles, not CJ-20 long-range cruise missiles.
A Beijing military source said the H-6K is normally deployed to Shaanxi province, but since last year has been temporarily deployed to Kashgar in Xinjiang, the South China Morning Post reported Nov. 16. The bomber is under the Western Theater Command of China, which governs the Xinjiang and Tibet military regions and is responsible for security along the China-Indian border.
The source said that because the H-6K is part of the Western Theater, it is easy for the PLA to fly it to the India-China border. The H-6K has an operational range of more than 3,500 kilometers and can carry short-range missiles such as the KD-63, in addition to the long-range CJ-20 missiles that can attack land and sea targets.
The H-6K bomber is a deeply improved version of the H-6, first revealed in 2007, with a full-body redesign, a large radar in the nose, a “glass cockpit”, updated electronics, an ejection escape system, two Russian-made D30-KP-2 engines, and a total of six mount points under the wings.
The H-6K’s primary airborne weapons include air-to-ground and cruise missiles, with a combat radius of more than 3,500 kilometers.
Recently, the H-6K bomber has been seen over the Taiwan Strait, the South China Sea and the Western Pacific, making it China’s most powerful bomber for strategic deterrence.