Parade Rehearsals Draw Attention To PLAAF Practices Toward Unveiling Air-Launched Munitions

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Aug 21, 2025

Note: The following text was originally posted on my X/Twitter account.

Images of PLA Air Force (PLAAF) H-6K, H-6J, and H-6N bombers participating in rehearsals for the forthcoming 3 September military parade in Beijing suggest that these bombers will be loaded with long-range KD-20 land-attack cruise missiles or fairly short-range YJ-83K anti-ship cruise missiles, both of which have been in service for 15+ years. The new/previously unseen cruise missile mockup loaded onto a truck—which is evidently not a launcher vehicle—during rehearsals for the ground component of the forthcoming military parade may be a PLAAF air-launched cruise missile rather than a surface-launched cruise missile operated by the PLA Rocket Force (PLARF) and/or the PLA Navy (PLAN). It is important to recognize that these are non-exclusive options.

The aerial-refuelling capable H-6N—which is equipped with a long aerial refuelling probe—and reportedly nuclear-armed—dual-use—H-6N was formally unveiled as part of the aerial display at the 1 October 2019 military parade in Beijing. Although it is (exclusively) capable of carrying a single large air-launched ballistic missile on a semi-recessed centerline station and incorporates quite substantial design changes to facilitate this, the H-6N bombers that featured in the 2019 military parade carried KD-20 air-launched land-attack cruise missiles and the particularly outdated, fairly short-range KD-63 air-launched cruise missile. While a different—much smaller and lighter—air-launched ballistic missile design was unveiled at the 2022 Zhuhai Airshow, this was loaded on two of the wing stations of the H-6K, not the H-6N.

The PLAAF has, to date, never formally displayed the H-6N loaded with an air-launched ballistic missile, even though the H-6N incorporates quite substantial design changes to facilitate this. This likely includes the aerial refuelling probe itself. While widely characterized as a modification intended to increase the combat radius of the H-6N, there is a case to be made that the refuelling probe is likely to primarily exist to allow the H-6N to take-off in what would otherwise be overload conditions were the H-6N to have a full fuel load while carrying a heavy payload in the form of a single large air-launched ballistic missile loaded onto its semi-recessed centerline station. Stated differently, the aerial refuelling is likely there to allow the H-6N to match the range-endurance of the H-6K when carrying such a large and heavy external payload, not to necessarily greatly expand on it. It is possible that the PLAAF has safety concerns concerning the loading of air-launched ballistic missiles onto the H-6N, not least when such bomber aircraft are flying over a large urban area such as Beijing, and that this may explain why it has not, to date, formally unveiled either of the two large and heavy air-launched ballistic designs with which the H-6N is intimately associated.

An alternative explanation is that the PLAAF is reluctant to publicly display the H-6N with air-launched ballistic missiles for reasons rooted in operational security considerations. Supposing that it is a PLAAF system, the new cruise missile mockup seen loaded onto a truck during the parade rehearsals would not be the first PLAAF munition to not be formally unveiled loaded on a H-6 bomber, but it may be the first PLAAF air-launched munition to be displayed on the ground rather than in the air at a major military parade—note that we may see one or more PLAAF air-launched ballistic missiles carried by trucks in a similar manner at the forthcoming military parade.

I should add that a functional air-launch cruise missile will, like other air-launched munitions, feature suspension lugs, which are the link between the missile and the aircraft. While the cruise missile specimen seen on the truck lacks discernible suspension lugs, it is almost certainly a mockup, which is the norm in parade-type settings and similar.