China Says Missile Simulation Shot Down B-21

Chinese researchers say they've already shot down a B-21 Raider in a computer simulation and they're confident the $700 million bomber, along with all other Western stealth aircraft, will be sitting ducks for its hypersonic missiles. The B-21 has just begun flight testing at Edwards Air Force Base and won't be flying over Asia anytime soon. But according to the Eurasian Times (quoting the South China Morning Post), scientists at the Northwestern Polytechnical University in Xian claim they've tested new tactics and technology that exploit a flaw in the Raider's defenses by attacking the bomber from above. “In one war game, a B-21-like stealth platform and its companion drone were both shot down by China’s air-to-air missiles, which can reach a top speed of Mach 6,” the report said. 

While that seems like something Northrop Grumman and the Air Force might have anticipated, the scientists claim there's something the brainiacs in the high desert didn't factor in. In their simulation, the B-21 took evasive action but it didn't consider a second missile going after the Raider's accompanying drone. The missiles switched targets and the one headed for the drone changed direction and took out the B-21. The drone was then nailed by the missile originally headed for the bomber. As simplistic as it sounds, there might actually be a breakthrough in there. Like spacecraft reentering the atmosphere, hypersonic missiles blasting toward a target at Mach 6 are normally blacked out from external communications because of the heat of friction with the air. The Chinese have said they've figured out how to maintain continuous communications with their hypersonic missiles, leading to the course corrections of the missiles and simulated defeat of the Raider.