Images appeared in a popular Chinese military magazine recently offering the first look at the country’s upcoming air-launched ballistic missile, slung under the belly of an H-6N bomber. Observers noted its similarity to China’s Dong Feng-15 missile, as well as Russia’s Kinzhal.

The new edition of the magazine Modern Ships featured on its cover a drawing of Beijing’s H6-N bomber carrying what seems to be an air-launched ballistic missile underneath its belly. The images reportedly note only that the plane’s center-line pylon can be equipped with “large external objects,” but observers have noted the weapon’s incredibly similarity to the Dong Feng-15 ballistic missile already employed by China’s People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force (PLARF).

Sputnik reported in May on China’s pursuit of the novel air-launched ballistic missile (ALBM) after the Pentagon raised a warning about the weapon, fearing Beijing was closing in on a “viable nuclear triad.” Only a few countries have the capacity to ensure a nuclear response by land, air or sea, including the US, Russia and India.

The only other ALBM currently in use is Russia’s hypersonic Kinzhal missile, which was introduced in 2017 is fired from a MiG-31 interceptor. The US and UK attempted to develop a viable ALBM in the Bold Orion project and GAM-87 Skybolt missile; while the program yielded the Polaris submarine-launched ballistic missile employed by the British Royal Navy as part of its sea-based nuclear deterrent for decades, the Pentagon abandoned the ALBM as intercontinental ballistic missiles became more a more viable alternative for a nuclear response. The Soviet Union, four years behind the US nuclear program, never considered the weapon, immediately developing ICBMs.

Another potential use for the exterior attachment could be lifting a new supersonic drone spotted in the National Day parade on October 1, which seems to have a corresponding top attachment spot.

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