China copies obsolete Russian fighter | Opinion & analysis | RIA Novosti 10-09-25 7:28 AM

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Opinion & analysis

China copies obsolete Russian fighter Russia to overhaul Bulava production
17:17 25/04/2008
if tests fail again

MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti military commentator Ilya Kramnik) - Earlier this year
reports appeared in the media that China had copied Russia's Sukhoi Su-27 Flanker Excessive sanctions will not solve the
Iranian nuclear problem
fighter, and that its J-11 version, now manufactured in China, would be sold to third
countries, undermining Russia's positions on the global arms market.
Although China has made some progress in adapting Russian designs and technology, Promise land
it is still far from posing either a military or commercial threat to Russian aviation.
The Chinese aircraft industry evolved in the late 1950s with Soviet assistance, and soon
Administration 101
mastered production of the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 Fagot and MiG-17 Fresco
fighters, the Ilyushin Il-28 medium-range bomber and other warplanes. Later China
got more modern aircraft from the U.S.S.R. - Tu-16, MiG-21, An-12 and others.
By cooperating closely with the Soviet Union, China managed to create a modern air Russia Profile
force by the mid-1960s. However, this progress was squandered, and the national
aircraft industry began to stagnate, after the beginning of the Cultural Revolution in Why Oppositionists Are Unlikely to
Achieve a Breakthrough in
the late 1960s. October's Elections
Throughout the 1960s and the 1970s, China failed to develop any new aircraft, instead
manufacturing the Q-5 and J-8 - revamped versions of the MiG-19 Farmer and MiG- Taxing Childfree People: Ways to
Get Russians to Have Children
21 Fishbed fighters.
Meanwhile, both the Soviet Union and the United States were developing fourth-
generation fighters by that time. By the mid-1980s, the Chinese Air Force was lagging The Will of the People: Cutting of
Trees in Khimki Paused
behind Russia and the United States by some 15-20 years.
Beijing mostly sold its obsolete warplanes to the poorest Third World countries,
Why Moscow authorities capitalized
including Albania, Uganda and Bangladesh. China also exported its aircraft to on the summer lull to replace
Pakistan, a potential ally against India. Rakhimov

Chinese leaders eventually resolved to rectify the situation by purchasing up-to-date

aircraft production technologies. In 1988, China bought production forms and records
for Israel's Lavi multi-role fighter. Sixteen years later, in 2004, China mastered
production of the Chengdu J-10 - an essentially Israeli warplane featuring Russian
avionics.
Moscow and Beijing mended relations in the late 1980s, leading in 1989 to the signing
of several military-technical cooperation agreements that facilitated technology
Most read
transfers. Suicide bomber strikes Russia could make
during Dagestan special aerial drones without
Most importantly, Beijing received production forms, records and assembly kits for the operation (Update 1) Israeli help claims
company
Su-27, as well as several Su-30-MKK fighters from Russia. By mastering these Russia’s regional
military commands MiG-27 crashes in
advanced warplanes, China obtained superiority over its neighbors and gained an India, pilot survives
Russia developing laser
insight into the latest aviation technologies. weapons - military chief Iran's Ahmadinejad
says 9/11 attacks
Nevertheless, Chinese engineers have so far failed to master production of the Su-27's orchestrated by U.S.
AL-31F power-plant. Its Chinese copy, the WS-10A, is less fuel-efficient and has a authorities
shorter service life. On the other hand, the J-11B, an upgraded J-11 version, has a
pilot-friendly cockpit with color LCD screens.
A new Su-27 radar reportedly developed by China has better specifications than the Top multimedia
Soviet-made N-001 radar, but is inferior to Russia's more modern Irbis radar. Image Galleries:
Fifty-three hours to
To sum up, China has managed to copy an aircraft developed in the early 1980s 15 Côte d'Azur in first
years after the initial Su-27 deliveries, and 10 years after the first Chinese-assembled Moscow-Nice train
Su-27 performed its maiden flight.
But the prototype Su-27 and the J-11 are no match for the revamped Su-27SM fighters
now being adopted by the Russian Air Force and the new Su-35BM, which has entered Video: Volcano
eruption was
its testing stage. ‘democratic’
Although the J-11 will carve out its own market niche, this does not mean that

http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20080425/105928822.html Page 1 of 2
China copies obsolete Russian fighter | Opinion & analysis | RIA Novosti 10-09-25 7:28 AM

Russian-made aircraft will lose their popularity. Nor will China pose a greater military
threat to Russia. It is evident that neither Moscow nor Beijing wants an open military
conflict. Even if such a hypothetic conflict ever flared up, it would be decided by Infographics:
weapons other than advanced fighters. Russia’s regional
military commands
The opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily
represent those of RIA Novosti.

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