China clones and sells Russian fighters ("The Wall Street Journal", USA)
Zhuhai, China - A year after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Kremlin was short of money and sold a significant part of its huge military arsenal to China, including the pride of the Russian Air Force - the Su-27 fighter.Over the next 15 years, Russia has become the largest supplier weapons to China, ensuring the supply of fighters, destroyers, submarines to this country, tanks and rockets totaling $ 20 to $ 30 billion. She even sold Beijing a license to manufacture a Su-27 fighter — from imported Russian parts.
But today, this gold mine for Russia has dried up, but for China it is just beginning.
After years of work on copying Russian weapons, China has reached a turning point. Now he can independently produce many weapons systems, including the most advanced fighters, such as the Su-27. He is also about to build his own aircraft carrier.
Chinese engineers not only cloned the avionics and the Su-27 radar. They also equip their aircraft with the latest element of this technical puzzle - a Chinese-built jet engine.
Over the past two years, Beijing has not placed a single large order in Russia.
And now, China is also beginning to export a significant part of its weapons, undermining Russia's position in the developing world, which can lead to a change in the balance of power in a number of hot spots on our planet.
Such an epochal change could literally be physically felt in the Russian pavilion during the air show held in November in the South Chinese city of Zhuhai. Russia used to be a star on this show, delighting the audience with performances of its aerobatic team “Russian Knights”, demonstrating fighters, helicopters and transport aircraft, as well as signing contracts for many billions of dollars.
This year, she did not bring a single real aircraft to the exhibition - only a handful of plastic models, which were overseen by several dozen bored sales managers.
China, unlike Russia, put on display and for sale the largest batch of its military equipment. And almost all of it is based on Russian technology and production secrets.
Pakistani pilots from the aerobatic team Sherdils have become guests of honor at this air show. They flew aircraft of Russian origin, which are currently produced by Pakistan and China.
“We in these relationships were senior partners - and now they have become junior,” says Ruslan Pukhov, who is a member of the Public Council under the Ministry of Defense, a civilian advisory body of the military.
The plight Russia has fallen in is a reflection of the situation with many foreign companies. China begins to compete in the world market, offering there its modern trains, power equipment and other civilian products, which is based on technologies obtained in the West.
But in this case, there is an additional aspect related to security. China is developing weapons systems, including aircraft carriers and deck Aviationthat could threaten Taiwan and challenge US control over the western Pacific.
The export of fighters and other modern weapons from China also threatens to change the military balance in southern Asia, Sudan and Iran.
China still lags far behind the United States, which is far ahead of all other countries in the production and export of weapons. Between 2005 and 2009, China accounted for 2% of global arms sales, and Beijing ranked ninth in the world among exporters. Such data are cited by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
But after the defeat of Japan in 1945, no Asian country is trying to project its military power.
China’s rapid adoption of Russian technology raises questions about US cooperation with civilian representatives of the Chinese military industry.
Aviation Industry Corp. (AVIC), for example, is building fighter jets. But it also produces new passenger aircraft with the help of General Electric and other American companies from the aerospace industry. A spokesman for General Electric says that his company has been working in partnership with foreign engine manufacturers for decades and has created “reliable protection measures” during this time to ensure the preservation of its intellectual property.
There may be unpleasant complications for the American weapons program. Last year, the Pentagon decided to cut funding for the F-22, which is currently the world's most advanced fighter. In part, this was justified by the fact that China will not have such planes for at least 15 years.
But after that, the deputy commander of the Chinese Air Force, General He Weirong (He Weirong) announced that flight tests of the Chinese version of such aircraft would begin in the near future, which will be put into operation "in 8-10 years."
The intelligence department of the US Department of Defense now says that the People's Republic of China will need "about 10 years" for adopting "significant numbers" of fighter jets using stealth technologies.
In the meantime, the dispute between Moscow and Beijing over intellectual property rights over such weapons systems can be a real challenge for their efforts to overcome historical rivalry and transition to a new era of friendly relations.
“In the past, we did not pay enough attention to our intellectual property,” said the representative of the Russian military industry, “and now China even creates competition for us on the international market.”
This is most clearly demonstrated by the Chinese fighter J-11B, which, according to the statements of Russian officials, is a direct copy of the Su-27 single-seat fighter developed by the Soviets in 70 and 80 in order to create a machine equivalent to American F-15 and F -16.
Prior to the start of 90, Moscow did not supply weapons to China because of the ideological split that occurred in 1956. This split even led to short-term border clashes in 1969.
But after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Kremlin desperately needed hard currency. In 1992, China became the first country outside the post-Soviet space to purchase X-NUMX Su-24 aircraft and pay 27 a billion dollars for them.
This deal was a huge success for China, which in its military plans refused to attack the Soviet lands and now wanted to realize the territorial claims on Taiwan and the territories located in the South China and East China Seas.
The efforts to modernize China’s air force and naval forces were hampered by the US and European arms embargo imposed after suppressing protests in Tiananmen Square.
According to Western military representatives, the Chinese realized the urgent need for a program to modernize their army after the first Gulf War, when the United States demonstrated its overwhelming fire and strike power.
A breakthrough in Beijing’s efforts came in the 1996 year, when it paid Russia 2,5 a billion dollars for a license to build another 200 Su-27, which was carried out at the enterprises of the Shenyang Aircraft Company.
The agreement stipulated that the aircraft, called J-11, would use the onboard radio-electronic equipment, radar stations and engines imported from Russia, and that it could not be exported.
But, having built 105 of such aircraft, China in the 2004 year unexpectedly terminated this contract, saying that the aircraft no longer meets its requirements. This is indicated by Russian officials and experts from the military industry.
Three years later, Russian fears were confirmed when China showed its own version of the fighter on state television, naming it J-11B.
“When we sold the license, everyone knew they would do that. It was a risk, and we went for it, ”said Vasily Kashin, a Russian expert on the Chinese army. “At the time, it was a matter of survival.”
The J-11B is almost identical to the Su-27, but Beijing has declared that it is 90% Chinese, and that it uses more modern Chinese avionics electronics and radar. Russian there is only an engine, said the Chinese.
And now the aircraft is equipped with Chinese engines, as evidenced by the vice president of AVIC, Zhang Xinguo (this corporation includes Shenyang Aircraft).
“It’s not just a copy,” he says. - Mobile phones all look the same. But technology is developing very fast. Even if outwardly everything looks the same, it is not all the same inside. ”
J-11B put Russia in front of a difficult choice — continue to sell weapons to China, risking being cloned, or stopping supplies and losing its share in the high-yielding market.
At first, Russia wanted to stop negotiations on the sale to China of a fighter with a folding wing Su-33, which can be used on aircraft carriers.
But then she resumed negotiations, although she rejected the Chinese proposal to purchase only two cars, and insisted on supplying a larger batch.
The official position of the holding company “Sukhoi” is that it is confident in its business in China.
Indeed, many aviation experts believe that AVIC has problems creating the Chinese engine for the J-11B with the same burden and durability as the original Russian engine.
Sukhoi Company believes that China will have to buy Su-33 on Russian terms, since it will be difficult for Beijing to create its own deck fighter on time by the time the first Chinese aircraft carriers in 2011 or 2012 are launched.
The company also hopes to sell a more modern version of the Su-27 to China - the Su-35 machine, if the J-11B has insufficient good performance.
“We just hope that our aircraft will be better,” says Sergey Sergeyev, the deputy general director of the Sukhoi. “One thing is to make a copy of a spoon of good quality, and quite another is a copy of an airplane.”
The governments of Russia and China refuse to comment on this.
But privately, Russian representatives express fears that China will soon begin mass production and export of modern fighters — without Russian assistance. From 2001 to 2008, China has bought Russian weapons for 16 billions of dollars - that's 40% of total Russian sales.
Recently, Chinese military websites published photographs showing the engines installed on the J-11B and its modified version, the J-15, which will be used on aircraft carriers.
This further strengthened Russian concerns about the fact that China simply copied the Su-33, acquired in 2001 in Ukraine. This information was shared by Russian experts in the military industry.
At last year's Dubai air show, China for the first time showed its training aircraft L-15. In June, China debuted at the Eurosatory Arms Exhibition, which was held in France.
In July, China for the first time demonstrated abroad the JF-17 fighter, developed jointly with Pakistan. It happened at the air show in the British Farnborough.
In September, China had one of the largest pavilions at the armament exhibition in Cape Town.
“They appear at arms shows that they have never participated in before,” says SIPRI arms trade expert Simon Wezeman. “If 15 years ago, they didn’t have anything at all, then today they offer a tolerable technique at reasonable prices.”
China is of particular interest in developing countries. In particular, they are interested in a relatively inexpensive JF-17 fighter with a Russian engine.
The Kremlin agreed to re-export this engine to Pakistan, since it did not deal in arms trafficking there.
But last year he was furious when the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan began negotiations on the acquisition of JF-17, as people familiar with this situation are talking about.
Also last year, Chinese JF-17 and Russian MiG-29 competed during the tender in Myanmar, which eventually chose the Russians, but paid less than they wanted.
This year, two countries are participating in a tender in Egypt. There, China offered JF-17 for 10 million dollars cheaper than Russia for its Mig-29 worth 30 million dollars.
This forced Mikhail Pogosyan, who heads the company Sukhoi and the company that manufactures MiGs, to propose that the Kremlin stop supplying Russian engines for JF-17 to China.
So far, the Kremlin has not done this, but Russian representatives are privately talking about the possibility of legal action if China increases the export of modern aircraft, such as J-11B.
Last month, the Russian government launched a new legislative initiative to include in the agreements on the supply of arms to foreign countries the provision on the right to intellectual property.
People familiar with this situation reported that President Dmitry Medvedev also raised this issue during his visit to China in October.
“Of course, we are concerned. But we also realize that we can do almost nothing, ”said Pukhov of the Public Council under the Ministry of Defense.
Answering the question about what advice he would give to western aerospace companies, Sergeyev from the Sukhoi company said: “They should remember what kind of products they sell - for civilian or dual use. And it is extremely important to prepare contractual documentation very carefully. ”
If Russia is concerned about the problems of intellectual property, then other countries are concerned about security issues. The weapons design programs initiated by China 20-30 years ago are beginning to bear fruit, which can have serious consequences for the regional as well as the global balance of military forces.
It is expected that the J-11B will be used in the Chinese Navy as a front-line fighter capable of conducting long-term military operations over the entire water area of the South China and East China Seas.
J-15 aircraft carriers and fighters will further enhance the combat capabilities of the PRC to prohibit American intervention in the conflict over Taiwan, as well as challenge American control over the western part of the Pacific Ocean.
Exporting Chinese weapons can have an impact on conflict areas around the world. In February Pakistan accepted the first squadron of Chinese-made fighter jets, which could change the balance of power with India.
The remaining potential buyers of Chinese fighters JF-17 include Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Venezuela, Nigeria, Morocco and Turkey. Earlier, China sold a batch of fighters to Sudan.
The United States is most concerned about the potential buyers of Chinese weapons to Iran. According to the Russian Center for Analysis of the World Arms Trade, in the period from 2002 to 2009, Iran purchased weapons from China for a total of about 260 million dollars.
In June, the PRC came out for the UN sanctions against Iran, including the imposition of an arms embargo. However, Tehran is still trying to secure deals for the sale of Chinese fighter jets and other weapons systems.
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