Russia is reportedly close to finalizing a major sale of advanced fighter aircraft to China worth $4 billion. Such a sale, newsworthy in itself, would have been hard to imagine as recently as a few years ago considering the history of previous agreements.
The anticipated deal, first reported by Kommersant, sees the two sides “practically agreed on the delivery of 48 Su-35 multirole fighters, worth $4 billion, to China.” Some reports suggest that Chinese officials have dismissed talk of such a deal. But if true, an agreement like this would certainly make sense for Beijing, giving China access to an advanced fighter. The Su-35 or “NATO Flanker-E +” is described as a “4++ generation (fighter) using fifth-generation technology.” The fighter is “armed with 30-millimeter cannons and has 12 points of suspension for suspension of arms, including missiles and bombs.”
Russia, having lost out in India’s MMRCA fighter competition to French competitor Rafale, would for its part gain an important new military contract. But it seems like Moscow also has much to lose through the sale. After all, purely business considerations aside, Russia is said to have been stung before after selling China advanced aircraft.
And there’s another question raised by the reported deal – why would China want to procure advanced 4th generation fighters when it’s developing a 5th generation plane, the J-20, which is believed to have stealth capabilities?
A look into the recent past offers some possible answers.
The last major aircraft deal between Russia and China involved the SU-27 flanker in the 1990s. Moscow hadn’t sold major weapons systems to Beijing since the so-called Sino-Soviet split, when a rise in tensions sparked border clashes in 1969.
When the Soviet Union collapsed, the Russian arms industry was struggling to survive. Brimming with modern weaponry that could help the Chinese leap generations in equipment and technology, a partnership was seen as benefitting both nations. In 1992, China placed an order for the Su-27, paying $1 billion for 24 turn-key aircraft.
For China, gaining access to better military technology was of vital importance. Chinese military planners were shocked at the speed at which the United States was able to defeat Iraqi armed forces in the first Gulf War. They realized much of their equipment was now antiquated in the face of U.S. precision munitions, stealth weapons, and advanced fighter aircraft. For the Chinese, as military analyst Andrew Scobell put it, “the primary lesson of the Gulf War in the eyes of many PLA leaders is the primacy of airpower, particularly the importance of controlling airspace or at least denying it to a hostile power.”
In 1996, Beijing paid $2.5 billion for a license to build an additional 200 Su-27s at the Shenyang Aircraft Company in China. The agreement had a very important stipulation. The Chinese version of the SU-27, renamed the J-11, would include imported and highly-advanced Russian avionics, radars and engines. The aircraft couldn’t be exported, presumably protecting Russia from competition in the international arms market from their own technology.
The deal would not, however, see completion. After the building of 100 or so jets, China canceled the contract in 2004. As The Diplomat security analyst Richard Weitz has noted, Beijing claimed the aircraft no longer met its specifications. Three years later, China seemed to have fully broken the agreement when it would demonstrate the aircraft, the J-11B, on state TV. The plane looks extremely similar to the Su-27. The Chinese deny allegations of copying the craft, claiming that it used 90 percent indigenous parts and that it utilizes better Chinese avionics and radar equipment.
So what would be China’s motivation to purchase new planes from Russia now? Some have argued that maybe all is not well with China’s cloned craft. Vasily Kashin, an expert at the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies speaking with Kommersant, felt the “willingness to buy such a large batch of fighter jets indicates that the Chinese are faced with serious technical problems during the work on the modification of its aircraft that are based on the Su-27.”
One must also consider China’s highly touted and much-debated J-20 fifth generation fighter might suffer from one major problem – the Chinese have struggled with the domestic production of strong jet engines. Reports have surfaced that at least one of the J-20 prototypes uses a Russian borrowed engine. Access to Russian engine technology may therefore be one of the driving factors behind Beijing’s interest in the Su-35. As regular Diplomat contributors Andrew Erickson and Gabe Collins have noted, “China’s inability to domestically mass-produce modern high-performance jet engines at a consistently high-quality standard is an enduring Achilles heel of the Chinese military aerospace sector and is likely a headwind that has slowed development and production of the J-15, J-20, and other late-generation tactical aircraft.”
If Russia is to go forward with such a sale, it must ensure the strictest safeguards are in place to protect highly sought after military technology. Indeed, even with legal guarantees in place, what would stop China from learning all of the technological secrets of such an advanced fighter and incorporating new technologies in its current fleet of aircraft in upgrades or future weapons platforms? Considering the rapid rise of China’s military over the last decade, fuelled in part by the sale of Russian military equipment and Beijing’s alleged copying of Russia defense technology, Russia would be wise to be cautious in any sale.
While relations between the two are currently stable, Moscow and Beijing may find their interests diverging. The new deal looks good for China, but Russia would do well to be wary when the future of ties is still uncertain.
Tarun
To me this deal shows chinese desperation and nothing else. They have made no headway in engine design and tight western sanctions mean joint development is out of question. They will not tie up with russians as it would mean sharing top level secrets of their military industrial complex and russia china relations have not reached this level of trust. In all likelyhood they think that with their existing level of skills they can reverse engineer the ALF 51 engine for their 5th gen J20 aircrafts. That would be a big big mistake as engine core design is very very complex, more complex than even rocket science. One error and you go down the RD 93 route which turned a revolutionary mig 29 design into a second tier aircraft to much inferior designed F16 and Mirage 2000.
AB
Maybe this Su-35 deal is just a charade for China to purchase jet engines for its 5th-generation fighter program from the Russians.
I think we can dismiss the worries of the Chinese exporting cheaper Sukhoi clones to other countries. Which country is in the market looking to purchase such an aircraft. We know the Japanese and South Koreans will always buy from Uncle Sam and will never buy Russian.
Fayez Nashwan
If we thing that auer Brig to Sky to be, we dont need Fighters
believe me
Fayez Nashwan
Kerry Givens
I suspect the J20 is a flawed weapon system that will never see the light of day Just like the The Xian H-8 bomber which was a Chinese military aircraft and a possible successor to the aging twin-engined H-6 jet bomber. The prototype was reported to be an enlarged H-6 with underwing engines, but that the project was canceled in the early 1970s before the bomber went into production. The Chinese roll out CRAPPY Products and when they go belly up they go window shopping with the Russians. So NOT A SUPER POWER!
Michael
I think the increase in China’s Defense Budget is quite an alarming prospect. Whether the Chinese are reacting to the US in the pacific or viz. is questionable. However i do believe that the Fifth generation aircraft China is trying to produce, is more of a symbolic gesture rather than an actual deterrent to F-22s or the Eurofighter. It pays to buy near 5th generation fighter aircraft such as the Su-37 and reverse engineer their engines in order to gain the necessary technology to produce their own. Otherwise, why would China buy so little SU-37s, when its air-force currently consists of near obsolete aircraft? I know this may be verging towards conspiracy. Could they be using the Su-37s as trial aircraft in order to test their own designs? Just saying.
Kangmin Zheng
“And there’s another question raised by the reported deal – why would China want to procure advanced 4th generation fighters when it’s developing a 5th generation plane, the J-20, which is believed to have stealth capabilities?”
So J-20 is a bluff after all. J-20 is a piece of crap.
Fu Man-chu
If indeed it is true there is such a sale, I think it would be a goodwill sale – much as in business where each business party, out of personal goodwill, rapport and bonhomme, buys from each other. No different from ensuring no one country has surplus balance-of-payment and the other, a deficit balance-of-payment.
SCdad07
300 Su-35 for domestic and export market as the program ‘set point’ so far has fallen short.
IMO, Russia’s message: ‘I am going to sell to China for US$80+million per copy, if you don’t come and get it’.