Posted on 02/16/2014 11:34:37 AM PST by sukhoi-30mki
Major figures within the People's Liberation Army Air Force have differing opinions about whether purchasing Su-35s from Russia really serves the interests of the Chinese military aviation industry, according to the Taipei-based Central News Agency (CNA) in an interview with Andrei Chang, a Canadian military analyst.
During a press conference held at the Singapore Air Show of 2014, Mikhail Pogosyan, the general director of United Aircraft Corporation, said that Russia is unlikely to support China copying its advanced fighters again as it did in the 1990s. Copying other nation's fighter will not bring any major improvement to the Chinese aviation industry, especially since the Su-35 is not a new fighter. China should design its own advanced fighter, Pogosyan said.
The Su-35 does not guarantee air superiority for the PLA Air Force in the next 10 years, a professor from the PLA Air Force Command College said in a commentary for the Party-run PLA Daily. A similar view is being shared by many important figures in the Chinese military, said Pinkov. The current consensus reached between Beijing and Moscow will provide 24 Su-35s along with Saturn AL-41s also known as 117S engines to China.
Still, both sides have not reached any agreement yet regarding the transfer of Su-35's technology to China. Even though Russia is trying to terminate its cooperation with China in designing new fighter, Pogosyan said that it will be more suitable for both nations to help each other in building wide-body commercial aircraft.
A Russian Su-35. (Internet Photo)
Maybe it doesn’t guarantee superiority but it’s really cool looking.
Agreed.
They just realized that the plane’s biggest negative is that it’s made from Chinese parts?
I can just picture it in a dogfight. Opposing pilots will be bummed out that the Chinese plane fell apart without even shooting anything at it.
Can I buy one at Walmart?
I guess they’ll just have to settle for their “Chinese copies” of the F-22 then.
Those Chinese parts regularly put people and satellites into space. Meanwhile we have to hitch rides on old Russian Soyuz rockets.
When the MiG-15bis was introduced, the F-86 met its equal and their fights were won by pilot skill, tactics and training.
In Vietnam, "low tech" Soviet aircraft, usually flown by less experienced pilots, downed significant numbers of Allied jets, even those thought to be technologically superior.
Since then, Russian planes and clones have gotten a lot better, while ours and our tactics have been on display for all to study.
Air superiority is yet to be determined and will be decided on a case by case basis, should events and human nature make such a determination necessary.
Doesnt look very stealthy to me.
They’ve been at the rocket game for several hundred years, their own jet fighters are a recent development.
I have yet to have a Chinese gun fail me. I have a few and they can handle more many rounds with minimal cleaning.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.