China's Air Force May Soon Get More Russian Su-35 Fighters from Russia

WolfPack86

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Beijing is happy with the speed and quality of first Su-35 delivery, but makes local production prerequisite of more orders

Multiple sources within Russia and the People’s Liberation Army Air Force suggest that Beijing and Moscow may have struck a preliminary deal for procurement by the PLAAF of more of Russian-made Sukhoi Su-35 fighters.


Hong Kong-based military monthly Kanwa Defense Review reported in February that the second batch of the highly maneuverable aircraft with thrust-vectoring engines had already descended on PLA airbases in southern China.

Among those tipped as the likely locations to service and hangar the multi-role air-superiority fighters is the Suixi airbase in southern China’s Guangdong province, which is under the PLA’s Southern Theater Command.

Several Su-35s joined the PLA’s recent circumnavigations of Taiwan and air patrols above the South China Sea, along with Su-30s, H-6K bombers and jammer aircraft.

In November 2015, the PLA became the first export customer for the Su-35 after Moscow and Beijing signed a US$2 billion contract for the purchase of 24 of the fighters. The first four aircraft were delivered in December 2016.

Citing sources within the Russian defense industry, the magazine noted that Su-35 producer Komsomolsk-on-Amur Aircraft Plant had been canvassing more orders after satisfactory feedback from the PLA about the speed and quality of the initial delivery batch.

The Su-35 was a modernized derivative of the Su-27 fighters earmarked for export in the late 1980s, but the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the West’s arms embargo clipped its wings, until orders from Beijing threw a lifeline.

Subsequent improvements have also been made to its cockpit, structural design and weapons-control system over the years.

It’s also said that Beijing has made it clear that more orders can only come under the parameters of knowledge transfer and localized production of some sub-systems and avionics, a tried and true tactic to replicate overseas technologies for cheaper, home-made alternatives.

Still, analysts say Russia may be willing to oblige now that there is a genuine rapport between the two powers, and a plethora of bilateral co-development and co-production of weapons and planes – ranging from cruise missiles to wide-body airliners – is also making headway.

Moscow curtailed arms transfers and cooperation around 2005 over Chinese reverse engineering of weapons systems, especially aircraft engines and components.

But now it has also agreed to sell China advanced S-400 air and missile defense systems, among others, after several years of lobbying by Beijing.

Meanwhile, the Indonesian Air Force also finalized the purchase contract for 11 Su-35s in February, with the first delivery expected by October. India and the United Arab Emirates are reportedly mulling possible purchases as well.
http://www.defencenews.in/article.aspx?id=536899
 

WolfPack86

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Meanwhile, the Indonesian Air Force also finalized the purchase contract for 11 Su-35s in February, with the first delivery expected by October. India and the United Arab Emirates are reportedly mulling possible purchases as well.
 

Armand2REP

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I hope this or something else wakes up the Congress to tell it to unfreeze all of these stalled procurement programmes. A big fleet of Su-35s is a serious threat, much more than any J-20.
 

WolfPack86

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Russia is selling more SU-35 fighter jet to China and i have a gut felling they will sell SU-35 fighter jet Pakistan.
 

Illusive

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These su35's are really capable, if the super sukhoi project isn't on track then we should be worried. Also chinese wouldn't want India to get hands on s400.
 

WolfPack86

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China to receive 10 more Su-35 from Russia this year. The contact to supply 24 Su-35s for US $2.5 billions were signed in 2015. 14 jets are already been supplied to China.
 

binayak95

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The Su-35S is what actually gives headache to IAF top brass. They are not bothered by the J20.
 

jat

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The Su-35S is what actually gives headache to IAF top brass. They are not bothered by the J20.
Heres the kicker, a country that makes super stealth fighters and has inducted them before even Russia, is buying Su-35s. Yet the fanboys think, they are miles ahead of Russia.
IAF is concerned with Su-35 but they also have to figure out what they want the Su-30MKI MLU to be like. Meantime, the rafales should earn some points against su-35 since the general engine performance, and uptime is better for rafales. We'll see what Rafales bring for domestic production and Tejas manufacturing.
 

binayak95

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Heres the kicker, a country that makes super stealth fighters and has inducted them before even Russia, is buying Su-35s. Yet the fanboys think, they are miles ahead of Russia.
IAF is concerned with Su-35 but they also have to figure out what they want the Su-30MKI MLU to be like. Meantime, the rafales should earn some points against su-35 since the general engine performance, and uptime is better for rafales. We'll see what Rafales bring for domestic production and Tejas manufacturing.
The Rafales and their data fusion will be a nightmare for the Su57s!!
Read an article on the F-18 Blk III upgrade. USN is implementing data fusion to use the IRST data from 2-3 aircraft to generate a trackable signature of stealth aircraft at BVR ranges!!

This completely negates the advantages of stealth.. Wonder if we could include this in the Super Sukhoi upgrade.

http://nationalinterest.org/blog/th...ock-iii-super-hornet-could-crush-chinas-25964

Here's the article. The part that I quote is in the first paragraph of the second page:

“If you have a single IRST ship, with your IRST, you can get a line of bearing—it’s going to see a hot spot out there, what direction it’s in, but it doesn’t have the distance. You don’t have a weapons quality track,” Kornegay said. “Now if you combine two aircraft, the fusion algorithm, now you have lines of bearing from two different sources. Where those two sources cross, the algorithm is going to compute a weapons quality track on that aircraft. So that’s a huge advantage for the warfighter to see that long before you’re in the enemy’s radar range.”
 

Kchontha

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Comparing Rafale with Su 35 is just like comparing apples and oranges since both are different categories of aircraft but for academic purpose if you pitted indian rafale against the Chinese su 35 in air to air combat mode then the deciding factors would be the detection capacity of the radar each aircraft possess and the bvraam they have in their arsenal. That means that in modern air to air combat those who see first shoots first. We all know the Rafale's AESA radar capacity and its Mateor missile. However, Su-35 can also deploy air-to-air missiles of up to 300-kilometre (190 mi) range. So it will continue to give headeche to IAF top brass untill the arrival of The Super Sukhois.
 

Mikesingh

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Why are we not buying SU-35 fighter aircraft?.
These are the problems with our SU-30s and would be the same with the SU-35s if we ever buy them This is standard fare with most Russian equipment:

  • Lack of spares
  • Expensive parts
  • Huge life cycle costs
  • Maintenance issues
  • Problems due to high premature failure rate of subsystems like engines, radars, missiles, and avionics.
  • Cost of flying per hour is prohibitive
  • MTB is just 1000 hours with the titanium nozzle having a mean time between overhaul of just 500 hours.
That's one of the reasons we prefer Western aircraft. Life cycle costs are almost half that of Russian planes.
 

nongaddarliberal

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These are the problems with our SU-30s and would be the same with the SU-35s if we ever buy them This is standard fare with most Russian equipment:

  • Lack of spares
  • Expensive parts
  • Huge life cycle costs
  • Maintenance issues
  • Problems due to high premature failure rate of subsystems like engines, radars, missiles, and avionics.
  • Cost of flying per hour is prohibitive
  • MTB is just 1000 hours with the titanium nozzle having a mean time between overhaul of just 500 hours.
That's one of the reasons we prefer Western aircraft. Life cycle costs are almost half that of Russian planes.
As far as costs go I don't think the chinese care too much. They just want capability. 250 billion dollar defence budget and all...
 

Kchontha

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Chinese are buying su 35 in small number only to incorporate some of its technologies to their fighter program by means of reverse engineering and intellectual theft. They will lay their hands on su35 engine, radars etc. Poor Russians knows this but what can they do when they desperately need some hard currency.
 

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