China Clones, Sells Russian Fighter Jets

The Wall Street Journal ^ | DECEMBER 6, 2010 | JEREMY PAGE

[sukhoi-30mki]

ZHUHAI, China

[sukhoi-30mki]

Pakistani JF-17 in Zhuhai

[USNBandit]

Looks like what you would get if you chugged a pint of Lockheed Martin with a Boeing chaser and then sneezed.

[Army Air Corps]

There is a certain F-20 look to it. The horizontal stabilisers look similar to those of the F-16, but smaller.

[spetznaz]

Exactly. Well put.

[USNBandit]

The weird thing is they still haven't put a decent canopy on any of their airplanes. I don't think you necessarily need to go without a canopy bow and separate front windscreen, like the F-16, but how about some rearward viz. It's not just nice for dogfights, but looking for wingmen, or maybe SAMs coming out of the target area.

[Seaplaner]

...Russia worries about intellectual property...

Proving once again that there is no honor among thieves.

(And, there never has been, eh?)

.

[The Antiyuppie]

The article mentions that the Chinese are having a hard time developing engines of the same thrust and durability as tha Russian originals.

Wow, that’s not saying much.

I’ve read that Russian equipment is really designed around a different design philosophy geared toward a short war. So, their equipment generally runs at “emergency war power” and on the edge at all times. OTOH, building equipment this way just about guarantees continued good relations between the buyer and China (for obvious reasons), which is a bonus that the Russians learned about years ago that came with their equipment sales. Without a steady supply of parts, that really expensive gear can become high-tech junk pretty quickly.

[Tonytitan]

Does this include the engines in the SU-35/37 which can reportedly supercruise?

[cowboyusa]

This is like on Star Trek when the Romulans and Klingons shared technology against the UFP.

[NeverForgetBataan]

For some reason, the chinese scare me way more than the
russians ever did, even before thier collapse.