China’s Jet Engine Future

China Sign Post ^ | July 13, 2011 | Gabe Collins & Andrew Erickson

[sukhoi-30mki]

China’s Jet Engine Future

July 13, 2011

By Gabe Collins & Andrew Erickson

Rapid improvements in China's military jet engine capabilities have major implications for the global defence industry.

Following is a guest entry from Gabe Collins and Andrew Erickson, co-founders of China Sign Post.

China's military jet engine capability is increasing at a rapid pace, with implications not only for China's independent military capabilities, but also for the global defence industry. Yet China also faces major impediments in achieving its strategic aim of establishing itself as an independent manufacturer in one of aerospace's most complex engineering technologies: high-performance turbofan engines. Our recent paper, Jet Engine Development in China found that China's progress is uneven but that the resources being devoted to the task will likely result in significant strides that will have profound strategic implications.

Strategic Implications

China's lack of a domestic, mass-produced high-performance jet engine for combat aircraft is an enduring weakness for the Chinese military and has slowed the development and production of new, more modern aircraft. To address this, the Chinese Aviation Industry Corporation (AVIC) is to invest 10 billion RMB ($1.5 billion) into jet engine R&D over the next 5 years.

The Chinese aerospace industry is pursuing the ability to manufacture large volumes of high-performance tactical aircraft engines with four strategic imperatives in mind:

Avoiding parts dependence: As China develops more of its own tactical aircraft, it will not want supplies of parts to be determined by non-Chinese suppliers, primarily Russian.

Secure supplies: China cannot be certain that its demand can be met by Russian suppliers over the

[sukhoi-30mki]

[rhombus]

In other news, Boeing dropped their bid to build a plant in South Carolina and instead decided to move its entire operations to China. (soon to be followed by Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics).

[bert]

The news is not bad for America, but for Europe and especially for Russia it is terrible.

The competition for a really good military plane or family of planes will put Russia out of the business....... the only business they have worth a damn. It will not be good for the French or marginal Europeans hoping to sell their planes.

[central_va]

Boeing is not in the engine manufacturing business. GE and PW make most of the engines. For some unknown reason they are still made here in the US for now.

[BobL]

“Boeing is not in the engine manufacturing business. GE and PW make most of the engines. For some unknown reason they are still made here in the US for now.”

LOL. You mean final assembly in the US. I very much doubt we have any clue as to where the components or raw materials come from - but I can guess one country that plays a HUGE role in our military programs (and I don’t mean the USA).