Successful political cooperation between Russia and China does not negate serious problems in the field of military-technical partnership.
The military power of the PRC is largely due to military-technical cooperation with Russia, which over the past 20 years has transferred to China advanced military technologies developed back in the Soviet Union. But now in Russia, it seems, are not so happy that the same Su-27 fighters were sold to the Chinese in due time.
Moscow is concerned not so much with the security problem as with the purely economic consequences for the country: China is so successful in copying Russian technology that it is ready to supply such copies at dumping prices.
However, there are also optimists who believe that there is nothing to worry about, and a certain technological backwardness of China in the field of aviation gives Russia hope not to suffer from Chinese clones.
In many military reference books in the sections devoted to Chinese aircraft, after the name of the fighter in brackets is the name of the one from which it was copied. The J-11B, according to experts, is the Russian Su-27, the J-15 is the Su-33, the earlier J-6 and J-7 aircraft, respectively, the MiG-19 and MiG-21.
Often, as in the case of the MiG-21, Beijing had a license to manufacture the aircraft. In other cases, we are talking about what some experts call "reverse technology", others - cloning or even theft.
Soviet school
The Chinese army in general is armed almost exclusively with either Soviet or Russian-made weapons, or made or developed in China according to Soviet and Russian patterns.
"It all started in the 1950s, when the USSR transferred to China many different equipment, technologies and licenses for the production of equipment, but most importantly, it trained the first generation of engineers, military technologists and designers. And from that moment on, the development of Chinese military equipment was determined." - Ilya Kramnik, the military observer of RIA Novosti, told the BBC in an interview.
The next stage, which actually determined the modern appearance of the Chinese military aviation, began with the collapse of the USSR. In the 1990s, China was able to get the latest developments in Russia at that time.
"The Chinese were given almost everything they had. China for a very small amount - several times less than what the Soviet Union spent on it - received all the scientific and technical results of experimental design and research developments in the field, at least, tactical aviation ", - said the aviation expert, columnist for the magazine" Vzlyot "Alexander Velovich.
Crucial moment
And this was fully manifested at the last Airshow China in Zhuhai, where China presented its latest aircraft, and Russia, a traditional participant in this air show, presented mock-ups.
In the West, many viewed this as a symbol of Beijing's growing air power and the surrender of positions by the Russian aviation industry.
The American newspaper The Wall Street Journal even called it a "turning point" after which China will allegedly begin to conquer traditional Russian markets in Asia and other parts of the world, while also rapidly developing its own military aviation.
Aviation Explorer expert Vladimir Karnozov believes that, indeed, the grains of Russian technologies in China have fallen on fertile soil and the seedlings are already clearly visible.
"The cost of labor in China is lower than in Russia, the conditions for functioning are better thanks to strong government support, and therefore, indeed, the Chinese can now produce aircraft that would be at the level of requirements, but at the same time cheaper than Russian or Western ones," explains Karnozov.
Technological problems
True, China's expansion into the aviation market, according to Vladimir Karnozov, will begin no earlier than in eight to ten years. There are many reasons for this, and most of them are technological.
China has not yet been able to obtain or copy the latest Russian developments in the field of avionics and radars. He is actively trying to catch up, but there is an even more serious nuisance - the lack of high-quality engines of his own production. That is, there are engines, but unreliable and with an extremely low resource, which is only tens of hours.
However, as the director of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies Ruslan Pukhov explains, the PRC will most likely solve this problem within the next decade: “They can, for example, bring the resource of their engines to 200-300 hours, to a minimum level. for poor clients like Bangladesh, but for yourself to buy engines in Russia."
Confrontation
It should be borne in mind that China has not only to catch up with technologically more developed countries, but also to fight against their growing opposition. Since 1989, an arms embargo has been imposed on China in Europe.
In recent years, Europe has been as active as unsuccessful in trying to abolish it. But the United States opposes it and uses every possible economic leverage to prevent its withdrawal.
The United States even fears supplying its regional ally - Taiwan - F-16 fighters of the latest modifications, according to experts, not so much because this will have political consequences, but because of fears of a technology leak.
And Russia, which has been arming the PRC for the past twenty years, is now seriously limiting its exports. For example, in 2009 there was no deal to sell several Su-33 carrier-based fighters. Moscow was alarmed by Beijing's desire to purchase such a small batch of cars that, in the opinion of the Russians, it indicated a desire only to copy the plane.
However, according to some reports, China has already had a prototype of such a fighter since 2001, purchased in one of the Soviet republics, from which the J-15 carrier-based fighter was copied.
Two years ago, at a meeting of the Russian-Chinese intergovernmental commission on military-technical cooperation, an agreement was signed between Russia and China on the protection of intellectual property. But, judging by the severity of the current discussions around this problem, it does not work very well.
Technology race
Will other states be able to stop the expansion of Chinese military aircraft into the world market? According to Ilya Kramnik, the best defense in such a situation is the development of our own aviation industry.
"When China nevertheless achieves the required reliability characteristics for its Su-27, Russia will already have a wide series of Su-35s, a fifth-generation fighter will already be on the way to a series, or serial production," the expert said.
However, according to experts, the Chinese economy is developing at a faster pace than in Russia. Is it possible, accordingly, to assume that in the distant future the aviation industry of the PRC will still be able to catch up and overtake the Russian one?
Ruslan Pukhov believes that in such a complex area as high aviation technologies, it is not worth operating with arithmetic techniques.
"There is no linear relationship between general economic and technological development. You can be a country with a developed economy, but at the same time, you cannot make combat aircraft," explains Pukhav.
"An engineering school is difficult to import if it is interrupted, as was the case with Germany after losing the Second World War, then it is extremely difficult to restore it," he adds.
Cooperation
But there is a way out of such a situation for China. According to Vladimir Karnozov, Moscow and Beijing should join their efforts in military-technical cooperation in the field of aviation.
“We need to understand that now we no longer make the best airplanes on the planet. The most important trend in the world market is the globalization of production. The old practice of delivering finished products or screwdriver assemblies already does not work well today, and in a few years it will not work at all,” - says the expert.
However, in Russia, the thesis of globalization and pooling of efforts is understood and is trying to establish international cooperation in the development and production of military aircraft. On December 20-22, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visited India, where he launched a project to develop a joint fifth-generation fighter.
However, it seems that Beijing does not see Russia as a future aircraft building partner: at present, China is actively cooperating in this area with another large regional state - Pakistan, which, however, is by no means famous for its aircraft building traditions.
