China is negotiating with the Sukhoi company on the purchase of Soviet-made Su-33 carrier-based fighters. The media reported that negotiations on the purchase of the Su-33 were at an impasse, but people involved say China is still interested in acquiring the aircraft. According to some reports, Russia has offered China to purchase the MiG-29K carrier-based fighters, which are currently supplied to the Indian Navy.
It is clear that China wants to create its own version of the Su-33 fighter, but for various reasons cannot solve this problem on its own. Therefore, Chinese representatives return to Russia again and again to try to purchase the necessary technology and make progress step by step in creating their own carrier-based combat aircraft.
An authoritative source, Jane's, says Sukhoi may provide China with 12 Su-33 combat aircraft to create a training squadron to train carrier-based pilots, and then sell 36 new fighters of this type. Aircraft of the new assembly should have onboard equipment similar to that installed on the Su-35. Previously, KB them. Sukhoi and KNAAPO proposed to equip these aircraft with equipment from the Su-30MK2. But now that Sukhoi and MiG are merged into a single holding, Russia is offering China the purchase of new MiG-29Ks. According to Jane's, one Russian official said there was no point in resuming construction of the new Su-33s while the fifth-generation T-50 fighter was being developed.
Earlier it was reported that China purchased a prototype of the T-10K carrier-based aircraft from Ukraine. But this aircraft was one of the first experimental models of the Su-33 and has many design flaws, which were eliminated later.
There are two groups in China - a group of industrialists who want to create a carrier-based aircraft based on the J-11B (copies of the Su-27), and a group of military people who want to buy Russian aircraft. This conflict must be resolved by the PLA command.
