60 AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/NOVEMBER 3/10, 2014 AviationWeek.com/awstRichard D. Fisher, Jr. WashingtonChina aims to become a
total defense supplier
I
n March, the Stockholm International Peace Research
Institute reported that China had risen to fourth place in
global arms sales—displacing France—after pushing the
U.K. into sixth place in 2013. The tenth Zhuhai show sees
China emerging as a one-stop military aerospace provider,
from surveillance satellites to 50-kg (110-lb.) small-diameter
precision-guided munitions (PGM).
With the aid of massive government investments in its
arms sector, and key 1998 reforms that favored and subsi-
dized competition among redundant companies over consoli-
dation, China has become able to of er multiple families of
products in many defense market segments, such as fi elding
four families of air-launched PGMs.
China is still in the market for Russian aerospace technol-
ogy, with deals for the Sukhoi Su-35 and Almaz-Antey S-400
surface-to-air missile (SAM) nearing completion. But having
absorbed and in many cases emulated the systems that it has
acquired since the early 1990s, China is now emerging as a
formidable and lower-priced competitor to Russia, and is also
becoming competitive on performance with European and
American military products.
For China, the remaining barriers to entry into world mar-
kets include the lack of reliable, ef cient indigenous aircraft
engines; the domination of regional markets by established
suppliers; little—if any—combat experience and Western sus-
picion, pressure and sanctions. South Korean media reports
from Oct. 9 indicated that Washington vetoed a Zhuhai ap-
pearance by South Korea’s Black Eagles aerobatic team. The
team fl ies the Korea Aerospace Industries T-50B, powered by
a General Electric F404 turbofan. Another sign of suspicion
toward China, with its reputation for computer network ex-
ploitation, is that the industry still mostly hands out paperbrochures rather than USB memory sticks at trade shows.
One Chinese response has been to vigorously market
its aerospace and defense wares globally, be-
coming a major presence at key re-
gional arms exhibitions
like Idex in Abu Dhabi
and the Dubai air show, and expanding its
presence at shows in South Africa, Indonesia, Malaysia,
Brazil, Peru, Chile and Turkey.
Traditional customers like Pakistan still account for many
Chinese sales, but in September 2013 China won its first
NATO-member competition. Turkey chose low-bidder China
Aerospace Science and Industry Corp. (Casic) and its 125-
150-km (78-93-mi.)-range FD-2000/HQ-9 fourth-generation
surface-to-air missile (SAM), defeating Almaz-Antey’s S-300
and Raytheon’s Patriot PAC-3. But that deal has all but foun-
dered under pressure from the U.S. and its NATO allies.
Still, Turkey’s choice signaled China’s growing competi-
tiveness in missile and space technology. Two of China’s ma-
jor fourth-generation SAMs, the HQ-9 and the 50-km-range
HQ-16A, are based respectively on technology from the Almaz-
Antey S-300PMU and Buk-M SAM systems, which China fi rst
purchased. Almaz-Antey has cooperated in the process because
it has moved on to more-advanced systems like the S-400.
While they may not show up at Zhuhai, China, is working
on SAMs comparable to Raytheon’s PAC-3 and SM-3 sys-
tems. But that’s not all: Due to subsidized competition, in 2012
land systems leader Norinco and air-to-air missile (AAM)
maker Luoyang Electro-optic Technology Center introduced
their 50-km-range Sky Dragon, using the active-guided DK-10
SAM derived from the latter’s SD-10A/PL-12 medium-range
AAM. Like Russia, China is also developing and displaying
very-high-frequency counterstealth radars.
China also has two families of export tactical ballistic mis-
siles, Casic’s 280-km-range, truck-carried B-611M and a com-
bination family comprising the vertically-launched 200-km-
range BP-12A and 150-km-range SY-400. Even though these
appear to be modern, accurate and maneuverable, compa-
rable in performance to but cheaper than the Russian Is-
kander, they have not sold outside China. (Iskander exports
will not start until 2016, Russian of cials said this summer.)
A Chinese source at the May 2013 Sitdef arms exhibition
in Lima, Peru, remarked that they were “too expensive” for
regional customers.
So far, China’s performance in combat aircraft exports has
been less consistent than its sales of smaller-ticket items. Its
two designated export fi ghters remain hobbled by the lack
of orders from the Chinese air force, and its ability to export
fi ghters and support them will remain dependent on Russian
cooperation until China’s engine industry is mature.
Chengdu’s FC-1, or JF-17 as it is called by development
partner Pakistan, is a single-engine $30-35 million fi ghter
claimed to have 85-90% of the performance of the $70-90
million Lockheed Martin F-16C. A Block 2 version with a re-
fueling probe is beginning production in Pakistan. The fate
of a twin-seat FC-1S version revealed at the 2013 Paris air
show is not clear, with Pakistani sources at the 2013 Dubai
air show saying they did not need it.ZHUHAI 2014Building
Business
In a late development, the Chinese government decided
to bring the F-35-size Shenyang J-31 stealth fi ghter to
Zhuhai, but missiles and electronics still head the nation’s
export prospects.PHOTOS VIA INTERNET
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