Type 052D hull number 2 launched in Shanghui

It was rumored that Type 052D  DDG  hull 2 was launched last week -- here are photos confirming it.









In the meanwhile,  the building work for fourth and fifth  hulls of Type 052C was coming along nicely, they should be ready for sea trials soon.

Photo of the day: Y-8GX6 (Y-8Q) ASW Aircraft (High New 6)

All of a sudden, really, really big chin is back in fashion.





 





Wednesday, November 16, 2011


Y-8GX6 Patrol/ASW Aircraft, the Chinese P-3C Surfaced.




Not one but a pair.






Note the weapon bay

Photos of the day: J-10B, pre-production

Just walk the Earth, like Caine in Kung Fu

Old habit is hard to break -- despite all those talks about mechanization, the PLA still prize their tradition of being man-portable (leg mobility).  The fact that all their crew service equipments can be broken down to pieces and carried on soldiers’ backs is very telling. 







It will not break China’s bank, if the CMC is to provide their "Marius' Mules" with a few decent pairs of boots, for

2012 in Review

2012 was an interesting year to look back on for PLAN and PLAAF. We saw the commissioning of No. 16 Liaoning carrier, the launching of the new 052D class destroyers, the first flight of J-31 fighter jet and what appears to be taxi-run and impending first flight of Y-20 strategic transport. Here are what I think are the 10 biggest story of 2012.

1. The Aircraft Carrier project:
Many of the PLAN followers have waited for the commissioning and the first flight off Liaoning for over 7 years. Since 2005 when ex-Varyag was first moved into Dalian shipyard dry docks for extensive work and painting of PLAN colours, internet forums have been buzzing with questions about when/if this ship will ever join service. The negotiation for 50 Su-33 and the application of the non-skid layer in 2006 further moved us to think that this ship will join service. However, what appeared to be extensive period of inaction in 2007 and 2008 made us question some of those thoughts. When it was moved to dry docks again in 2009, it appeared just a matter of time before this ship will enter service. Much of the outfitting of sensors and self-defense weapons were installed in 2010 to 2011. We even saw a replica of Liaoning in Wuhan. The sea trials for Liaoning started in August of 2011 and it officially joined service on September 24th of this year after 10 sea trials. We did not find out until later, but numerous touch-n-go had already been completed on this ship by that point. The monumental first take-off and landing with J-15 naval aircraft off Liaoning was completed by Nov 20th. More of the photographed take-off and landings of multiple J-15s were accomplished on Nov 23rd. All in all, this marked the completion of the first stage of the carrier project. Now, China begins the long process of developing a fully operational carrier group with its own naval aviation doctrines.

2. Emergence of type 052D class DDG:
While the wait for this was not nearly as long, many PLAN followers have been waiting since at least 2008 for an improved surface combatant to the 052C class. The relocation of JiangNan shipyard and indigenization of DA80/DN80 gas turbine (QC-280) delayed the production of follow-on units for several years. By late 2010, the 3rd unit of the 052C class was launched at the new JN shipyard. Many PLAN followers were disappointed over the fact that the new 052C had no visible external changes compared to the first two 052C. Over the next year or so, 3 more 052Cs were launched in JN shipyard. They are all in various stages of sea trials and fitting out at the moment. By August of this year, we had the long awaited launching of the much anticipated 052D class. As discussed in previous blog entries, 052D class is fitted with an entirely new generation of air defence and combat system. In addition, we saw the introduction of the Chinese version of MK-41 VLS that can launch different types of missiles and fit multiple missiles per launch cell. When we compared the overhead shot of 052D vs 052C, it appears that the size of the ships did not change much, but the new VLS and other weaponry have allowed more capabilities to be packed in the same hull. It appears that at least 4 052D are planned at the moment. Whether or not we will see more of this class depends on the development of PLAN's next generation of large surface combatants. 052D class is not only important in its much improved combat power versus the 052C class, but it's also very important in testing out this new generation of sensors and weapon systems that will likely be used by future surface combatants of different sizes. One thing to look forward to is the different missiles that will be developed and fitted into the new VLS. Another thing to look forward to is whether this will just be an interim class of 4 ships before a new series of surface combatant comes along or will this be part of a much larger part of PLAN's future.

3. Appearance of Y-20 transport:
This is still a very recent story, so its importance has not really been explored much. One only has to look at all the delayed PLAAF programs to see how important this project is. The strategic lift has been so lacking that China have recently been forced to purchase refurbished second hand IL-76s from Russia. At this point, the IL-76 imported in the early 90s may not have much service life left. At the same time, PLAAF currently only operated 4 KJ-2000 AEWC&C, because PLAAF does not have enough remaining IL-76 units. Other projects that would need something like Y-20 include aerial refueling tanker, ABL, next generation AEWC&C and various other special missions project. The successful induction and mass production of this aircraft would provide a huge leap in PLAAF's force projection capabilities. I put this ahead of J-31, because Y-20 would contribute more to PLAAF's desires to transform from an air denial force to air dominance more than any other project. From this point on, it will be interesting to see how fast Y-20 can join services. As shown with other projects like A400M and C-2, a lot of delays can happen in the development of large military transport.

4. Appearance and first flight of J-31 fighter jet:
The appearance of China's second 5th generation project caused a lot of uproar back in September. It had been speculated for a long time that SAC might have a competing project to CAC's J-20. As mentioned in previous blog entries, it's still not clear exactly what will happen to this aircraft. It looks to be offered in the export market. It is probably going to be inducted into PLAAF as a compliment to the larger and more expensive J-20. There might be a naval version that gets developed to replace J-15 as PLAN's second generation of naval aircraft. With its experience from developing J-15, a naval version of J-31 should be well within SAC's capability. As we move forward, it will be interesting to see the installation of a domestic engine option that J-31 was designed for. Clearly, the gap between RD-93 and the exhaust indicates that RD-93 isn't the permanent solution to J-31. There will be sometimes before J-31 is ready.

5. Introduction of Z-10 and Z-19 to the world:
The development for Z-10 started in 1998 and was known to the world by the early 2000s, but was kept almost completely confidential for the past 10 years. It first flew in 2003, but was delayed when the PT6C-76C engines embargo was imposed by the Canadian government. The project was delayed until 2009 when a lighter version was developed using the less powerful WZ-9 engine. Z-19 development started probably late last decade and first flew in 2010. It was not kept to the same level of secrecy as Z-10. In this past year's Zhuhai air show, both Z-10 and Z-19 were unveiled to the world. We saw much TV coverage in addition to flight displays from Z-10 and Z-19 units. The most interesting find of this past year was that Z-10 and Z-19 are far wider deployed than we previously estimated, since both only officially achieved operational clearance in the past 2 years. With pictures of different serial numbers, we are able to identify the existence of Z-10 in 5 different PLA LH brigades and Z-19 in 4 different PLA LH brigades. At the present time, each brigade that has Z-10 and/or Z-19 have 12 of each helicopter. Moving forward, it's likely that Z-10 and Z-19 will be deployed to all of the army aviation brigades in the next couple of years. That would represent quite a jump in the capabilities of PLA LH, which had been relying mostly upon Z-9s and Mi-17s up to this point.

6. The continued high tide of PLAN:
2011 was the start of a new wave of shipbuilding for PLAN. This trend only accelerated into this year. Most of the major Chinese naval shipyards have been very busy with naval and civilian maritime ministry orders in the past year. Part of this could be the downturn in the world's shipbuilding market, but an even larger part is that the time has come for this second wave of PLAN modernization (the first being from 2003 to 2006). JiangNan shipyard has been leading the way with 8 052C/D ships in various stages of completion before commissioning along with construction of 039B submarines and Minesweepers. HuDong shipyard has continued its work with at least 3 054A frigates along with Type 903 AOR and multiple 056 patrol ships. Huangpu shipyard is finishing up on its 054A orders, but is building numerous 056 patrol ships, small specialty naval ships and cutters for different maritime agencies. One of the prominent sightings at HP shipyard is the number of rescue ships and CMS ships that are in various stages of completion. Wuchang shipyard also has its shares of cutters along with 039B submarines and 056 patrol ships. Even the smaller shipyards around the country have been getting many orders for auxiliary ships, smaller combat ships and rescue ship/cutters for civilian ministry. The only one that seems to not be getting much work right now is Dalian shipyard. Going forward, this heavy construction activity should continue into next year with JN, HD and HP shipyard continue being the largest naval shipyards in the country.

7. The 056 program:
This interim class between 022 FACs and 054A FFGs has been speculated since 2007. As we saw large number of cutters entering service with the civilian maritime agencies, the demand for this interim class for patroling nearby waters by the navy seem to no longer be there. But by late 2010, it was quite clear that PLAN intends to build this new class of ships. It is expected to replace the roles of 037s and Jianghu class FFGs to conduct naval patrol in South China Sea and provide littoral defense. I think what surprised me was the huge ramp up in the production of 056s. Back in 2010, I was expecting something similar to 054A with production of a couple of early unit, some testing period and then large scale production. The 056 program seems to follow an even more aggressive production schedule than 022 FACs. We are seeing four shipyards (HuDong, HuangPu, WuChang and LiaoNan) producing 056s simultaneously before the first 056 was ever launched. In fact, the first 056 launched from both HP and HD shipyard had their funnels and the bow section reworked after they were already launched. Even with HP shipyard slowing down a little bit recently, there have been at least 7 056s launched in the past 8 months. One 056 from both HP and HD shipyards have already gone out for sea trials. Going forward, it looks like 056 could easily see a production run of over 30 units. It would represent a huge leap over the performance of 037s and Jianghu ships that it will be replacing. As higher priority projects fall in the hands of HD and HP shipyard, we may see some smaller shipyards (in addition to LiaoNan) get orders for 056.

8. Success of Shenyang AC:
It has been a really good year for Shenyang AC. For the past few years, SAC was loosing out to its little brother CAC, who have been successful with J-10 and J-20 project along with export successes with JF-17 and F-7. The J-11B program was delayed for long periods by production failures of FWS-10. Since 2011, FWS-10 has been put on the right track and J-11B/S can now be considered to be successful. On top of that, the successful take-off and landing of J-15 fighter jet along with the first flight of the two-seated version J-15S show that Shenyang has successfully navalized J-11B/S. The unveiling and first flights of J-31,J-16 (China's Su-30 equivalent) and J-15S this year are all great success stories for SAC. SAC is also reported very active with UAV and UCAV projects, so there is a lot to look forward to out of SAC next year.

9. The expansion of civilian maritime agency:Back in 2010, China announced that it will build 30 marine law enforcement vessels over 5 years. I think this is just the plans for Chinese Maritime Surveillance rather than all 5 of the civilian agencies. We can see this massive expansion just by seeing all of the new cutters that are produced at HuangPu and WuChang shipyard. What we often don't see is the smaller shipyards that are also building smaller cutters (of 600 ton class) for CMS. The smaller shipyards have also been busy building smaller cutters (300 to 600 ton class) for FLEC and Maritime Police. On top of the new ships, numerous naval ships that were decommissioned recently have been sent to shipyards to get refurbished for use by CMS and FLEC. Some of the new cutters are used to patrol the disputed waters with Japan and ASEAN. Other cutters are been delivered to coastal provinces to provide security. So, it's wrong to just think this ramp up is purely targeting Japan and Vietnam. Other than the maritime police, the cutters for other agencies are completely unarmed. So while they can look menacing, they are not military ships.

10. Increased transparency:
While PLA is still less transparent than what Western countries would like to see, it has made a lot of effort in increasing transparency. Online military blogs such as this one are more in touch with PLA programs than ever before. Part of that is due to the amount of photos we get on programs that were previously seen as classified. We see pictures of new aircraft projects well before the first flight. Outside of nuclear submarines, I really can't think of any PLAAF or PLAN project that is hidden anymore. At the same time, the Chinese government is putting more effort out there to explain its defence programs like the carrier project and most recently with the Y-20 project. None of this is done accidentally. PLA has increased confidence over the weapon systems that are being developed and deployed. And it also wants to show that to address concerns from other countries.


There are also stories that haven't been mentioned much, but are very important in my opinion. Below are the top 5 under rated stories of 2012:

1. Production of more 052C and 054A ships:
With all of the new ships coming into service, the continued production of 052C and 054A get overlooked a little bit. The production of 054A is going beyond 16, because PLAN has been so pleased with the cost and capability of this ship. 054A is already the work horse of PLAN in major exercises, missions to Gulf of Aden, and other blue water deployment. By the end of its production run, 054A would effectively have replaced all of the old Jianghu ships while pushing the Jiangwei ships to secondary duties. At the same time, the induction of 052C into East Sea Fleet will make the fleet fully modernized by 2014 (all of the old Ludas, Jianghus and Ming class submarines would be replaced). PLAN is no longer in a phase of discovering new capabilities, but mass deploying these new capabilities.

2. Continued expansion of MCM ships:
Another area where PLAN is continuing to modernize is in mine warfare. Unknown to a lot of observers, 3 new Type 081 minesweepers were launched this year bringing the total to 8. Along with the 2 more advanced Type 082II MCM ships, PLAN's MCM operation is continuing to see quantum leap over the old Soviet era T-43 class minesweepers.

3. Ever increasing complexity of PLAAF exercises:
Along with the impreovement in hardware, it seems like the software part of PLA is also improving. The PLAAF version of red flag exercise at Dingxin is getting more and more complex every year. PLAAF has also introduced it's own Top Gun system with awarding of "Golden helmet" to pilots who perform well in the different combat scenarios.

4. The appearance of Y-8 High New 6 maritime patrol aircraft
ASW has long been PLAN's greatest weakness. A large part of that is the lack of a dedicated maritime patrol aircraft designed for ASW missions like P-3C. Although it has to join service with PLANAF, Y-8 High New 6 should eventually fill that role. Knowing that Shaanxi AC can only produce so many platforms every year, PLANAF will really have to battle out with PLAAF for Category III platforms to be installed for this mission.

5. Increase exports of naval and civilian patrol ships
In this past year, an increased sighting amongst Chinese shipyard are military or patrol ships built for export. Most recently, we have seen patrol ships built for Bangladesh, Namibia and Pakistan and refurbished Jianghu ships for Burma and Bangladesh. On top of that, Pakistan has just signed a contract for 4 more F-22P. Since China doesn't report on its naval exports, we really don't know about those deals until we see them taking shape in one of the numerous naval shipyards around the country.

So, that concludes an extremely eventful year for PLAN and PLAAF. There is certainly a lot to look forward to in 2013. It has also been a big year for me personally and I hope we all have a good end of the year.

It is offical, Y-20 it is.

China confirms it's developing large transport aircraft(Source: Xinhua)   2012-12-28　　BEIJING, Dec. 27 (Xinhua) -- China is developing Y-20 large transport aircraft to meet its military modernization drive, a Ministry of Defense spokesman said Thursday.　　"We are developing large transport aircraft on our own to improve the capability of air transport," spokesman Yang Yujun said at a monthly news

China’s first 3D surveying and mapping satellite starts networking operation

China’s first 3D surveying and mapping satellite starts networking operation(Source: China Military Online)   2012-12-27　　China’s first transmission-type three-dimensional surveying and mapping satellite, Space Mapping-I system, formally started the networking operation recently, according to the Space Mapping Satellite Application Management Center recently. This was another breakthrough after

9th PLA LH Brigade, 39th Group Army, Shanyang MR, the fourth confirmed Z-10 operator

The fourth Z-10 equipped PLA LH Brigade is confirmed by today's (12/26/2012) report.  In a rather short period, the PLA now boost 48 known Z-10s in 4 attack squadrons of 12 birds each in four different LH brigades. 











Here are some clear photos of the Z-10 attack squadron, 6th LH  Brigade, 42nd Group Army, Guangzhou MR.











Saturday, November 10, 2012


Zhuhai Suprise: Z-10 of the

Photo of the day: J-16's holographic HUD

If the PLAN can field J-15 with a holographic HUD,  I am sure Shenyang Aircraft Company can put the same HUD on J-16, per request from the PLA-AF.








Wednesday, May 02, 2012



No typo, J-16 is the Chinese Strike Flanker, Su30 MK2





http://rusnavy.com/news/othernavies/index.php?ELEMENT_ID=13692


China
demonstrated fighter J16 to the press at aircraft factory Shenyang
Aircraft Co; it is

China's New Y-20 Military Heavy Lift Transport Revealed

As if 2012 hasn't been a year to remember already vis a vis Chinese military developments, pictures were revealed today of the new Y-20 transport prototype at Xian Aircraft Corporation's Yanliang Airfield.  This aircraft appears to have a T-tail and is using four D-30KP-2 engines, production aircraft are expected to use a new Chinese turbofan.  Keep visiting here, we will continue to watch and

Photo of the day: Type 052D LUYANG III-Class DDG's mid-section VLS revealed

Thursday, August 30, 2012


Type 052D LUYANG III-Class DDG, what we do know so far




There are two under construction -- they are sporting a new 130mm main gun and a set of much larger radar arrays


According to people who have seen the ship at HSH here are the observations.

1. Main mast is slightly different on the top, similar to 054A.
2. The space between the aft mast and aft VLS is

Pre-production J-10B

Since J-10B's maiden flight in Dec 2008, the development on this J-10 variant seems to be stuck in low gear.   This situation might be changing as latest rumor has revealed that first batch of four pre-production copies are well on their way.


One of the four pre-production copies

Revolution Is Not a Dinner Party

Let hope that this new ban won't weaken their revolutionary spirit


Chinese military bans luxury banquets

(Source: Xinhua)   2012-12-22

　　BEIJING, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- The military on Friday declared that receptions for high-ranking officers will no longer feature liquor or luxury banquets.

　　The receptions will also be free of welcome banners, red carpets, floral arrangements, formations of

It is offical -- "Global Liberation Army - Navy" font

Back in August, I blogged that some Chinese forumers are not happy with the new PLAN white pennant font.  Well, according to today's PLA Daily, the new white pennant is now the official “naval hull number font”.   



Saturday, August 18, 2012



Global Liberation Army - Navy



Recently some of the China Navy's latest vessels, including their newly
commissioned 052C Luyang II class DDG 152,

Photos of the day: Chinese Navy ships visit Sydney

Chinese Navy ships visit Sydney(Source: Xinhua)   2012-12-18　　Three Chinese navy ships returning home from counter-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden have arrived in Sydney as part of a four day port visit, local media reported on Tuesday.　　The ships, Yi Yang, Chang Zhou and Qian Dao Hu, began arriving in Sydney at 8:30 a.m. (local time) on Tuesday, according to the

Photo of the day: Jianghu class FFG (551 and 552) becoming scrap metal

Two more Jianghu FFGs are done for.

FFG-552 “Yibin”,FFG-551 “Maoming" are at Binghai Shipyard being dismantled. Apparently Jan 2013 Naval and Merchant Ships has a gallery of them.

-- hmmwv



















Sunday, August 05, 2012




Bye bye FFG 511 and 512



The Jianghu class pair FFG 511 (Nantong) and FFG 512 (Wuxi) of the 8th
Escort Squadron, East Sea Fleet, decommissioned today at the Yangtze
River pier. Perhaps it is

Photos of the day: Lushan County, Henan Province

Home to one of the PLAAF Airplane Graveyards.

PLA Navy makes preparations for aircraft carrier formation

PLA Navy makes preparations for aircraft carrier formation(Source: Xinhua)   2012-12-13　　Within only a month, the development of China’s aircraft carrier experienced the official delivery of the “Liaoning Ship” to the Navy of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and the successful taking-off and landing training of the carrier-borne J-15 fighter nicknamed “Flying Shark” on the deck of the

Another 100-bird PLAAF drill.

While the PLAAF fighter jocks were off to their "red flag" in northwest
China,  their truck' drivin cohorts are playing FebEx in Chengdu.   They sure like to put on a big show when doing these drills



PLA Air Force holds comprehensive support drill

(Source: Xinhua)   2012-12-06

A comprehensive support experiment drill with multi-types of fighters on the double-runway under information

J-15 vs Su-33 vs Mig-29K

This past week, there was an article on People's daily called China's J-15 fighter superior to Russian Su-33

I had a couple of thoughts reading through it. My first thought was that finally China is actually defending itself against some of these Western and Russian accusations. It drove me crazy back in the days to see Russian media quoting different people blasting China for copying its weaponry and for making excuses for not fulfilling contracts like the one for IL-76/78. Through all of that, there was nobody from AVIC1 or PLA that spoke against some of those claims. The only times I heard official denials were regarding claims of China selling J-10s to Iran and purchasing Su-35s from Russia. Those were clearly crazy rumours that spread because China did not step in earlier to deny these things. Going forward, I hope CMC/PLA puts a stronger PR effort out there to defend itself against some of the Russian claims.

My second thought was that while it was good to see China defending against Russian claims that a copy can never be better than the original, it should be obvious to everyone that J-15 is a superior fighter jet to the original Su-33. However, it's really not saying much, because J-15 is being compared against something that was developed in the late 80s. If after 20+ years, J-15 is not better than Su-33, then SAC should stop developing and producing aircraft. Compared to the original Su-33, J-15 include:

• Having multi-role capability and can fire wide range of AAM, AShM, ARM and ground attack weapons
• Having a more powerful and multi-role fire control system (probably using an AESA radar)
• Having more powerful IRST/FLIR system, EW suite, RWR and MAWs
• Having more modern avionics with modern data bus, mission computers, holographic HUDs, modern MMI and fiber optic wiring.
• Using more composite material and lighter electronics to give better T/W ratio

Now, if the Russians had invested in modernizing Su-33, it could do all of the above. Although, we could argue whether it has the same wide range of ground attack weapons as China or if the sensors/avionics is as advanced or more advanced. It has chosen not to, because it has picked Mig-29K has the future naval fighter.

There are many reasons why it made more sense for the Russians to go with a modern Mig-29K instead of Su-33. My opinion is that India had already paid for the development of a modern Mig-29K as part of its effort to develop a 3 carrier fleet. At the same time, China had rejected Russia's 3 step proposal of first taking the original Su-33s, then upgrading to a multi-role version with Su-30MK2 sensor/weapon suite and eventually upgrading to a final version with PESA radar. As a result, it made more sense for Russia to go with the already developed naval aircraft with production lines rather than re-opening the production lines and pay for the development cost of a modern Su-33. At the same time, Mikoyan needed these orders a lot more than Sukhoi (which has a long backlog of domestic and export orders).

Looking back, I think that China obviously made the right decision to develop J-15 on its own with some help from the purchase of T-10K-3. The experience from developing naval version of J-11B will help SAC develop next generation of naval aircraft like a naval version of J-31. At the same time, there was no reason for China to pay the Russians to develop modern version of Su-33 if it could develop a modern version of J-15 by itself. It's similar to my last post about China's choice of purchasing MKK rather than getting involved in a long running project like MKI. Imports from Russia are always considered interim solutions. If domestic options can be developed in time, there really is no reason to get involved in a foreign project and pay for the development cost.

Looking ahead, I think China is also better off with a J-15 class fighter than a Mig-29K class fighter. There was a competition between SAC and CAC over the first generation of a naval fighter jet. Flanker variant won over the J-10 variant because it was considered to have better multi-role capabilities. The current version of J-15 is already a multi-role aircraft. In the future, we could see different versions of J-15 like a single-seat buddy-to-buddy refueling, a two-seat EW version like Growler or a two-seated mini AEWC&C version. These are not things you can do with a lighter naval aircraft.

Photos of the day: Chinese, Belarusian airborne troops hold joint exercise in China

Chinese, Belarusian airborne troops hold joint exercise in China





Chinese, Belarusian airborne troops hold joint exercise in China(Source: Xinhua)   2012-11-27　
　BEIJING, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- Chinese and Belarusian airborne troops
started their second joint training drills on Monday in China, according
to China's Ministry of National Defense.　　The joint exercise
will be conducted in

The PLAAF Regiments are ....

Recently, the PLAAF gathered over 100 birds for an "air-combat testing assessment" and the participating fighter regiments are as follow:  The 1st (J-11B), 4th (J-8DF), 8th (J-10), 42nd (J-7E), 54th (Su-30) and 55th (J-11).   


PLA Air Force holds confrontation air-combat testing assessment

(Source: China Military Online)   2012-12-05

More
than 100 top pilots from 14 aviation brigades/

J-7E down

Four injured in China fighter jet crash: government    Published: 5/12/2012 at 04:47 AM    Online news: Asiahttp://www.bangkokpost.com/news/asia/324631/four-injured-in-china-fighter-jet-crash-governmentA Chinese fighter jet crashed in a southern Chinese city Tuesday, sparking a fire that injured at least four people, the defence ministry announced.Ground crews check on the row of

Radar over Tibet

Combat-readiness highway for highest PLA man-controlled radar station completed(Source: China Military Online)   2012-12-03The picture shows the combat-readiness highway leading to the Ganbala radar station of the PLA in Tibet of China. (Photo by Guo Yingchao)　　A delivery ceremony for the main part of the construction project of a combat-readiness highway for the Ganbala radar station of the

Who are those two new China Marine Surveillance (CMS) ships?

Both Hai Jian 111 and 112 are former PLAN ships, fortunately easy to identify:

Hai Jian 111 is the former YANBING class icebreaker Hai Bing 723

Hai Jian 112 is the former Type 918 WOLEI class minelayer 814 LIAOYANG

They were both homeported at Lushun, while Hai Jian 110 ex Bei Tuo 710 was homeported at Qingdao, where I think all three are now.

-- franco-russe








Here is a good

How things have changed

Recently, we’ve been hearing from Russians about a proposed sale of 24 Su-35s to China. As with every other time, a lively debate re-ignited on Sinodefenceforum on whether or not this will/should happen. I got to be so annoyed with the endless debate on this topic that I stopped the thread until confirmation of actual sale happening.

Thinking back to the early days of joining sinodefenceforum (around 2005), it’s really interesting how much things have changed and how much my perspectives have changed over the times. Back then, J-10 had just joined services and Su-30MKK was considered the most powerful fighter jet in PLAAF. There was much discussion started by Indian posters online regarding the superiority of MKI over MKK. I bugged me a lot back then that Russians are restricting their export of advanced technologies to China. A big deal was made out of the advanced Israeli avionics, TVC nozzle and BARS radar on MKI that were not offered for MKK. Even Su-30MKK3s that were offered to China at that time were using Zhuk-MSE radar instead of phased array radar like Bars. Indians were convinced that their friendship with Russia and European embargo ensures that Russia would never be offering their best stuff to China. I still remember thinking to myself and wondering why the only phased array radar offered to China was the Pero antenna on top of N-0001VE radar. I remember being extremely excited when hearing that China was testing out Irbis radar. Finally, I thought China was getting something better than what India received. I was somewhat confused that China never opted for it. That was just one the many cases where it seemed like the Russians were denying their best stuff to Chinese requests. Others included a leasing of Akula nuclear submarine, outfitting of Admiral Gorshkov carrier and even Amur submarine.

It’s funny looking at how my perception of these situations have changed over the past 7 to 8 years as I have seen how things played out and found out more about what went on behind the scenes. Even as recent as 2008, I thought it made sense for China to get a couple of regiments of Su-35s as an interim option until the next generation of fighter jet comes into service. I was also in favour of import of Su-33s for a long time just in case that J-15 program hits some kind of snag. Probably the program that caused the biggest delays to PLAAF was the import of IL-76/78. When the original order of 38 of these aircraft were nullified due to the inability of Tashkent plant, we heard that Kazakhstan actually were offering to sell almost everything needed for IL-76 (with the exception of engine probably) to China, since the Russians were planning to move production back to Russia. For whatever reason, either Chinese hesitancy (due to domestic interests) scuttled the deal. These days, China is purchasing revamped/upgraded IL-76s that were in Russian storage as the interim option. Other than this, it seems like China knew exactly what was going on all along. It took what’s immediately available from the Russians and did not buy into any of the plans and development programs that they were offering.

In most of the naval program, it has become apparent in the recent years that Russian shipyards are in a bad condition, whereas Chinese shipyards are capable of cranking out modern war ships. I remember when the Ukrayina (an unfinished Slava class cruiser) was offered to China and it seemed to make a lot of sense at the time for China to purchase it, since they already have 051C using the same air defense system. Now, having looked at the development of 052C/052D while also seeing the problems that Sov have experienced with PLAN, it has certainly become inconceivable for China to go for this option. At the same time, China’s success in the Liaoning project along with the Russian struggles in INS Vikramaditya has shown that they made the right choice to go alone. The troubles experienced in the development of Amur submarine have forced Russia into procuring kilo submarines again. While at the same time, China has been mass producing 039B while building a mysterious new diesel submarine that is supposedly replacing the old Gulf class test sub. China has taken pretty much all it needed from Russia in its current generation of surface combatants and moved on to a newer generation of ships. It would make more sense now for the Russians to purchase ships from China rather than vice versa.

In aerospace world, much of the myths from back in 2005 have also been rejected. All along, it seemed like China looked at Su-30MKK as an interim solution in developing an offensive platform with mature technology while indigenously developing domestic options like J-11B. While the Chinese flanker program has suffered setbacks such as the delays in FWS-10 project, SAC has now turned it into a success with the recent progress in J-15, J-15S and J-16. As time goes on, it makes less and less sense for China to purchase Su-35 or other Russian options. It seems to me that China realized very early on to not fall for Russian sale pitches and only go for systems that are already mature. In the long term, it relied on its own defense industry for developing new weapon systems rather than Indian method of relying on co-production of imported technology. Even though we do not hear about it, PLAAF always had a plan of how it was good to develop a strong domestic military aviation industry. Its goal in original dealings with Russians was to use foreign technology to develop domestic industry rather than just getting finished products. China’s fourth generation aircraft programs no longer need any Russian assistance. In areas such as UAV and ground attack weaponry, China has already surpassed Russia. In the race to next generation fighter jet, China is at least on par with Russia in the development process. The only major areas it remains to be behind Russia are engine production, transport helicopters and military transport. And as we can see, those are pretty much the only items that China still purchases from the Russians.

Since 2005, China has experienced generational improvements in different defense areas. It is hard to see same level of improvement in the next 7 years. I have learnt to not speculate too much about the future, because I end up looking quite foolish in the process.

Photos of the day: U.S. Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus in China

BFF?

China-U.S. joint humanitarian assistance and disaster relief tabletop exercise held

(Source: China Military Online)   2012-11-30


Two officers from the two sides are exchanging views during the interval of the tabletop exercise. (PLA Daily/Yang Liming)

　　A joint tabletop exercise of humanitarian assistance and disaster relief between the Chinese and American armed forces was held in Chengdu,

Make it bi-annual Okinawa cruise

Chinese navy fleet enters West Pacific for routine training(Source: Xinhua)   2012-11-29













A Chinese naval fleet passed through the Miyako Strait and entered West Pacific Ocean for a routine training exercise on Nov. 28, 2012. (Source: www.news.cn/Ju zhenhua)　　　　MISSILE FRIGATE ZHOUSHAN, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese naval fleet passed through the Miyako Strait and entered West

Photo of the day: Chinese Zubr

Looks like the long saga of the Chinese Zubr buy is near its end -- On 17 November the first Zubr was accepted by China. 2 crews from China are in Ukraine, starting on-board training.

(thanks snake65 for the news)







Saturday, September 22, 2012


YouTube of the day: The first Zubr LCAC for China is near completion.












 






Thanks Imp for alerting the news.

http://

Chinese, Belarusian airborne troops hold joint exercise in China

Chinese, Belarusian airborne troops hold joint exercise in China(Source: Xinhua)   2012-11-27　　BEIJING, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- Chinese and Belarusian airborne troops started their second joint training drills on Monday in China, according to China's Ministry of National Defense.　　The joint exercise will be conducted in accordance with the exchange and cooperation programs agreed upon between the

Photos of the day: orange jumpsuits

No,  those Chinese naval naval aviators on board of the aircraft carrier Liaoning are not sporting inmate orange jumpsuits, those are the new survival /G suit for pilots. 

China conducts flight landing on aircraft carrier

China conducts flight landing on aircraft carrier
English.news.cn   2012-11-25 00:16:35     [RSS]    [Feedback]    [Print]    [Copy URL]    [More]

LIAONING AIRCRAFT CARRIER, Nov. 25 (Xinhua) -- China has successfully conducted flight landing on its first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, naval sources said.

A new J-15 fighter jet was used as part of the landing exercise.

After its delivery to

FIRST PICS! Chinese Carrier Aircraft Launch and Recovery

Well here they are, the first public pics of Chinese J-15 navalized fighters operating from the LIAONING (EX-VARYAG). It's unclear when these photos were taken, but the aircraft are assigned the China Flight Test Establishment (CFTE) at Xian-Yanliang.

 Highway 16 to the danger zone:

First flight of J-15 off Liaoning

It has finally happened. We finally have news confirmation from Xinhua and also have pictures of J-15's first take/off and landing from Xinhua. The news of first landing came a couple of days ago, but this is the first time we have seen the photos.

Here is a timeline of China's naval flanker program just to give you an idea:

• 2001, Assemble the T-10K-3 prototype that PLAN purchased from Ukraine. Use this for long term technical study.
• January 2007, AVIC1 and PLAN’s major program (J-15) research work started.
• July 2007, AVIC1 SAC had a large program tackling meeting
• January 2008, blueprint work finished, start prototype research & production stage
• August 31st 2009, J15-0001 had maiden flight
• May 6th 2010, maiden take-off flight from the simulated jet-ski at CFTE. Continued production of single digit number of prototypes for future testing
• August 10th, 2011, China’s first aircraft carrier went out for sea trials. J-15-0005/CFTE-554 and J15-0008/CFTE-556 prototypes made numerous fly-overs, low altitude touch and go landing along the way.
• July 2012, Finished certification test flights, given permission to product single digit number of batch 0 J-15s for initial testing/trials works
• September 25th, 2012, PLAN first aircraft carrier was named Liaoning and had its first sailing after commissioning in October
• November 3rd, 2012, J-15S-0001 had maiden flight
• Early November, 2012, Liaoning had second sailing after commissioning
• November 20th, 2012, a PLANAF pilot made the first carrier landing trial.
• November 23rd, 2012, Two PLANAF pilots flying 2 J-15s finished carrier op controlled first official takeoff and landing trials. This marks successful completion of first stage of the Carrier aviation project.

Photos of the day: 056 Class Corvette in sea trial

China launches high-altitude drone patrolling-and-inspection tests

China launches high-altitude drone patrolling-and-inspection testsBy Lv Fuming (China Military Online)08:43, November 23, 2012http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90786/8031353.htmlThree drones of different types conducted their final test on November 21, 2012 in Hoh Xil, a high-altitude and frigid area in west China's Qinghai province, which marked the full completion of the one-month-long flight

Thoughts from Zhuhai Air Show

As we get to another year’s thanksgiving holiday, there are many interesting things in Chinese military development to be thankful for. The one thing that I look at from this month is the Zhuhai Air Show. Every two years, we get to see the best that China has to offer in the export market for civilian aircraft, fighter jet, UAVs, missiles, air defence weapons and engines. In the 2010 air show, we saw an expansion of UAVs. In the 2008 air show, we saw a whole new display of PGMs and ground attack weapons. In this year’s air show, I think the helicopters (especially Z-10 and Z-19) stole the show.

Prior to the air show, we had just found out about the existence of a second Z-10 and a second Z-19 regiment. It appears both helicopters had achieved operational clearance with PLA aviation. We saw a whole host of up close pictures of Z-10 and Z-19 (including cockpit of pilots with HMDS) from the air show. TV news officially reported that both of these helicopters have achieved combat capability.




We saw flight display from both Z-10 and Z-19 throughout this past week. From this and other photos, we now see 2 other regiments with Z-10. At the moment, it seems like each of the 4 brigades that have Z-10 have 12 or less Z-10s. That's the size of a dadui in PLA aviation rather a full regiment (which can be over 30 helos). I wonder if the goal is to have at least one dadui in Z-10 before increasing the number of Z-10s in each of the brigdaes. We might see some mixed regiments with Z-10s and Z-19s. These are just my speculations and other speculations from on line. Regardless, it appears that both Z-10 and WZ-9 turboshaft engine have reached a point of mass production. It would not surprise me if the production rate is already in the 30s per year. As more photos come out, we will get more information on their alignment.

At the same time, we are getting more information on other Chinese helicopter projects. According to deputy GM of AVICopter, Sun Qingmin, Z-15 equipped with WZ-16 engine will start trial flight next year and expected to be certified by 2014. Using a co-developed engine will allow Z-15 to join the army and the navy. The long delayed 10 ton helicopter project appears to be moving forward to. The picture below shows two proposals for this project. The first flight is set to be in 2014 and production to start by 2017. These two proposals look like Chinese versions of black hawk and NH-90. The engine is expected to either be WZ-10 turboshaft or WZ-16 from the Z-15 project.


There is also another conceptual project XQ-01 displayed in the air show as shown below that seems to be a high speed helicopter like Eurocopter X3 or Sikorsky X2.


They also displayed a whole range of air defence weaponry that are quite impressive. Along side models that we already know about like LD-2000 (land version of Type 730), FD-2000 (export version of HQ-9), LY-80 (export version of HQ-16) and FL-3000 (export version of HQ-10), we also saw the following new models:

DK-10 and DK-9C supposedly originates from the AAMs SD-10 and PL-9C. Although in DK-10's case, it seems to be quite different from SD-10. It also seems to be a prime candidate to be quad-packed in PLAN's new VLS with its active seeker, slim size, and engagement range of up to 50 km.

FK-1000 combines the KS-1000 missile with two dual guns and on board fire control system. It seems very similar to Russia's Pantsir-S1 air defence system.
TD-2000B is another Gun/missile air defence system which may already have been displayed previously.
And finally, we have CS/SA-1 type vehicle carrying Type PG-99 dual35 mm gun.

We saw the usual FT and LS series of PGMs along with a new TG series of LGBs. But there were also interesting new missiles from this show:

The one making the biggest noise is the CM-400AKG missile. It is advertised as a standoff missile for JF-17. It can go Mach 5.5 in terminal phase and has maximum range of 240 km.

They also have two different variants of TL-500 missile which looks like SCALP by MBDA.


We saw a couple of more CM series air to ground missile. The CM-506KG missile looks like the NLOS missile.

Finally, there was an anti-radiation version of SD-10 missile appearing as LD-10.

There were also other interesting things on display such as a model of the J-31 project, a full scale dispaly of Wing Loong UAV and a model of CH-4 UAV. All in all, it was a very interesting air show.

There were also a couple of interesting things we saw in PLAN world. J-15 apparently made its first successful landing on Liaoning this past week. We had an overhead shot of 052C and 052D which showed the two destroyers to be the same length. Although, it seems like 052D is about 0.5 to 1 m wider. Either way, 052D is basically the same size as 052C. The new VLS installations on 052D also look to be a lot smaller than the ones on 052C. And finally, the first 056s have gone on sea trials from both HP and HD shipyard.

The PLAAF is still trying to get their hands on some of them Il-78 Midas aerial refueling tanker

China interested in active cooperation with Ukraine in sphere of military aircraft modernization


http://en.interfax.com.ua/news/economic/127718.html#.UKxTGoY2QX8














Ukraine
and China are planning to intensify cooperation in the sphere of the
repair and modernization of

PLA, Jordanian Armed Forces hold joint anti-terrorist drills

PLA, Jordanian Armed Forces hold joint anti-terrorist drills( Source: Xinhua http://eng.mod.gov.cn/Press/2012-11/17/content_4413076.htm )         2012-November-17 07:56BEIJING, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) -- China's People's Liberation Army on Friday launched joint anti-terrorist drills involving special operation forces with Jordanian Armed Forces in the Jordanian capital of Amman, according to the

Zhuhai suprise: The Il-76 soap opera continues.

Thanks Dylan for the update.


Rosoboronexport to deliver ten Il-76 transports to ChinaZHUHAI, China. Nov 19 (Interfax-AVN) - Russia will deliver ten Ilyushin Il-76 transport aircraft to China following overall repairs, said Sergei Kornev, a deparatment head with the Russian state arms trader Rosoboronexport."Under a contract signed with China we will deliver ten Il-76 aircraft from the stock

Photos of the day: 43rd Air Regiment, 15th Air Divison, Beijing Air Corps

Those recently released PR photos are confirming a long running internet rumor -- the 43rd regiment is indeed the 8th J-10 line regiment.   The previous 7 J-10 regiments can be found at the  44th、3rd、2nd、1st、24th、9th PLAAF and the 4th PLAN-AF divisions.


J-10 20508

Zhuhai suprise: FK-1000 gun/missile system

Chinese light Tor M2E Mod?

Rules of Acquisition

China Drone Maker Expects to Double Sales on Islands Dispute













By Bloomberg News on November 15, 2012















http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-11-15/china-drone-maker-expects-to-double-sales-on-islands-dispute














China Aerospace Science & Industry
Corp., the nation’s biggest maker of non-military drones,
expects to double unmanned aerial vehicles sales

Zhuhai suprise: CATIC scores its first export sales of L-15

AIRSHOW CHINA: CATIC signs deal for 12 L-15 trainers http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/airshow-china-catic-signs-deal-for-12-l-15-trainers-378931/By:   Greg Waldron Zhuhai06:18 13 Nov 2012 AVIC Hongdu has entered into a deal to supply the China National Aero Technology Import & Export Corporation (CATIC) with 12 L-15 advanced jet trainers, with the type's first international sale to be

In case you need additional confirmation that both WZ-10 and WZ-19 are Operational

Chinese Army Aviation Force organizes training of WZ-10 and WZ-19 armed helicopters(Source: China Military Online)   2012-11-13The picture shows the WZ-10 and WZ-19 armed helicopters in training. (chinamil.com.cn/ Huang Wei)　　Several China's independently-developed WZ-10 and WZ-19 armed helicopters of an army aviation regiment under the Shenyang Military Area Command (MAC) of the Chinese

PR Photos of the day: Chinese Carrier Ops

What does J-31 tell us about China?

There have been many articles written about the recent first flight of J-31. If you go to sinodefenceforum where I moderate, you can see pages and pages of analysis by amateurs like myself over what we think the roles of this aircraft is along with its capabilities. If you read enough online articles, they will start repeating themselves over how close J-31 resembles to F-22 and F-35. And while this fighter looks to have stealth shaping, there are much more to achieving stealth than just resemblance to shaping of F-35. As usual, the one article that did peak my interest was the one by Andrew Erickson and Gabe Collins. They looked at the growing Chinese aerospace industry and its increasing threat to Russia’s export markets.

I think that should be the general take away from this. In this year alone, Shenyang Aircraft Corporation has done first flights of J-31, J-16 (a fighter bomber along the lines of Su-34/F-15E) and J-15S (twin seat variant of J-15). In this past 2 years, China has flight tested 2 different 5th generation aircraft. The rumour is that the Y-20 heavy transport project will also make maiden flight this year. I personally consider Y-20 project and the associated WS-18 and WS-20 (or maybe WS-118) turbofan engine to be PLAAF’s most important projects because of its use in force multiplication and power projection. China desperately needs a platform like Y-20 that can be used for strategic lift, aerial refueling, AEW C&C, other C4ISR missions and as ABL platform. Regardless of how one would view Y-20s importance vs J-20/J-31, these are definitely the 3 most important PLAAF projects over the next few years. The short duration of 2 years between the maiden flights of these projects shows how much China’s aviation industry is growing. Each of these projects is also worked on by one of AVIC 1’s three largest aircraft companies (Shenyang, Chengdu and Shaanxi/Xi’an AC). In their civilian business, each of these companies is involved in the production of parts for numerous airliners for COMAC and Western aircraft manufacturers. When we include their military projects, we can see the amount of R&D that these companies are doing.

A while ago, I read about how Chengdu AC is now employing a whole new generation of engineers that learnt the entire fighter development process from J-10 project. This group of engineers has since developed JF-17 and J-10B. They are now the brains behind J-20, numerous new J-10 variants and UAV projects. I think they have also recruited foreign engineers (especially from Russia and Ukraine) that have really contributed in all the military projects. These companies are paying increasingly competitive wages to recruit capable engineers and employing modern Western design practices. 20 years ago, one would question whether or not China can actually develop a 4th generation fighter jet let alone a 5th generation fighter jet even if they received all of the necessary funding. With the experience from J-10 project, JH-7A project and indigenization of J-11 project, they now have the capability to develop modern fighter jet if given time and money. In comparison, Russia will be increasingly facing the question of whether or not it can develop modern aircraft due to a dwindling and aging engineering force from 20 years of brain drain. In the export market, Russia is still reliant on upgraded versions of flanker and fulcrum series of aircraft for most of revenues. With T-50 still years away from being available for export outside of India, Su-35 and Mig-35 are what Russia will be able to offer for its traditional markets. Once J-10 finally starts using domestic engine, China will be able to offer J-10 and JF-17 to compete against Russia in those markets. From the recent test flights, it looks J-31 will be available for export as F-60 not that far after T-50 becomes available. Until then, J-10B, future JF-17s and Chinese UAVs will be competitive against Russian exports. By the time J-31 becomes available, China will have something capable of taking serious market shares in the very lucrative fighter jet market. This has already happened to a degree in the naval export market, where the rapidly improving quality of PLAN ships have let to more capable ships available for exports. Chinese shipyards have been quite busy building smaller battle ships, FACs and OPVs for countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh, Thailand and African countries.

There are still many lingering questions about China’s aerospace engine industry. As we saw, J-31 made its first flight with RD-93 engines which are clearly not intended to fit the production versions of J-31. All of J-10A and JF-17 production aircraft are equipped with Russian engines. The first batch of Y-20 and H-6K will be equipped D-30KP2. However, it looks like FWS-10/A mass production has finally reached reliable stage. All of the recent batches of J-11B/S have been using FWS-10. J-15, J-15S, J-16 and J-20 prototypes have also been using FWS-10. In a recent photo, it looks like the first production J-10B may also be using FWS-10A. If that is the case, the majority of front line Chinese aircraft will soon be using Chinese engines instead of Russian ones.

Photo of the day: Z-19 light attack chopper at Zhuhai

China's 13th escort fleet departs for Somali waters

The 13th naval escort squad, sent by the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy, departed Friday from China to the Gulf of Aden and Somali waters for escort missions.The squad, which left a port in Zhanjiang of South China's Guangdong province, will succeed the 12th escort fleet currently conducting missions in Somali waters.The 13th convoy fleet includes the frigates Huangshan and Hengyang

Zhuhai Suprise: Chinese speedchopper concept

It seems that the Chinese is also entering the speedchopper fray with its own "Avant-Courier" concept after Sikorsky X2 triplex and Eurocopter's X3.   One thing that is for sure, all three concepts will be easier to operate then Bell Boeing's V-22 Osprey


The Avant-Courier concept












  Sikorsky X2 triplex






 Eurocopter's X3

Zhuhai Suprise: Z-10 of the 6th LH Brigade.

Two Z-10s have just arrived at the 2012 Zhuhui airshow representing the PLA Army Aviation and they are from the 6th LH Brigade (LH96101 and LH96102) of the 42nd Group Army near by.   This revelation marks the 6th LH as the third Z-10 equipped LH units in service.






























Tuesday, October 02, 2012




2nd Z-10 equipped Army Aviation Unit.



Judging from the recent PLA Daily

PLANAF 2nd "Specialized" Division getting three more Y-8GX5 AEW&C birds

Judging from the latest PR release of the PLAN-AF 2nd 'specialized" division, its fourth regiment is getting at lease three new Y-8GX5  (KJ-200) AEW&C aircrafts









Saturday, April 25, 2009


PLANAF 2nd "Specialized" Division




PLANAF 2nd "Specialized" Division, North Sea Fleet, PLA Navy is
headquartered in Dialing with primary focus on ASW, ELINT and other EW
related missions. It

Zhuhai Suprise: ZBL09 30mm/MANPAD AD variant

On display at the Zhuhai 2012 airshow.

Photos of the day: Getting ready for Zhuhai Air Show 2012

In addition to Z-10 and Z-19 on display, AVIC is showing off a model of the J-31. I guess is the cat is out of the bag.

Photos of the day: First pair of Y-8C leaves for Venezuela

After completing all the flight test activities, this new pair of Y-8C is heading to their new home in South America. A total of 8 Y-8C were ordered

Photos of the day: PLA snipers in Colombia

For Tirador De Alta Precision 2012 (here)

Photos of the day: Z-19

Without much fanfare,  The Z-19 light attack chopper is  now servicing two different LH brigades, the 8th and the 2nd.  Yes,  it is still ugly and in need of a chain gun.

As a side note,   Z-19 will be on public display at the 2012 Zhuahi airshow later this month. 
























Wednesday, February 01, 2012



Z-19 in LH Color



It has been over a year since the first photo s the Z-

Yes, Twin seater J-15S does exist.

Yesterday Shenyang aircraft company's rumored twin-seat J-15 Multirole Naval Fighter took to the sky for her maiden flight.

Here are some photos of her (notice the tailhook)





















Friday, September 28, 2012


A closer look at the J-15 Multirole Naval Fighter Project (SAC)




Fueling suspicion that the J-15 programme may be much further advanced than we think.There were already

First flight of J-31

Shenyang Aircraft Corporation's stealth aircraft project J-31's prototype made its first flight yesterday. Here are some of the better photos that I saw online:


This is probably the best photo I've seen of J-31


This one has J-31 prototype with J-11BS chase aircraft


At this point, I'm not sure what the exact plan for this project is. That's something we will find out further down the road, but speculations include a future naval fighter jet or form part of hi-lo combo with J-20 or as a aircraft that will eventually be up for exports.

I've read numerous people who believe that this is result of China hacking into Lockmart computers. This is due to the fact that J-31 resembles F-35 from front profile and F-22 from side profile. I think that's complete nonsense. I've seen the struggles of SAC trying to indigenize flankers (which they received full blue prints + production line in the license production deal). It's very hard for me to believe that SAC can reproduce F-35 from stolen files without access to the same engines or the material or the complicated computer code that controls the whole aircraft.

Photos of the day: Maiden flight of the J-31

As a side note, the J-31 was chased by a pair of J-11BS during its maiden flight


J-31 fighter roars off on maiden flightGlobal Times | 2012-11-1 0:05:08By Xu Tianran      http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/741613.shtmlChina's second stealth fighter, dubbed J-31, makes its maiden flight Wednesday in Shenyang, Liaoning Province. Photo: Pan BinChina's second stealth fighter, dubbed J-31, makes its

Here comes the PLA in Australia

Chinese troops depart for tri-nation drill in Australia(Source: Xinhua)   2012-10-27　　CHONGQING, Oct. 26, (Xinhua) -- Nearly 30 Chinese military personnel, mostly medical professionals, departed Chongqing Friday for a tri-nation exercise on humanitarian assistance and disaster relief in Australia.　　Codenamed "Exercise Cooperation Spirit 2012," the drill will be held by Chinese, Australian and

Photo of the day: Liaoning's tire marks

After playing touch-and-go for the last two weeks, the Liaoning is now returned to port with some real tire marks to show for.


Notice the four arresting cables and the positions of the tire marks.








Friday, October 12, 2012


This is what they are doing at sea.

End of an era -- Nanchang ends its production of Q-5 ground-attack aircraft after 44 years.

After extending the production line to cover a limited run on the J model twin-seater trainer, Nanchang finally closes its Q-5 offerings for good. 


http://war.163.com/12/1027/10/8EQM4B0J00014OMD.html
10月25日，中航工业洪都举行最后一架强五飞机总装交付仪式。
强五飞机是新中国研制的第一代超音速强击机，屡建战功，成为空军主力机种之一。1958年8月强五飞机正式在南昌飞机制造公司上马，陆孝彭任总设计师，1965年强五原型机首飞，1968年投产，至今已有44年。
强五系列飞机于1985年获得国家科技进步特等奖，成为享誉国际的“亚洲明星”。强五研制过程中凝炼的“强五精神”

Communist Propaganda of the day: J-15, whether heavy bomber or fighter

With 3.18 trillion US dollars in foreign exchange reserve, you would think the Chinese government could afford to hire a decent editor for its English edition of the People Daily!
  
Joking aside, it seems that they finally acknowledge the official designation for that "Independently developed" carrier bird.


Devastating power of China's J-15 ranks high in the world(Source: People's Daily

Third J-20 stealth aircraft prototype emerges.

While the new J-31 seems to gather all the news headlines over the last several months, Chengdu is quietly working on its third J-20 stealth aircraft prototype.   That is the thing about the Chinese military-industry complex -- they walk more than they talk. 

Judging from the photos below, the third J-20 prototype is sporting a new nose with room reserved for a dedicated EOS/IRST system.


 2,

Luda class DDG 107 "Yinchuan" decommissioned

Luda class DDG 107 "Yinchuan" decommissioned today after 36 years of service (here) marking it the third decommissioned Luda Class in recent weeks.

Status of J-10

Recently, we've seen what appears to be the last batch of J-10A fighter jets making their test flights. The 6th batch of J-10As number all the way up to 637 were seeing making test flights. That indicates there are at least 37 J-10As in this 6th batch. There were also at least 37 J-10As in the 6th batch. One of the commonly asked questions now that J-10A is drawing to a close is how many of these planes are there. If we assume that each of 6 J-10A and 2 J-10S batches have around 37 aircraft, then theer would be 8 * 37 = 296 J-10s. Based on the number of actual regiments we've seen, this seems to be quite unlikely. While the 2nd j-10S batch and the last 2 J-10A batch have produced between 35 to 40 J-10s, the earlier batches probably had smaller number of aircraft.

As far as we can tell, there are 7 PLAAF regiments of J-10 (in 44, 3, 2, 1, 24, 9, 15th division) and 1 PLANAF regiment. In addition, there are also 12 J-10s serving at the August first flight demonstration team and somewhere betwen 15 and 20 J-10s serving with FTTC as aggressor squad. There should be 24 J-10s serving in the PLANAF regiment and 28 J-10s serving in most PLAAF regiments (although we may have 36 serving in the 24th division regiment). Assuming that the last batch of J-10s will be used to fully form the 15th division regiment, we should have at most 24 + 12 + 20 + 28 * 6 + 36 = 260 J-10s in service at that time. If we factor in a few crashed and replaced J-10s, we are only around 30 off that first calculation of 296 J-10s.

The next question is whether or not the number of engines adds up. Based on some help from fellow SDF member asif iqbal, it seems like the delivery of AL-31FN from Russia have been the following.

54 ordered in 2000 delivered between 2001-2005
100 ordered in 2005 delivered between 2005-2008
122 ordered in 2009 delivered between 2010-2011
123 ordered in 2011 delivery’s due between 2011-2013

That would represent 399 AL-31FNs delivered by sometimes next year. A couple of those have probably been used for the J-10B program while a good number of them will be used as spare engines for J-10s. An estimate of 250 J-10A and J-10S by the end of J-10A production run does not seem too crazy. The question of power plant for J-10 is kind of puzzling. It seems like the first batch of J-10B will also be using the base version of AL-31FN. While I do expect J-10B to eventually use WS-10A, it doesn't seem like that will be the case yet. At the same time, if PLAAF does place another order for AL-31FN, I think it would be quite disappointing if it will not be for a higher thrusted version.

At this point, the J-10B project has already been flying for close to 4 years. I had expected to already see the first batch of J-10B to come out by now, but it looks like we will have to wait until next year for that. It does seem like CAC has lost some of its shine recently to the number of new aircraft showing up at SAC. There could be many reasons for the amount of time they have been testing out the J-10B project. A lot of resources are used up for the J-20 projects while production for J-10A remains quite strong. But in the end, I think the change from J-10A to J-10B is quite a large change. CAC is testing out a lot of new technologies that will also be used for other projects.

Aircraft carrier needs three stages to achieve combat effectiveness

Aircraft carrier needs three stages to achieve combat effectiveness(Source: People's Daily Online)   2012-10-18　　The delivery of an aircraft carrier is not the end of an aircraft carrier project, especially when the carrier-based aircraft are not delivered. It is just an important result of a stage in an aircraft carrier project because the supporting weapons and carrier-based aircraft systems

Photos of the day: The 7 China Navy warships off Okinawa

If there are two submarine tenders in that task force ......




















Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2012

Seven Chinese Navy warships skirt Okinawa
Kyodo

Seven Chinese warships passed Tuesday through Japan's contiguous zone, a band of water just outside the nation's territorial waters, near an Okinawa island, the Defense Ministry said.

 http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20121017a3.html

The

U.S., China to Consider Sharing Resources During Joint Missions

U.S., China to Consider Sharing Resources During Joint Missions
http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=118202

By Donna MilesAmerican Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Oct. 12, 2012 – In what U.S. Pacific Command’s
logistics chief calls a groundbreaking development, officials from the
United States and China

Countermeasure Washdown Systems

Photos of the day: Carrier Ops.

This is what they are doing at sea.

J-10S wallpapers

Photos of the day: Clear images of Y-9 Transporter in "China Airforce" color

 Judging from the recently photos, there is no doubt that the Y-9 project has entered serial production.






Wednesday, March 14, 2012


Could this be the first Y-9 in-flight photo?







Thursday, September 16, 2010


Y-9 project, rebooted. 

http://china-defense.blogspot.com/2010/09/y-9-project-rebooted.html
According to China Aviation News (here) the long delayed first Y-9

2nd Z-10 equipped Army Aviation Unit.

Judging from the recent PLA Daily articles and internet photo "releases", the 8th LH brigade of the 38th Group Army, Beijing MR has become the 2nd LH unit armed with the latest Z-10 attach choppers (6th squadron).   It is interesting to note that the 8th is also home to the Z-19 light attack helicopter (5th squadron).

After two years of service with the 5th LH brigade, it is clear that the CMC

Photo of the day: Three 1300t class CMS cutters being being built simultaneously at Huangpu

In addition to the 056 line, there are now THREE lines building the 1300t class CMS cutter simultaneously
-- hmmwv






Thursday, May 10, 2012


Chinese Maritime Surveillance (CMS) to commission 36 cutters in 3 years.




Chinese Maritime Surveillance (CMS) to commission 36 new cutters from
2010 to 2012 including seven 1500 ton class, fifteen 1000 ton class and
fourteen 600 ton class "to

DDG 162 Nanning Decommissioned

In addition to DDG 131  "Nanjing", another Luda class DDG is now being transferred to the Chinese civilian "coast guard", the CMS (China marine surveillance).  This time it is the Nanning. 

Together with Dongce 226 and Nanyun, the CMS will gain four more 2nd-hand ocean patrol and support ships in rather short order.

The white elephants of PLAN

With the induction of Liaoning into PLAN this past week, PLAN has reached a milestone in its drive to modernize and becoming blue water navy. We can see now that China has gone through deliberate process of going from a fleet of Luda and Jianghu surface ships to one that will have a carrier escorted by 052D and 054A/B. It has mostly been a step by step process where they often had small production runs and incremental changes. While this has been a fairly successful strategy, it has also left some white elephants in the fleet. I want to look at why these ship were ordered and why they are “white elephants”.

I regard the Sovremenny class destroyer, the 051C destroyers and the Kilo class submarine. You may have noticed that these represent two of the three mentioned here are high profile import from Russia while the third one largely depended on the import of Rif-M air defence system from Russia. This is not a coincidence.

Focusing most of my attention on the Sovremenny class, it was by far the most powerful and modern battleships in PLAN when the first two were imported 12 years ago. Sovremenny class are equipped with medium ranged SAM, supersonic anti-ship missiles, 2 powerful AK-130 main gun, Ka-28 helicopters and advanced sensors. Compared to the most advanced PLAN ship at that time, 051B, it was stronger in AAW, ASW, ASuW and ground support. The two improved Sovremenny class that were ordered in 2002 came with upgraded versions of the same systems in addition to the Kashtan CIWS. If we just compare the weapon systems on Sovremenny class with that of 052B, it may appear that these ships are very comparable. Even now, some derivatives of subsystem from Sovremenny class can be found in many new PLAN surface combatants.

So, why would I consider 052B to still be an important part of PLAN, whereas I look at Sovremenny class as “white elephants”? The main reason is that PLAN has developed its own data link standard, combat and control system and communication system. Now, Sovremenny class is still powerful compared to most PLAN destroyers by themselves, but they have a hard time communicating with the newer PLAN surface combatants. Whenever one of the Sovremenny ships is used to be the command ship of a flotilla, it will have to install a lot of domestic communication and control systems to be able to give directions to other ships. Even using that and PLAN’s data link systems, there is only so much information that Sovremenny ships can take in and process at the moment. Compare them to the new 054A class ships that joined ESF in the past couple years, the additional firepower is outweighed by the modern combat systems and electronics. In PLAN exercises, 054A was used to lead a flotilla of 3 Sovremenny ships against threats of sea-skimming target drones. 054A’s combat system was able to develop a combat plan for its missile, gun and ECM systems using data processed from data link network to destroy all the targets. That’s just one of the problems with Sovremenny class right now. They can’t be used to lead a fleet, their steam boilers are not suitable for blue water deployments, their combat systems are too old, their firing rates is too slow and their air defense systems don’t react fast enough to counter multiple sea-skimming threats. PLAN has improved so much in the past decade, that their decision in 2002 to purchase 2 additional Sovremenny class now look like a panic decision to counter Taiwan’s purchase of Kidd class destroyers. It would be hard for PLAN to refit Sovremenny ships using domestic systems without some Russian help. If China can’t put modern combat and communication systems on Sovremenny ships, these ships will simply have more and more diminished roles in the future.

Although 051C class was built in China, it suffers through some of the same issues that Sovremenny class faces. Now, the two 051C class ships were built as insurance for the 052C program. Since 051C was making use of the existing 051B hull with a mature long ranged SAM (Rif-M), it was considered safer than 052C. As it turns out, 051C actually joined service after 052C did. The decision to basically shove Rif-M air defence system on the 051B hull compromised the hull design of 051C. As a result, 051C does not have a hangar and still uses steam turbines propulsion. Also, Russians have publicly stated that 051C carries a version of Rif that cannot engage anti-ship missiles. Due to the design of the Rif system, each 051C would only be able to engage targets from one direction. While 051C still has area defence capabilities due to the long range of S-300 missiles, their utility is pretty much restricted to provide air cover to the North Sea Fleet. It would be hard to imagine them as escorts to an aircraft carrier, because they provide marginal ASW capabilities and cannot provide the same level of air defense as 052C/D class. If you place two 052Ds together, they not only have those powerful MFR panels, but can also share radar data with each other and also with other ships and aerial assets. If two 051Cs were to provide area defence, they would have to be facing each other just to provide 360 degree air defense coverage and would still need 054As to provide fleet defence. On top of that, they don’t have the same level of data sharing and sensor tracking capabilities as 052C/D ships. As with Sovremenny class, 051C ships are also victims of the rapid advancement of domestic naval weapon systems.

Finally, the kilo class is still quite useful for PLAN. The problem is that their capabilities were over hyped by the Western media. As a follower of PLAN, I see photos of different conventional submarines serving in different bases. The problem is that while I see photos of Song and Yuan submarines out in the sea and at the bases, the only pictures of Kilo class show them either at the bases or at the shipyards under repairs. It seems like China is constantly making changes to these ships to put their own subsystems on there. For the longest time after China first received the newer kilo submarines, it could not complete successful firing of the much hyped Club missiles. Only after some modifications, were they able to finally use these missiles. The problem now is that Kilo submarines are still spending way too much time at the bases instead of making deployments. It’s not entirely clear to me why PLAN has so much trouble utilizing Kilo class, but their importance is diminishing by the day as newer diesel submarines are joining service.

Now, all of the above may sound like I’m overly critical toward China’s purchase of Russian systems. In the case of 2002 purchase of Sov and kilo, they seemed to be panic moves by China toward the Bush's effort to sell more advanced weapons to Taiwan. The earlier purchases of Sov and kilo were very necessary in strengthen PLAN at the time and bringing the technologies that China needed to assist in the building of its own fleet. The building of 051C also made sense, although I think the political influence of Dalian Shipyard also had much to do with it. There are also domestic ships like 051B and 052A which used to be capital ships in PLAN, but have become outdated with the induction of the new wave of warships. They are still relative young and more advanced than Luda and Jianghu class ships, so they will be kept around for a while in diminished role. However, they were not as costly or over-hyped as the Russian import, so it's hard to think of them as "white elephants".

A closer look at the J-15 Multirole Naval Fighter Project (SAC)

Fueling suspicion that the J-15 programme may be much further advanced than we think.There were already four or five in Navy grey by May 2011, one of which I read as c/n 0003.In April 2011, a newcon J-15 in yellow similarly seems to be c/n 0008.That was 17 months ago. And we know that they normally build about 24 a year…

 -- franco-russe

Liaoning and future Carriers

As I’m sure you all know by now, the formerly known Varyag Aircraft Carrier was commissioned into PLAN as Liaoning and given the Type 001 class AC with pennant number of 16. I haven’t spent as much time looking into this development, but it’s quite clear that there is a lot of excitement on Chinese military forum over Liaoning class. This news has already eclipsed the exciting unveiling of Shenyang AC’s 4th generation fighter jet (I’m using generation by Chinese standard) and the unveiling of the 052D class destroyers. The only news that has caused more stir in the recent years is the unveiling of J-20. On the English forum that I moderate, some of the fellow members have been waiting for 7 to 8 years for this moment. A few years ago, I had all but given up on Liaoning ever becoming a big part of PLAN’s blue water plans. This was even after Liaoning had been painted with PLAN colours in 2006. Now, it appears that Liaoning has a bigger role in PLAN than many people have expected.

For me, I haven’t been as excited about this development. I was quite excited when 054A and 056 came out. I was also excited when we saw that new mysterious large diesel submarine from WuChang shipyard in 2010. I was really excited when 052D came out. I couldn’t stop looking for more photos on it. I suppose I have already spent too much time looking at Liaoning from when it was first dragged to Dalian to when it was first painted to when it got the non-skid layers to when it was taken to dry docks to when work started on Island to when it made its first sea trials. The more exciting moments will still come in the future when we see J-15s take off and land on it. And after that, it will be interesting to see how PLAN intends to use this training carrier. I read a really great article by Andrew Erickson today, where he talked about how Liaoning will not be that useful in the immediate time facing US or Japan, but could be quite useful in South China Sea. When Liu Huaqing first envisioned a carrier in PLAN, he wanted a medium sized carrier that PLAN can use to dominate South China Sea rather than a super carrier to compete against USN. Of course, this was also back in the late 80s when PLAN had those skirmishes with Vietnam where it had no air cover against Vietnam’s Su-22s. Even as PLAN is still learning carrier op in these early years, Liaoning could make quite a difference in any South China Sea scenarios.

When I was going through articles on the commissioning of Liaoning, I think one of the more interesting parts is where someone from PLAN stated that this shows China can build a carrier. While he conceded the hull was built in Russia, he stated strongly that everything inside the ship and on the ship was designed and built in China. I would imagine that whatever the Russians are doing for the INS Vikramaditya is what China had to do for the former Varyag. It certainly explains why they took this many years to finally launch the ship. Thinking about that, it’s interested that China has managed to restore and modernize a larger ship faster than the Russians despite having to learn the entire structure of the ship from scratch. Reading an interviewed piece from the ship, it certainly sounded like the interior of the ship has been completely changed to the modern PLAN standards. It was stated to have a 24 hours cafeteria with two bars (one loud and one quiet). It was has a supermarket, a post office, a gym (probably also basketball court), a laundromart and a garbage treatment station. Sailors can communicate with family at home through computers and can even use their cell phones. I would imagine the condition to be similar to those pictures we’ve seen of the interiors of the No. 88 life style ship and the Type 071 LPD. PLAN has made a serious effort in the recent years to improve the living conditions of these newer ships as they strive to become blue water navy. So far, we’ve already seen the latest of Chinese sensors and close in weapon systems installed on Liaoning. We’ve also seen the living quarters of the sailors revamped and modernized to be similar to other new PLAN ships. I can only imagine that the navigation control, command area and carrier operations control rooms will also be upgraded to the latest and best PLAN could offer. Liaoning should have much more modern weapon systems on board than any previously Russia/Soviet built carriers. It should also be much more powerful than the refitted and modernized Vikramaditya. Once J-15 joins service, it should also theoretically be much more advanced and capable than any previous naval aircraft that operated off a Russia/Soviet built carrier. Now that they have the hardware that the Soviet navy never had, the much longer process of developing the software (training people and pilots for carrier ops) is about to start.

A while ago, I was asked about when I think a Chinese carrier will enter Persian Gulf. And I think this is a good place to put what I thought at that time. Eventually, a China carrier will leave the safety of the South China Sea and then the second chain of islands. It will move past Malacca straits to protect its energy routes from Africa and the Persian Gulf. I have the following thoughts for when that will happen:

First, we have to think about economics and political situation in China. If we have a serious political or economic problem in China, that would slow down all military procurement. So, let's for the sake of argument, assume that this will not be an issue; and the navy will continue to see 10% increase in its budget every year.

Secondly, China doesn't currently have any real oversea base. And I think they would need oversea base close to the Persian Gulf first before they can really enter into Persian Gulf. They already have some supply points or network of places to support their current operations in the Gulf of Aden. Good article to read is here. In order for China to enter the Persian Gulf, I'd imagine it would need an oversea base close to the Persian Gulf. The location talked about so far are Pakistan, Seychelles, Burma, Sri Lanka and any number of African countries friendly to China. This won't happen right away, but I think it will eventually happen by the end of this decade. I think that Gwadar, Pakistan and somewhere in Burma probably make the most sense. In the former case, that base could be protected by Pakistan army and air force. In the latter case, Burma would also be within range of Chinese air force (with refueling).

Third, what would be the carrier entering into the Persian Gulf? I can't imagine it will be Liaoning, which should serve in the role I mentioned up top. Aside from that, Liaoning is still using steam turbines. If we look at all of the recent PLAN deployments, there have been very few long range ones using steam turbines. Even now, none of the Sov destroyers have been to Gulf of Aden. So, that means it would have to be a domestically built carrier. If the first carrier is under construction in JN shipyard right now as I've been led to believe, the earliest it would enter service is toward the end of this decade.

After that, we have to look at the rest of the carrier group. The current generation of AAW and ASW ships (052C/D and 054A) is sufficient to escort something like Liaoning. The first domestic carriers will be expected to make longer deployments, which would require the next generation of escorts. They would also need something like 095, because the current nuclear subs are way too noisy. Even 095 is still expected to be at least one generation behind Virginia class, so they would probably need something that’s a generation better (like a 097 class). They would need larger AAW and ASW ships that have the propulsion to keep up with the carrier. Aside from the 097 class, everything else (including a new generation of AORs) should already be commissioned by the time the first domestic carrier is ready, so escorts will not be a limiting factor.

The part that will slow things down is the development of the air wing and learning of carrier operations. The first generation of air wing will probably achieve IOC by 2015. By then, the J-15 fighter jet, JJ-9 trainer and Z-8 helicopters should have had some experience on takeoff and landing on Liaoning. For PLAN to feel comfortable sending its carrier into the Persian Gulf and keep it there, it will probably want the second generation of naval air wing. It will probably comprise of a naval version of the new SAC fighter jet, Z-8/Z-15 helicopters for ASW/SAR and other missions, different variants of naval flanker playing the role of E/FA-18E/F/G/H, Y-7 AEW and next generation of naval trainer. Now, most of this is already in development, so optimistically speaking they will probably achieve IOC by 2025. And then, PLAN would probably like to operate it a couple of years before giving it an extensive deployment to Persian Gulf. So, I think it would take until the end of the next decade before PLAN can make a meaningful entrance. By then, they would have almost 2 decades of carrier operations and multiple aircraft carriers.

Good bye Type 051 Luda class DDG 131 "Nanjing"

it seems that the PLAN just had another ceremony -- this time for the decommissioning of DDG 131 "Nanjing" after 35 years of service. (here).  Just don't write-off the Nanjing just yet; it will be recommissioned as a civilian CMS ship after a refit.

Meet Sr Col Zhang Zheng, Captain for China's first Aircraft carrier platform

Sr Col Zhan Zheng on the left, Political Officer Mei Wen on the righ.











Sr Col Zhang Zheng's CV in Chinese 



张峥,男,1969年9月出生,浙江长兴人,中共党员。1980年8月起在定海一中读初、高中，在校期间，品学兼优，1986年高中毕业后考入上海交通大
学自动控制系。1990年8月，分配到海军东海舰队司令部，任助理工程师。1992年8月至1995年8月，在海军大连舰艇学院就读，获硕士学位。
1995年8月至2001年7月，分配到海军91991部队，任部门长、参谋、副舰长、舰长。2001年7月至2003年8月先后到英国国防语言学院和英
国三军联合指挥与参谋学院深造。2003年8月起任海军某部队副参谋长（正团级），中校军衔。2012年9月任中国第一艘航母“

Commissioning ceremony of the Chinese aircraft carrier platform “Liaoning”

Dr Andrew Erickson and Gabe Collins have done a terrific job in keeping us up-to-speed on the development of the Liaoning with this latest write-up.   So enjoy.


 http://www.andrewerickson.com/2012/09/introducing-the-liaoning-chinas-new-aircraft-carrier-and-what-it-means/



Introducing the ‘Liaoning’: China’s New Aircraft Carrier and What it

YouTube of the day: The first Zubr LCAC for China is near completion.

 






Thanks Imp for alerting the news.

http://novoross.info/happens/7851-na-zavode-more-kitayskiy-zakaz-visit-na-odnoy-strele-chelovecheskiy-faktor.html



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt3sef2UblM



According to franco-russe


The
report mentions that the air cushion ship, he hull of which is
probably damaged beyond repair, was the first of four ordered by China.
There is now

Type DDG 052D's arrangements for Vertical Launching guided missile system

Ever since the China navy unofficially unveiled its latest Type 052D LUYANG III-Class DDG 20 days, there has been a heated debate on the issue of its VLS arrangements.

Hopefully this photo would put the debate to rest -- It is 64, 16 more than its predecessor of the Type052C.











 

 

Thursday, August 30, 2012


Type 052D LUYANG III-Class DDG, what we do know so far




There are two

Photos of the day: China, U.S. conduct first joint anti-piracy drill

Insert Quote
China, U.S. conduct first joint anti-piracy drill

(Source: Xinhua) 2012-09-18

BEIJING, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) -- China's Ministry of National Defense confirmed Monday that the Chinese and U.S. navies conducted their first joint anti-piracy drill in the Gulf of Aden on the same day.

The drill, conducted by the Chinese missile frigate Yiyang and the U.S. guided missile destroyer USS

Photos of the day, WS-10 Taihang turbofan.

While the J-21/31 prototype 31001 might be powered by a pair of Russian Klimov RD-93 engines, the China Airforce's J-11B fleet is continue to place emphasis on the homegrown WS-10 Taihang turbofan program. In this recently released PLA Daily PR photos of the 32nd Fighter Division, those four J-11B heavy fighter are clearly sporting a pair of WS-10 Taihang together with PL8 SRAAM and PL-12

The appearance of a second Chinese 5th gen project

On Saturday afternoon, I saw murky pictures of this new aircraft appearing on Chinese bbs that were supposedly SAC (Shenyang Aircraft Corporation)'s 5th generation fighter jet project. Originally, the picture looked fishy to me and I thought it might be photo shopped from F-35. Since then, we've gotten clearer photos and it does look real.
It's been long speculated that SAC has also been working on a 5th generation design despite loosing the main 5th generation project to CAC (Chengdu Aircraft Corporation). While CAC has been getting all the funding from PLAAF for the J-20 project, SAC's design was more of a self funded project that may or may not have received a PLAAF designation. The Chinese forums have been referring to this project as J-31 after seeing the serial number 31001 on the plane (and 2001/2002 for J-20 project). Regardless, the following of this project has been gathering steam over the past year. The first significant sighting was the unveiling of an export version at the first International UAV Innovation Grand Prix commonly referred to as F-60 as shown below.

A few months ago, we saw this covered up aircraft moved around which many people speculated to be SAC's 5th generation project.

And by Sunday, we've gotten this much clearer photo of the so called "J-31". At this point, there is still plenty of mystery regarding this aircraft. It looks to be much smaller than J-20. If PLA decides to order it at some point, it could form a hi-lo combination with J-20. There has been a lot of speculation that this aircraft will get navalized at some point due to the appearance of twin front landing gear and PLAN's stated desire for a next generation naval fighter jet. It also appears that 2 RD-93s have been fitted for this aircraft initially until the engine designed for this aircraft becomes available (so there won't be the gap with the exhaust).

This aircraft could end up as China's F-35 or it could be a privately funded project that will be competing against something from CAC as the lo part of PLAAF's hi-lo combination or it could be an export project. There is a lot that we certainly don't know yet.

SkyBow, China's X-47 like stealth UCAV??

While reviewing old photos of 601 Aircraft Design Institute/Shenyang Aircraft Corporation's F-60/J21/J31 fourth generation fighter, I come to realize that the SAC stealth 'flywing' UCAV, similar to Northrop Grumman's X-47 projects, might be more than just a "college" project.   When models of the Chinese SkyBow stealth UCAV and F-60/J21/J31 first published on the Ordnance Industry Science &

Here is a high resolution photo of J-21/J31

Here is a high resolution photo of China's 601 Aircraft Design Institute/Shenyang Aircraft Corporation's new Fourth Generation Jet fighter (31001) that has been long rumored.

J-31, serial 001

How a slowdown of Chinese economy may effect PLA

If you have not been following Asia news recently, you may have missed out on the dramatic slow down recently in the Chinese economy. There are many reasons for this slow down. The most obvious of which has been the extreme unbalanced growth model that China has been on in recent year to exports and investments. With Europe, China's biggest export market, in an economic free fall and America also getting into a recession, China's export is unlikely to pick up in the near future. At the same time, we are seeing a collapse in the real estate caused by the bursting of housing bubble. Local governments are saddled with debts from all of the infrastructure projects, so the investment part of Chinese economy is seeing a collapse and this is confirmed by all of the PMI numbers that have come out recently. While Chinese government may push for more stimulus and infrastructure projects to kick start the economy, this is really a great time to start the de-leveraging process and come to a more balanced growth model with increased consumption making up the growth. I'm not sure how long this period will last, but this is all part of the capitalism. You have the boom and bust period. During bust period, the government will hopefully cut back on some programs and reduce the spending. When it comes to PLA, that should point to a lower growth in the defense budget. This happened in 2009 when the defense budget grew at the slowest pace in a long time. And Chinese government has shown in the past that it is willing to divert money from defense to help economic development. The question is how PLA will adjust to smaller increases in its budget. Which programs will it cut? Or which programs should be cut or reduced?

If we look back in the 80s, when PLA saw its budget cut pretty much every year, most of the programs it embarked on were cut or abandoned very early on. When Su-27s were purchased in the early 90s, there were even many who called for abandoning the J-10 program. That's quite amazing considering that J-10 has been described as China's Apollo project by some. At the same time, many naval projects like 052 and nuclear submarines were delayed while the shipyards continue to build low technology ships due to lack of funding, lack of technical expertise and arms embargo. Of course, the PLA build up of the past 20 years were the results of increased funding, technology transfer from Russia and improved civilian industries.

First of all, what should PLA look into slowing down, reducing or cutting if the procurement and RnD budgets are cut by 10 to 20% vs PLA's current projection levels. Suppose the four services of air force, navy, army and second artillery all get cut around that level, I will look at the two areas I'm more familiar with: air force and navy. I will talk about training and personnel cost later.

In the air force, there are programs that must go on like J-20, Y-20, KJ-2000 (or some future variants of it) and Y-8 special missions aircraft. They will receive proper funding for the foreseeable future. There are ongoing programs like J-10 and flankers series that may see cut in funding resulting in early termination of some variants and shelving of some variants. For example, J-10B has been stuck in the test stage for seemingly a long time and looks to finally be ready for induction. If J-20 becomes successful early, PLAAF may choose to shelve future "semi-stealthy" variants of J-10 to save on development cost and continue to produce J-10B while upgrading J-10A with more advanced electronics and weaponry. In the case of the flanker series, PLAAF may terminate J-11B project early due to its bad performances in the recent red flag/blue flag aerial exercises at Dingxin. The J-16 project could also be cut if SAC continues to have problem actually developing new flanker variants to serve PLAAF. And SAC's 5th generation project may loose PLAAF funding if SAC continues to struggle. There are also many UAV and UCAV projects that are under way in China as we've seen in the recent Zhuhai air shows. Many of these projects are privately funded or for export purposes, but we know PLAAF also has requirements of different types of UAVs and UCAVs. PLAAF may delay the purchase of some of the UAVs while going with more mature and less advanced designs. Of course, these are just my personal speculation and the success of many programs depend not only on their performance but also on the political connection of the people involved in the projects. On top of these core PLAAF projects, there are also the less essential ones that may not get chosen or delayed. JF-17 has long been talked about as a project that may provide the lo-end of China's fighter force and I've long advocated PLAAF purchase a variant of it. However, if PLAAF is in a cash crunch and deems JF-17 to be too expensive, it may continue to purchase J-8IIs or cut some of the regiments and restart J-10A production to lower the logistical cost of having another type of fighter jet in service. In the area of advanced jet trainer, PLAAF may completely give up on purchasing the more expensive L-15 project and only purchase the less advanced JJ-9 project. Future variants of JH-7 will probably be left on the drawing board while JH-7A replaces all remaining Q-5 regiments as the workhorse attacking aircraft of PLAAF. Future bomber projects will get pushed back even more while XAC continues to churn out newer variants of the 50s era H-6 bombers. The Y-9 project will probably get enough funding by then to already be in service, but the speculated jet engine powered version of medium transport will probably be abandoned.

In the navy, most of the programs are amazingly efficient due to China's very competitive civilian shipbuilding industry and advancing electronics industry. Off the top my head, I really cannot think of any ship class currently under production that's really badly managed and deserve to get cut. In the beginning part of PLAN's modernization, it was forced to make large leaps in technology and had numerous classes with limited production to eventually get modern warships. You can see that from 052 to 051B to 052B to 052C. In cases where it did make huge leap like from 052/051B to 052B/C, PLAN waited 7 years before the problems are all sorted out and it can start mass production at much lower cost. At this point, it is no longer forced to make as large leaps in technology, so I think cost escalations have not been major issues with PLAN. As seen in recently in new surface ships, PLAN chooses to either create a new ship class with the same hull but new weapon system or the same weapon systems but the same hull. You can see this in the transition from 053H3 (Jiangwei II) class transition to 054 and then from 054 to 054A. If PLAN had jumped directly from 053H3 to 054A, that would have carried a lot of risks in terms of having a entirely new hull and propulsion system on top of a wholly new air defense system. We've also seen this with 052C to 052D to the speculated 055 class. The new major item weapon systems eventually intended for 055 class will get tested out on 052D. So when 055 program starts, the risk of the project lies only with the new hull and propulsion system and not with the weapon system. The air defense suite, VLS, new naval LACM, main gun, and CIWS would already have been tested on 052D. So after complimenting PLAN for this long, what can they do to lower cost. I think one answer would be to reduce the production level of each ship class that's been mass produced. For example, 022 class could've stopped at 64 instead of whatever the total is now. 054A production run could've stopped at 12 instead of the 16 that's been planned. Yuan class submarine could've been stopped at 8 instead of 12 or 16 that's been planned. I would also advocate for the earlier retirement of some ships that have run out of use like most of the Luda class "destroyers" and Jianghu class "frigates". Recently, we've seen many new warships coming into service, but PLAN has shown an utter reluctance to decommission older ships. PLAN needs to retire some of the older ships or else it will have too many personnel to maintain. Above all, I think if PLAN is really facing a cash crunch, it could always delay the production of a carrier and planned escorts to cut costs. Naval air projects could also be delayed to cut down cost. If the choice for funding of blue water navy was between nuclear submarine or a carrier force, I think it's more important for PLAN to continue to fully fund its nuclear submarine research and development rather than aircraft carriers. There is nothing wrong with spending more time training and learning to operate on one domestic aircraft carrier (+ Liaoning, formerly known as Varyag) before speeding up aircraft production.

I think when it comes to training, large scale exercises and oversea missions, PLA should not cut back its funding in these areas at all. China is finally learning to devote more resources into more advanced training method and improving the quality of its sailors and pilots. Both PLAAF and PLAN have received a lot of new toys recently and I have always wondered whether improvement in software can keep up with improvements in hardware. So even if the procurement budget goes down, the training budget should continue at current pace to bridge the back between China and better trained military forces around the world. Finally, I think personnel cost is not going to be an issue. A large part of the recent climb in PLA budget has been to accommodate the increased quality of life around China. Food and fuel cost in additional to cost of goods have all been going up due to the economic boom. At the same time, better living quarters using more expensive construction material and increased wages have to be allotted to recruit more intelligent young people around the country to have a career in the increasingly less attractive profession of serving in the military. In the bust portion of the economic cycle, these costs will all be turned upside down with inflation likely to completely disappear and worker wage increases falling to flat.

So in the face of increasingly gloomy economic situation in China, PLA will be forced to make some choices in cutting back some of its projected increases. I think that both procurement and personnel cost will see reduction from projected levels. I'm sure the conversation within PLA will be no different than some of the conversations going on in the Pentagon right now