drunkmunky
Junior Member
I said in my own post that China is 'trying' to rid it's dependence on Saturn engines. I didn't say they were independent. Why post the same post you had several pages ago. We have hundreds of flankers with worn out AL-31's because of their poor service life. It makes logical sense just to purchase more as replacements until we can replace the entire fleet. We all know Russia has increased it's AL-31 production by one third since last year to meet the demands of China, Taiwan, India. We have almost twice the number of active flankers as the Russian air force.
Boasting is talking with excessive pride. If you think i'm boasting? then you're barking. What part of China doesn't want Russian components is based on pride. It's based on logistics and as you said, 'business'. We don't want to copy or use you Russian AL-31's anymore. The design is more than 30 years old *original design without revisions*
The fact that ws-10 engines are in service already show signs of some Chinese engine independence. I would say that it is just as impressive that China has developed a lot of the fighter chassis to transition from AL-31 powerplants and into the WS-10 without major downtime.
The engine development of the 10, 13, and 15 has been slow to ensure reliability. The sole problem we are having is the turbine blades. We don't have access to FM1's because they are only for the Russian Air Force. I can agree with you that Russian Engine development is more advanced than the Chinese, but that is only one component of the Equation.
Chinese flankers, with engagement of composite materials, revised construction methodology and improved avonics is on par, if not better than Russian flankers, regardless of engine thrust.
Looking back at the historical stance of the Russian Air Force vs. U.S. Air force. Russia has always utilized the flanker as an air superiority fighter. Massive thrust and maneuverability built specifically for Dog fighting scenarios utilizing traditional control and command. The U.S. air force circumvented this strategy by developing advanced avionics with a strike first, invisible bird scenario.
China's future competitor will not be Russia, but it will be the U.S. Chinese Flankers must be developed with advanced Avionics and reduced RCS. Engine thrust is only relevant if they were to survive the U.S. first strike scenario, and with the WS-10/AL-31 combination, the capability of the Chinese flanker is on par with the power of the F-15 and even the revised F-18SH.
So the Chinese flanker uses it's own Avionics and fire control system.
They developed their own 'improved' fighter chassis
They developed the plane for all of their own weapons.
We have some Ws-10's on birds but not enough.
If that isn't a clear sign to you that China wants to rid itself on its dependence of Russian Engines, I don't know what is. Regardless of the fact that you mentioned newer AL-31 engines have greater thrust, performance capability, it is clear, and most definitely noted in the media, that China is already moving at a fast rate along it's OWN course.
