deng actually cut down lots of military budget and reserch funding during his time.......
China Flanker Thread II
- Thread starter sumdud
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Which was a wise move, spending those resources on infrastructure and building the economy instead of keeping an enormous out of date ww2 style army. If China would have keept its huge spending (relative to gdp) it could not have developed the way it did.
After the fallout with the Soviet Union, the threat from america diminished greatly. The U.S was perfectly happy with China tying up Soviet forces in the far East and absolutely no one was interested in waging a land war in China..
Without a solid economic base how exactly do you propose China support advantaged military research?
Without cutting out the "losers", PLA probably wouldn't have these weapons today:
J10 Figher: Project started in 1986.
WS10 Engine: Preliminary research started in 1978, project started in 1987.
H9 SAM: Started in early 1980.
052 DDG: Project started in 1985.
99 MBT: Research on the 3rd-gen MBT resumed in 1984. Project started in 1986.
95 serivce rifle family: Project started in 1985.
And the nuclear warheads, the ICBMs, the submarines etc.
Regarding "resesrch funding", there was "Project 863" and its companion project "China Torch Program" (火炬计划). Project 863 was initiated in March, 1986 (hence the project code) and started in 1987. It was succeeded by the "Plan of National Major R&D Projects" (国家重点研发计划) in 2016. Shenzou spaceship (神舟飞船), Yinhe-1 and Yinhe-2 supercomputers (银河一号、二号超算), Jiaolong deep sea submersible (蛟龙深潜器), Longxin CPU (龙芯) are some of the well known outcomes of project 863.
Deng knew what he wanted and what he needed.
Deng's cut caused many R&D staff having a hard time making ends meet. Many of them quit and left to join the private sector or gone abroad for further study. The chief designer of J20 and JF 17 Yang wei (杨伟) almost left China due to tough conditions in 1990. If not for his mentor, the chief designer of J10 convinced him into staying, it's hard to say what would've happened to the later J20 program.
Because of the difficult conditions, Yang wei applied for working aboard and received his passport. His mentor/teacher (宋文骢) chief designer of J10 told him not to go so he stayed and later became chief designer of J20.
How do we judge Russian flanker performance and compare them to Chinese?
From historical evidence (Taiwan flyby vs. Russian air force in Ukraine) it seems to me that at the very least, PLAAF has a huge advantage in J-16D capability, which RAF does not have.
From historical evidence (Taiwan flyby vs. Russian air force in Ukraine) it seems to me that at the very least, PLAAF has a huge advantage in J-16D capability, which RAF does not have.
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