Chengdu J-10
Quote:
Russian's should've offered their latest and most advance equipment to the PLAAF earlier
(Scratch) Perhaps Russia didn't expect China to come along that fast. Sell them something good but not the best, to keep them away(technical); and a few years later sell them more advanced systems to make money again. Well if that was the intention, it went wrong ...
Yup that is a good explanation which I am inclined to.
But the other explanation I am most inclined to is that the so called latest and bestest Russian projects are actually more hype and marketing, half baked and are not full developed.
So even if you want them, they can't deliver in time, and request a large overlay so they can use money to actually finish the development.
If you feel that there is some scam going on, that is what I tend to incline.
Example, Russians displaying Kh-59MK antiship mission on MKK 502 prototype in Paris Air Show in 2001. But the missile actually never finished its development until 2006.
For what its worth, the MKK was quite ahead of what the Russians have in their armed forces. While the radar specs seem pedestrian compared to the other projects, it was on the other hand, better tested and certified. In 2000, the plane is completely certified and integrated with a whole gamut of weapons, some of these weapons are not integrated with BARS for example until 2005-2006.
Because of the certification (and lack of such on the others), the RuAF chose the MKK system as their basis for the Su-27SM upgrade for their own forces. So in fact, the Russians have a good opinion about the MKK system, deeming well enough for their own armed forces. Which is why they are in shock that the Chinese stopped the MKK buying and didn't go through with the SKM project, which was also financed by the Chinese.
In hindsight the Russians probably didn't expect that the Chinese would raise their sights higher and faster. What was okay for the RuAF, no longer was okay for the PLAAF.
There was also some dents on the MKK project. In the original specs, the Kh-31A was included, and even the 501 prototypes were flying the missile back in photos during year 2000. Apparently it really didn't work, and the Kh-31A functionality had to be rolled back and incorporated into the Su-30MK2. And the Russians probably charged for something they should have incorporated in the first place.
Another is the delay on the SAPSAN E pod. It should have been available back in 2001, but we only saw evidence of this in 2006, though the Sino Russian exercises did report the Su-30MKK dropping LGBs. Between that, there are many stories of its delay. Back in 2004, we never saw evidence of LGB being part of the MKK arms inventory, the LGB China bought from the Russians all end up in the JH-7A.
Suffice to say, won't you be disappointed you spend 37 million on a plane that didn't live up to its expectations? Failed to use antiship missile, failed to use even LGB properly?
At least the AL-31FNs, the Kilos and the new Sovs did manage to live up to their expectations (so far), and that was enough faith restoration to bring the Chinese back to the negotiation table, amidst other Russian bobos, the inability to complete the IL-76 contract, and the quality control problems of the RD-93 (5 rejects out of 15 engines delivered is bad).
