China should purchase CH-47 Chinook

From Iran or Vietnam
Since these countries lack the spare parts, by purchasing at least 1 or 2 CH-47, China could improve airlift capabilities or possibly research to self develop a transport helicopter based on its design.
Or maybe China can even get them for free from Iran in exchange with China's arms deal to Iran.

sorry buddy that'll never happend. here are several reasons

1. 1 or 2 CH-47 won't make any real difference in lift capabilities for china.

2. China don't have a storehouse load of CH-47 spare parts, it has trouble keeping it's Black-hawk operational as it is. would not intergrate well with Proven Russian and chinese made Coptors.

3. just because it's from U.S dosen't mean it's = GOOD. why would china want some beat up CH-47 from Iran or Viet. when they can build brand new Copies of MI series of Russian Coptors or even buy direct from Russia. which they do have WAREHOUSE full of spare parts.

4. CH-47 is very old even for the US military, been around since the 60s not to mention it keeps getting shot down in IRAQ, AFGHAN. i am sure with china's new found cash it has better fish to fry.

Hello I just don’t think this is very realistic for china.:china:

1. It is common knowlodge that china acquired some BlackHawks prior to 89. but it has trouble keeping those in operational shape because of lack of spare parts after 89. it is safe to assume it will not have any spare parts for CH-47.


2. 1 or 2 CH-47 will never make any real difference in the airlift need of the PLA . it is more likely any acquired CH-47 will be taken apart and examined to help china understand how to build it’s own heavy lift helicopters.

3. China now uses many proven Soviet/Russian Helicopters designs also many Chinese built Russian MI series Helicopters. It simply does not need the CH-47. you have to understand mixing many different military equipment from different country is a very bad idea. It is not cost effective and also creates a logistical nightmare.

The Mi-26 Halo seems like a better choice, as its a more modern design if nothing else.

Besides, China has some old Mi heavy lift helicopters, though they didn't see the need to reverse engineer them, apparently.

mauler88, The fact that the Chinook is still around after nearly 50 years is a testimony to the quality of it's enginnering.

The US Army has been and is purchasing new CH-47s.



I know that the US Army has purchased more a few months ago but I cannot find the article.

Now..the posibility of China buying a Chinook from Vietnam or any other country to study the aircraft would be falwed in my opinion. Thos Chinooks in Vietnam are close to 40 years old and would only give the Chinese a basic idea about building a heavy lift helo.

well all i am saying is china is better off sticking with the Russian/Soviet stuff.

mauler88 said:

well all i am saying is china is better off sticking with the Russian/Soviet stuff.

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I agree. The US is never going to sell China any spare parts . Might as well stick with the Russians until the Chinese develop their own heavy lift helo.

for transport helos:
take the russian stuff or produce your own,

but in combination with Iran there is another nice deal:

Iran is producing the Huey-Cobra Attack-Heli (see post #12) and need fighters,
China is producing fighters (including the engines) and need much more Attack Helicopters,
why not exchange both?

Sczepan said:

for transport helos:
take the russian stuff or produce your own,

but in combination with Iran there is another nice deal:

Iran is producing the Huey-Cobra Attack-Heli (see

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post #12) and need fighters,
China is producing fighters (including the engines) and need much more Attack Helicopters,
why not exchange both?

Click to expand...

China has no need for a light weight attack heli like Cobra. Z-10 is much better than the version that Iran has. And besides, the only platform they really really need right now and can't produce are large transports and large helicopter. They have to rely on the Russians for it. Personally, I'd like to see something like CH-47 or EH-101, but they can't get those. They already have the ToT for Mi-17 and also can produce the more expensive Z-8F. Outside of that, there were talks of Mi-38.

Actually the Chinook was flown in China in 1987 for 1 month demostration.

heavy helicopter is not something urge for china at the moment while money could be better spend for more WZ-10 gunship and Z-8F median transport hel.