China to recieve an Export Waiver for the C-130

It is too little, too late, too obsolete for US to sell C-130's to China.

There is a US$300 billion hole that needs to be filled, each year.

People used to say that China needs to sale 300 million pants in order to buy a Boeing 747 airplane. This is a good way to say it. The fact is that the United State only paid China with the worthless green paper.

Sorry, the Green Paper was a better deal. Actually, the US only wrote a piece of paper-IOU.

I doubt the US will be lifting the embargo any time soon, espicially with relations strained like this and the whole hype of China being a threat in the pacific etc.

I'm more interested in whether China asked for the C-130s or if the US is offering. And would they be new build C-130s or older ones?
Either way it'll be nice for China to get some aircraft exclusively for use against oil spills as to loosen up production for the PLA from Shanxi (or whoever manufactures the Y-8/Y9 family). Just hope China doesn't go overboard with C-130 purchase and end up getting so many that it'll kill the Y-9 project like the Y-10 was killed, but I suppose circumstances are different now.

The specifics are odd. It's not like China has had a major event like what happened in the Gulf of Mexico recently. Such a sale would be logical if there were. I think this is to test the waters to see how Congress will react. Obama has already called for a review of trade with specific countries, i.e. China, on dual-use items that are put through hurdles where US companies lose out in the long run because China ends up developing it or another foreign competitor gets the sale. I doubt anytime soon the door will be swung open but some in the US probably realize this one fact... What is okay to sell to China without review, Chinese can make for themselves at a lesser cost. Unless the US is planning to repeat history and force China to agree to unequal treaties again, then the trade deficit is never going to be solved with the restrictions they have now. That being said it might be too little too late. Why should China buy C-130s when they have alternatives at a lower cost unless China wants to follow the rest of the world and pay more just because it's a brand name.

Well... technologically and in the viewpoint of manufacturing and engineering... China could build a C-130 or equivalent with no or little problem. And even if they did have problem, they could get equivalent at cheaper cost from Russia.

However I believe if US is willing to sell, China would have taken the offer... reason? Sometime it is not in the viewpoint of what is the best equipment for your country that matters... most of the time, it is to get equipment that is the most politically correct.

Actually, the sell is limited to 5 units.

I think it is the case where the US is trying to secure orders to keep jobs as the US military is oversupplied with these type of aircraft already.Remember last summer when Pres.Obama and defence chiefs publically stated this.The confusing thing is they specifically referred to C5 and C17's but not C-130's.Maybe someone can explain this to me.


I have also noticed some media already stretching the facts on this story.

If the deal actually goes through... it really would means nothing... except that China bought these planes either as a stopgap or as a way of improving ties with US... or even as a signal to EU that they could consider lifting the embargoment as even US was starting to sell hardware to China.

Why I say that? Easy. Look, if what A-Man say was accurate and correct, the sale figure was only limited to 5 planes.

From past purchasing pattern of CHina, the Chinese do not just want to buy the product, they want to have license to build these products, and also the transfer of related technology to these products. Thus it would be truely strange if China just bought 5 and stopped (because of restriction placed from the US side).

Plus Russia had aircraft of the same calibre as the C-130, which China could purchase and with no restriction at all. Plus these planes are much cheaper than the US made C-130... also China had their own carriers too - Y-8 and soon Y-9. So seriously there is no need to get 5 C-130...

Another thing to consider is the possibility in the future that the US may rescind any maintenence agreements or refuse to supply spare parts if something should occur like say with Taiwan.It took some effort ,and a massive earthquake, for China to persuade the US to supply spares for the black hawks.Talking about maintenence,they will need to train crews specifically for these aircraft too.I'm not saying this is a big problem but it should be a factor in the decision to buy them.All in all,this news does seem to be more political than practical for China.

rhino123 said:

If the deal actually goes through... it really would means nothing... except that China bought these planes either as a stopgap or as a way of improving ties with US... or even as a signal to EU that they could consider lifting the embargoment as even US was starting to sell hardware to China.

Why I say that? Easy. Look, if what A-Man say was accurate and correct, the sale figure was only limited to 5 planes.

From past purchasing pattern of CHina, the Chinese do not just want to buy the product, they want to have license to build these products, and also the transfer of related technology to these products. Thus it would be truely strange if China just bought 5 and stopped (because of restriction placed from the US side).

Plus Russia had aircraft of the same calibre as the C-130, which China could purchase and with no restriction at all. Plus these planes are much cheaper than the US made C-130... also China had their own carriers too - Y-8 and soon Y-9. So seriously there is no need to get 5 C-130...

Click to expand...

I agree, with only 5 C-130s with no transfer of technology or expertise for maintenance, the costs of maintaining and keeping only 5 aircraft in the air would not be very efficient for a per/aircraft basis in terms of cost. If left on their own, they will end up like those 80s era Lockheed-Martin L-100 (the civilian C-130 variant) China got in the 80s, they were decommissioned 13 year later. Not to say its not a possibility but China has a lot of option on its table, with the C-130 only being one of many, a decision could be made for purely political reasons as well.

I have the same question as Blitzo does though, was there a request for C-130s from China and the US government is reacting to this or are they hoping to open up export in the hope China will take the opportunity to buy?

FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Maybe they want them to operate from the Varyag.With max.payload the aircraft would use 745ft for take-off and 460ft for landing.I guess by the time PLAN train a pilot to achieve this manoeuvre,even the Y9 will be obsolete.