Kurt
Junior Member
Re: New interceptors for the Argentine Air Force?
To answer all these statements about Chinese capability. I have no doubt that China is a very capable arms manufacturer. The problem is that they are under an embargo by the US and Europe. Pakistan wanted to fuse European, US and Chinese technology in the JF-17, but due to the embargo was left with only Chinese and little Russian support.
It's irrelevant how long the development of the Tejas takes as it is in no relation to the JF-17 development timeframe. India does a major research on modern fighters and the resulting airframe is good. The Indians are also quite ambitious with this aircraft, just like Rafale, Raptor, Eurofighter, JSF and so on (seems like there's no good aircraft outside China this century). Many news reports about India are written by people with a poor understanding of this country, just like many reports you read about China. The linked blog highlighted a number of opinions and some were worth reading.
I mentioned the arms embargo on China by the US and Europe, with Israel "convinced" to align, as well as the increasingly competitive relationsship between China's MIC and Russia's MIC. The problem due to the arms embargo is that major weapon imports from China can put a country at political risk of a US-European arms embargo that leaves them in a similar situation such as Iran with major weapon systems from these contries hardly functional. Argentina is in conflict with UK and Chile and this is the most welcome excuse to curb any of their military ambitions by embargo due to "strong alignment with a hostile great power that uses them for espionage" (how this would be sold to the public). Iran highlights the disastrous effects and the JF-17 highlights how this works as expensive insecurities. Going for major Chinese weapon systems requires a rather complete determination to take the whole package of defense systems from this very country as even Russia is not too reliable a partner with their attitude towards the Chinese MIC. The fallout from this situation should be quite clear if you look at the current international structure of Argentine military hardware that would have to be altered.
For imports of weapons from China you are either economically powerful enough to not face an embargo or underdeveloped enough to shrug your shoulders when threatened with such a strange thing that doesn't affect your pick up trucks. Argentina fits in neither role and needs Brazil to bolster any such major contract with China if they don't want to commit totally to made in China.
Argentina is determined to operate a carrier and keeps training for this purpose. Carriers are available at less than 500 million$ as sea control ships like the HTMS Chakri Naruebet, Príncipe de Asturias, Giuseppe Garibaldi or the Dokdo class(with stripped down electronics). Even the Endurance-class can be modified to operate light STOL or STOVL aircrafts. There's no shortage of affordable rumps for a few flying aircrafts. and Argentina is unlikely to ever put more than 12 fighters and 5 fixed wing surveillance and tanker aircraft on a carrier with about 8 helicopters, making the Asturias already quite large for their purpose. Their amphibious component best operates via large fast ferries from friendly shores and China, New Zealand&Australia are the sources for these ships.
Argentina can buy a giant old rump from the US. I have no idea how they want to operate it. It best serves as an integrated carrier, supply ship for the escorts and amphibious assault ship that garners good vibes by participating in costly international interventions under US leadership.
I consider the Tejas to be a study about the conformation of future Indian fighter aircraft design of the 21st century that is ongoing, not dissimilar to the Korean fleet programm that moves on to ever bigger and complicated structures. It doesn't matter that some components take longer, because India, unlike China, is under no embargo and not limited to Russia under such circumstances. You really have to look at the achievements and not the newsbites on a military programm with a decent level of secrecy.
To answer all these statements about Chinese capability. I have no doubt that China is a very capable arms manufacturer. The problem is that they are under an embargo by the US and Europe. Pakistan wanted to fuse European, US and Chinese technology in the JF-17, but due to the embargo was left with only Chinese and little Russian support.
It's irrelevant how long the development of the Tejas takes as it is in no relation to the JF-17 development timeframe. India does a major research on modern fighters and the resulting airframe is good. The Indians are also quite ambitious with this aircraft, just like Rafale, Raptor, Eurofighter, JSF and so on (seems like there's no good aircraft outside China this century). Many news reports about India are written by people with a poor understanding of this country, just like many reports you read about China. The linked blog highlighted a number of opinions and some were worth reading.
I mentioned the arms embargo on China by the US and Europe, with Israel "convinced" to align, as well as the increasingly competitive relationsship between China's MIC and Russia's MIC. The problem due to the arms embargo is that major weapon imports from China can put a country at political risk of a US-European arms embargo that leaves them in a similar situation such as Iran with major weapon systems from these contries hardly functional. Argentina is in conflict with UK and Chile and this is the most welcome excuse to curb any of their military ambitions by embargo due to "strong alignment with a hostile great power that uses them for espionage" (how this would be sold to the public). Iran highlights the disastrous effects and the JF-17 highlights how this works as expensive insecurities. Going for major Chinese weapon systems requires a rather complete determination to take the whole package of defense systems from this very country as even Russia is not too reliable a partner with their attitude towards the Chinese MIC. The fallout from this situation should be quite clear if you look at the current international structure of Argentine military hardware that would have to be altered.
For imports of weapons from China you are either economically powerful enough to not face an embargo or underdeveloped enough to shrug your shoulders when threatened with such a strange thing that doesn't affect your pick up trucks. Argentina fits in neither role and needs Brazil to bolster any such major contract with China if they don't want to commit totally to made in China.
Argentina is determined to operate a carrier and keeps training for this purpose. Carriers are available at less than 500 million$ as sea control ships like the HTMS Chakri Naruebet, Príncipe de Asturias, Giuseppe Garibaldi or the Dokdo class(with stripped down electronics). Even the Endurance-class can be modified to operate light STOL or STOVL aircrafts. There's no shortage of affordable rumps for a few flying aircrafts. and Argentina is unlikely to ever put more than 12 fighters and 5 fixed wing surveillance and tanker aircraft on a carrier with about 8 helicopters, making the Asturias already quite large for their purpose. Their amphibious component best operates via large fast ferries from friendly shores and China, New Zealand&Australia are the sources for these ships.
Argentina can buy a giant old rump from the US. I have no idea how they want to operate it. It best serves as an integrated carrier, supply ship for the escorts and amphibious assault ship that garners good vibes by participating in costly international interventions under US leadership.
I consider the Tejas to be a study about the conformation of future Indian fighter aircraft design of the 21st century that is ongoing, not dissimilar to the Korean fleet programm that moves on to ever bigger and complicated structures. It doesn't matter that some components take longer, because India, unlike China, is under no embargo and not limited to Russia under such circumstances. You really have to look at the achievements and not the newsbites on a military programm with a decent level of secrecy.
