PLA AEW&C, SIGINT, EW and MPA thread

[AssassinsMace]

Haven't they already converted some 737s to military use?

Yes and that has been pointed as a violation of terms of sale in articles. But has the US government offiically complained behind doors? Who knows? But it sounds like a limited number because wouldn't we see a big dish AWACS 737 or A320 by now?

 

[Krabat1976]

least we now know China has a program to eventually develop domestic engines for C919.

When it will happens, it will be the main proof that China can master the turbofan tech. Due to the high sectretiveness of military hardware, it's always a good way to look at civilian correspective sector to estimate how sophisticated and developed a country is in military tech. Judging by electronic and nanotech, required for radar and stealth, China should be well positioned in these fields, but his aerospace civilian industry is still behind old USSR, and decades behind USA. At the moment China is importing engines even for ARJ21.

 

[plawolf]

When it will happens, it will be the main proof that China can master the turbofan tech. Due to the high sectretiveness of military hardware, it's always a good way to look at civilian correspective sector to estimate how sophisticated and developed a country is in military tech. Judging by electronic and nanotech, required for radar and stealth, China should be well positioned in these fields, but his aerospace civilian industry is still behind old USSR, and decades behind USA. At the moment China is importing engines even for ARJ21.

Its a bit of a common misconception to suggest that China is x number of years behind based on when someone else first introduced something. China is chasing a moving target as they are not looking to produce an engine equiviant to something from the 80s or 90s. They are aiming to produce engines that can at the very least approach the performance of engines currently in use, and that is one of the key reasons why the projects are taking so long. This will be especially true in the civilian market, where safety is a far bigger concern and reliability requirements tend to be tighter than military engines.

 

[lcloo]

Besides safety concern, a civilian engine must be a fuel saver, no one is going to buy a jet liner that consume fuel more than others. It is profit and safety that are the main concern in buying and selling cicilian aircraft.

Sure China can put military engine on C919, but who is going yo buy them? The excessive fuel cost will make the operators bankcrupt in no time.

China is still years behind in designing a efficient fuel saving engine.

 

[Engineer]

C919 isn't going to be used as a platform for YJ-2000 follow ups; the large-transport being develop will.

 

[Krabat1976]

Its a bit of a common misconception to suggest that China is x number of years behind based on when someone else first introduced something. China is chasing a moving target as they are not looking to produce an engine equiviant to something from the 80s or 90s. They are aiming to produce engines that can at the very least approach the performance of engines currently in use, and that is one of the key reasons why the projects are taking so long. This will be especially true in the civilian market, where safety is a far bigger concern and reliability requirements tend to be tighter than military engines.

I hope you're right plawolf, and maybe China engine development will be like radar: in 2003-2005 they entered the market with a competitive radar for J10, and only five years after they put cutting edge AESA tech on the same J10. Let see if by 2020-2025 China will send taikonauts on the moon and will have his own space shuttle: i don't deny that is possible, only i am more sceptic that for radar, EW, and RAM materials development. What is certain is that by 2009 something very important happened to China metallurgy tech: now thay can build military turbofan blades,albeit in low number (by number of J11 induction it seems that 24-25 FWS10 are produced per year) and the lifespan of China engine is still a mistery.

 

[cloyce]

I hope you're right plawolf, and maybe China engine development will be like radar: in 2003-2005 they entered the market with a competitive radar for J10, and only five years after they put cutting edge AESA tech on the same J10.

Is China selling J-10's radar?
Which radar you are referring to?

 

[Krabat1976]

Is China selling J-10's radar?
Which radar you are referring to?

Mystype: i referred to domestic market,of course. In the future will be interesting see which equipment China will sell in his J10 offered to foreign countries

 

[EDIATH]

I hope you're right plawolf, and maybe China engine development will be like radar: in 2003-2005 they entered the market with a competitive radar for J10, and only five years after they put cutting edge AESA tech on the same J10. Let see if by 2020-2025 China will send taikonauts on the moon and will have his own space shuttle: i don't deny that is possible, only i am more sceptic that for radar, EW, and RAM materials development. What is certain is that by 2009 something very important happened to China metallurgy tech: now thay can build military turbofan blades,albeit in low number (by number of J11 induction it seems that 24-25 FWS10 are produced per year) and the lifespan of China engine is still a mistery.

Judging from the success of AWACS programs during the past few years, I wouldn't rank radar & electronics as the biggest hurdle PLAAF needs to struggle at this stage. The chance is, the AESA currently being (or soon will be) tested on J10B may enter service earlier than that of Typhoon or Rafale, and there are also competing products under development elsewhere in China which might end up being adopted by J11 etc.

By the way, the engine example is not very sound (no offence ) FWS10 hasn't received production certificate at the time being, not before the overhaul mark being reached as I've learnt. Therefore the current production rate does not indicate the actual production capacity. They are also applying 2nd gen. monocrystaline on fan blades and so on to boost the max. thrust of FWS10 towards 140KN, which will become the standard power config. for J10B, J15 & future J11 even early JXX. So the bottom line is, they're not mass producing FWS10 because the time's not right; and they're not ordering J11B on large scale because J11B is not good enough.

 

[zoom]

Another awacs article appears. I have noticed other bloggers on defence news in particular don't give much credit to this author.Would like to hear your thoughts.

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