Russia sells S-400 systems to China

Okay...that did not take long.

The following is from the People's Daily Online and is close enough to official for me:

THREAD RE-OPENED

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People's Daily Online said:

The deployment of the Russian S-400 surface-to-air missile system will substantially improve China's air defense capability, military experts said.

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Hehehe...maybe the PRC is watching SD and did not want the wrong impression left and so went ahead and generated the official announcement ASAP?

LOL! Wistful thinking that!

Ultra said:

I think this is a game changer for Taiwan. Basically if they put S-400 along the coastal area they can actually threaten and shoot down all aircraft on Taiwan's side of the sky! The Taiwan stait is merely 130 km wide at its narrowest part, and 220 km at its widest. With a range of 400 km, S-400 fielded in Fujian Province will be able to cover the entire Taiwan airspace!

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I believe you are correct . Even more so, Senkaku / Diaoyu Islands are also inside the range of 40N6 missile . It could also be game changer because every Japanese plane overflying those islands could be in potential danger .

So if the deal was clinched in September 2014, would we see the initial delivery by the tail end of 2015?

based upon the the estimated range and capabilities of this system, a widespread deployment would a present game changer for more than just taiwan. deployed SE of askai chin, they could contest airspace over new delhi. from any point along the chinese vietnamese border, they could contest the airspace over hanoi; additional deployments on hainan island could allow PLA to contest the whole of the NE vietnamese airspace. a deployment along the chinese-north korean border, SE of tonqua, could contest all of north korean airspace and even extend to the perimeter of seoul, SK.
as for the east china sea, my analysis is that the 400 km range simply extends the base range from which major PLAN vessel, surface and submarine, will patrol. thus, the SAM systems on types 052C/D, operating from the edge of s-400 coverage range, would have sensory access to activity in the airspace west of the ryukyu islands (okinawa islands) within minutes; that is, at ~50 km out from naha and at ~100 km out from anami oshima.
with other possible geo-strategic deployments left to analyze, suffice to say that the s-400 technology, if it performs as estimated, may be a regional game changer. i anticipate that patriot system sales will become quite brisk in the near future.

Skywatcher said:

So if the deal was clinched in September 2014, would we see the initial delivery by the tail end of 2015?

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russia usually prefers to get top-tier SAM systems into near complete deployment before exporting the technology. they intend to completely convert their air defense from s-300 to s-400 systems; a very intelligent goal, i'd say.

thunderchief said:

I believe you are correct . Even more so, Senkaku / Diaoyu Islands are also inside the range of 40N6 missile . It could also be game changer because every Japanese plane overflying those islands could be in potential danger .

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Just because it states a maximum range of 400 km it does not mean that it performs optimally...or even well... at those kinds of ranges.

Taiwan (and others based on the other posters comments) will be able to degrade that performance through a myriad of methods stopping short of firing on them.

I do not believe China is interested in escalating tensions. They will not use this system as an in our face offensive weapon to try and limit or threaten other nation's airspace.

To do so would be folly.

It would invite in kind responses in return...but from multiple countries and it would tend to unite all of those countries against the PRC.

No, the PRC will deploy these to provide significant and strong defensive coverage in depth for their own assets and air space.

Let's not get into some kind of war or fear mongering here on SD.

A technical issue, if I may, is that the at the very end of the 400km range of the 40N6 missile, is that it won't have much kinetic energy to intercept a maneuvering target (not to mention that the search radars would have a hard time seeing over the mountains of Taiwan, which is a must if you want to hit airplanes on takeoff/landing).

Jeff Head said:

Hehehe...maybe the PRC is watching SD and did not want the wrong impression left and so went ahead and generated the official announcement ASAP?

LOL! Wistful thinking that!

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That's possible. There was an Indian national who was quoted by Quartz who pointed out where was Xi Jinping at the Paris march after the terrorist attack? Since Quartz, for obvious reasons had no comments section, I went to the guy's twitter account and tweeted, Where was Modi? I forget which but I got a like from either Xinhua or the People's Daily.

Jeff Head said:

Hehehe...maybe the PRC is watching SD and did not want the wrong impression left and so went ahead and generated the official announcement ASAP?

LOL! Wistful thinking that!

Click to expand...

Now if only they would confirm something for their aircraft carrier program.