Of course not, i had said the biggest problem is China aircraft engine research,not aircraft design.
But Russia engines had limited China aircraft manufacturing.
Actually, access to Russian engines is enabling Chinese aircraft manufacturing, because without them, J10s and J11s simply would not by flying.
Sure, being wholly dependent on Russian engines would be a massive strategic problem, that is why China is putting so much effort and resources into the likes of the WS10A and WS13 etc.
If...i say if someday Russia government forbid exportting aircraft engines to China, it will seriously affected PLAAF fighter maintains and new fighters supply.
If Russia did that, it would be a blow, but I don't think it would be as bad as you fear. China has one of the biggest and best AL31 overhaul facilities in the world, and China is fully self sufficient on spares and replacement parts for AL31s. It is even likely that China is able, and has been, secretly pumping out brand new improved AL31s on the DL.
When you look at the number of AL31 powered planes the PLAAF operates, factor in the number of engines delivered by Russia, the life of the engines and the amount of time the PLAAF have been flying those planes, the numbers simply don't add up unless the Chinese have a way of replacing exhausted hours AL31s.
Current domestic WS-10 engines only low production capacity, can't meet Chinese aircraft production needs.
Pretty much all new built Flanker variants are using WS10A now. The only new planes still using AL31s are J10s.
This photo shot at 2012.10.28, see these new J-10A fighters in CAC... they still use Russia AL-31 engines, why not new J-10A install domestic WS-10 engines (We had seen many J-10A or J-11B with WS-10 engines)?
Except WS-10 can't meet J-10A production needs, i think there'r not any reasonable explanation.
I don't know, I can think of quite a few alternative explanations as to why J10As are still using AL31s.
1) Engines are bought in bulk and in advance. CAC is still sitting on a pretty big AL31 stockpile that they already bought and paid for. Switching to WS10A before those engines are used up would simply be a waste. Since the margins on J10s for the PLAAF is likely paper thin, CAC might actually loose money on J10s if they had to pay for WS10As on top of the AL31s they already bought for each new plane.
2) This might be the final batch of J10As before CAC switch production to J10Bs. What would be the point in spending time and money integrating WS10As into the J10A just as they are about to stop producing it? The J10B is already tested with WS10A, so it would be far more logical to just wait until the J10B to start using WS10As.
3) Costs and efficiency. Contrary to popular belief, China does not have infinity $$$, and money will play a part in investment decisions.
You also have to consider that the kind of highly skilled workforce needed to build top engine engines takes time and a lot of resources to train up, and once trained up, those workers need to be kept in work or else all the hard work and investment you put into training them up goes to waste.
Now, a new engine plant will take a while to ramp up to full production capacity. So, in year one, you might only produce 50 engines. But as your workers get more experienced and skilled, productivity improves. So the same plant using exactly the same number of machines and workers might be able to make 55 engines in the second year. 60 the year after and so on until it reaches peak production capacity.
We have no idea where WS10A currently is on that curve, but I think it is safe to say that it is not yet at peak production capacity.
That means that without any additional workers or new machines, that same plant could theoretically be able to produce many more engines in next year as productivity raises.
WS10A production today may be less than what is required to keep both SAC and CAC producing fighters at full rate, but that does not mean that the projected peak production capability of the WS10A factory is not enough to meet those engine needs.
If you add new capacity/workers so that WS10A production now is enough to satisfy SAC and CAC production today, you are almost certain to have excess production capacity for engines once the plant reaches peak output. What happens then? You close down part of the plant? Lay off some workers you just spent years and a lot of money training up? Get the PLAAF to order more planes than they need or could easily absorb each year?
Those are all sub-optimal solutions, and the most efficient solution could well be to just swallow your pride, and using imported AL31s to bridge the shortfall until your own engine factory reaches peak output whereby you become fully self-sufficient without ending up with excess capacity later down the road.
