Coming of Age: China's Industry Highlighted in Aviation Week

unknauthr

Junior Member
This week's edition of Aviation Week (21 July 2008) carries a couple of articles on China's military and aerospace industry evolution. Although there isn't too much that's new in the article, it does represent a sort of coming of age for China to be receiving this much attention. To quote a couple of the most relevant passages:

China is nearing the point of no longer needing Russian technology to support its quest for advanced weapons systems, a defining moment for relations between the two states and one that has wider ramifications for defense planners in the West.

Not new to most of us, but a belated admission of China's progress nonetheless. Also pointed out in the article is the fact that China's development of a next-generation fighter is expected to closely trail that of Russia's vaunted aerospace industry:

China's J-12 fifth-generation fighter program (previously known as the J-XX), the analysts suggest, does not lag far behind Russia's PAK FA program in terms of time scale.


References:

David A Fulghum and Douglas Barrie, "Peer Pressure: Beijing's Long March Toward Military Technical Independence is Close to Its Goal," Aviation Week & Space Technology, (21 July 2008), pp. 54-55.

David A Fulghum and Douglas Barrie, "Broad-Spectrum War: New SAMs, Ballistic Missiles and Long-Range UAVs Eyed by China," Aviation Week & Space Technology, (21 July 2008), pp. 55-56.
 
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