Chinese purchase of Su-35

Air Force Brat said:

They won't do that now, they're back in Russia's orbit.....

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Honestly I do not get it why so many people think that China is beholden to Russia. Yeah sure they are friends, but they are more friends with benefits rather then true bros to the end.
It is rather Russia that is more depending on China. If China stops trading with them right now, Russia's economy is gonna tank hard.
They did not do much when China lifted the Su-27 design back for the J-11s other than some pitiful mewling, and they sure can't do much if China decides it wants its Su-35s to have a different flavour.

Viktor Jav said:

Like I said before,the PLAAF should rip off the Ibris- E and install an AESA radar at the first chance they get, and re program the software so it fires PL-15s and PL-10s. To he** with what Russia will say about it.

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Isn't it possible to make Chinese missiles compatible with Su-35 while still using Irbis? We don't know how good Chinese AESA and PESA are and Chinese engineers probably don't know how well they perform and how usable they are compared to Russian PESA until they take a very close examination of a Russian one. If indeed they rip the Irbis out, it could show how weak the real life performance is. Chances are it is as good as any PESA out there and there's little benefit in replacing it with a Chinese radar if they can crack the codes and make the su-35 compatible with current and next gen Chinese AAMs and assorted ordinance (although Su-35 is primarily for the air superiority role in PLAAF). Whatever Russia thinks about it certainly won't be of concern, particularly if the Chinese can just hide and not mention the modifications.

ougoah said:

Isn't it possible to make Chinese missiles compatible with Su-35 while still using Irbis? We don't know how good Chinese AESA and PESA are and Chinese engineers probably don't know how well they perform and how usable they are compared to Russian PESA until they take a very close examination of a Russian one. If indeed they rip the Irbis out, it could show how weak the real life performance is. Chances are it is as good as any PESA out there and there's little benefit in replacing it with a Chinese radar if they can crack the codes and make the su-35 compatible with current and next gen Chinese AAMs and assorted ordinance (although Su-35 is primarily for the air superiority role in PLAAF). Whatever Russia thinks about it certainly won't be of concern, particularly if the Chinese can just hide and not mention the modifications.

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Well AFAIK, Russia has the annoying tendency to make sure that it's weapons systems are fundamentally incompatible with anything that isn't Russian. Both to increase potential sales of other weapons and to prevent them from being used against them in some degree.

So in order for the Su-35s to use Chinese made missiles it is either the fighters's combat systems would have to be reprogrammed to accept Chinese missiles or the other way around, and since China has made it their policy that their weapons are to be applicable in both NATO and Russian platform it will be much cheaper and expedient to do the latter rather than to reprogram a bunch of missiles to be usable only by one platform.
And this is not a matter that can be hidden from Russia in perpetuity either, if Russia and China had also included a maintenance agreement in the purchase deal, the gig is up as soon as a Sukhoi technician access one of those airframe's computer. And if China is to run maintenance on it's own, sooner or later there will be a picture leak of the Su-35s carrying missiles it is not supposed to carry in the first place. Fighter planes are among the most media attractive weapons platform out there.

But then again, like you said, whatever Russia thinks or voice about it won't be a concern anyway.

Does anyone knows what is the sina article that its mentioned in this rt article (brazilian version)? it appears that in this sina article, military analysts say that su-35 cant compare with j-16. Does anyone knows anything about this?

Deino said:

What a Beauty

View attachment 47247

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Yes it is. Best pic I have seen of one yet.

How many have they actually received now?

Viktor Jav said:

Like I said before,the PLAAF should rip off the Ibris- E and install an AESA radar at the first chance they get, and re program the software so it fires PL-15s and PL-10s. To he** with what Russia will say about it.

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That's too much effort.

Some trivia you might not know:

In the early stage of this Su-35 purchase deal, PLAAF required KNAAPO to have a Chinese version of the whole pilot interface, but then they dropped the requirement, just keep the original russian interface.

The russian interface is not a problem for PLAAF, for the Su-35s been appointed to the regiment operating the oldest Su-27SK originally, they already learned the russian.

The purchase deal is too long and too late, now PLAAF just view the deal as the replacement for the oldest Su-27SK, not much. BTW, it can balance the trade deficit between Russia and China.

Tiberium said:

That's too much effort.

Some trivia you might not know:

In the early stage of this Su-35 purchase deal, PLAAF required KNAAPO to have a Chinese version of the whole pilot interface, but then they dropped the requirement, just keep the original russian interface.

The russian interface is not a problem for PLAAF, for the Su-35s been appointed to the regiment operating the oldest Su-27SK originally, they already learned the russian.

The purchase deal is too long and too late, now PLAAF just view the deal as the replacement for the oldest Su-27SK, not much. BTW, it can balance the trade deficit between Russia and China.

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Seeing as the total price that China paid for the Su-35s approaches 2 billion USD in total, spending a little more to bring them up to line is hardly asking for much.
That the deal was protracted and drawn out does not negate the fact that these planes are practically brand new and airframe & engine performance wise they are among the best 4th gen fighters in existence.

Tiberium said:

That's too much effort.

Some trivia you might not know:

In the early stage of this Su-35 purchase deal, PLAAF required KNAAPO to have a Chinese version of the whole pilot interface, but then they dropped the requirement, just keep the original russian interface.

The russian interface is not a problem for PLAAF, for the Su-35s been appointed to the regiment operating the oldest Su-27SK originally, they already learned the russian.

The purchase deal is too long and too late, now PLAAF just view the deal as the replacement for the oldest Su-27SK, not much. BTW, it can balance the trade deficit between Russia and China.

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Sooner or later the PLAAF will have to face the fact that it needs to replace Russian avionics with their own ones, lest they continue to purchase munitions from Russia.

Somewhere i read that Chinese version SU-35 doesn't have L-Band radar mounted on it due to Russian's fear that china may reverse engineer it.

ShariQ Ansari said:

Somewhere i read that Chinese version SU-35 doesn't have L-Band radar mounted on it due to Russian's fear that china may reverse engineer it.

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I don't know. I believe that Chinese radar technology is ahead of Russia's now ... maybe such concerns were from ten years ago, when the Su-35 contract negotiations began?