Shenyang FC-31 / J-31 Fighter Demonstrator
- Thread starter RedSky
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plawolf
Lieutenant General
plawolf
Lieutenant General
Thanks, that's worked! Much appreciated!
That article is the most remarkable insider's account of the bidding and development of one of China's key defense projects I've ever read. Most reports of such nature are full of government cliche and propaganda.
The main story-line is about the fierce competition between two research institutes bidding for the 052C AESA radar project. The competition for key defense projects in and of itself is nothing new these days - it's common practice in China today, and has been so for a while.
What's remarkable about that competition is its fierceness and the extraordinary length each party would go to win the competition: all the way to the highest level of the government including President and Premier.
However, I wouldn't draw too much analogy between that competition and the J-31 project today. The historical circumstances are vastly different, so are the implications.
To put simply, the 052C AESA radar competition was a desperate bid for survival, whereas J-31 is more about maintaining the competition and skill base. SAC's got its hands full and will remain so for many years to come even without J-31 or the fifth-generation fighter project. In other words, J-31 is a luxury that China can afford today, more or less. That wasn't the case for the 052C AESA radar project.
The background to the 052C radar competition was the early '90s, the dark period of Chinese defense industry, when defense spending was scarce and the industry was bleeding with talent loss. Most R&D programs were put on hold or frozen, including the enhancement of China's strategic missile program (DF-5) and the development next generation nuclear submarines. There were only four key projects that were given priority and large funding: J-10, HQ-9, Type-99 MBT, and 052C. According to the article, the AESA project would get R&D funding of 210 million yuan plus 20 million yuan for infrastructure improvement funds, a huge amount at the time (for comparison, China's official national defense budget in 1993 was 37.7 billion yuan).
The 1996 Taiwan crisis when the US sent two aircraft carriers, and later the bombing of Chinese embassy in Belgrade completely turned around the defense spending picture. Since then, China's defense spending had been growing in double digits for twenty years, riding along the concurrent explosive growth of Chinese economy.
The main story-line is about the fierce competition between two research institutes bidding for the 052C AESA radar project. The competition for key defense projects in and of itself is nothing new these days - it's common practice in China today, and has been so for a while.
What's remarkable about that competition is its fierceness and the extraordinary length each party would go to win the competition: all the way to the highest level of the government including President and Premier.
However, I wouldn't draw too much analogy between that competition and the J-31 project today. The historical circumstances are vastly different, so are the implications.
To put simply, the 052C AESA radar competition was a desperate bid for survival, whereas J-31 is more about maintaining the competition and skill base. SAC's got its hands full and will remain so for many years to come even without J-31 or the fifth-generation fighter project. In other words, J-31 is a luxury that China can afford today, more or less. That wasn't the case for the 052C AESA radar project.
The background to the 052C radar competition was the early '90s, the dark period of Chinese defense industry, when defense spending was scarce and the industry was bleeding with talent loss. Most R&D programs were put on hold or frozen, including the enhancement of China's strategic missile program (DF-5) and the development next generation nuclear submarines. There were only four key projects that were given priority and large funding: J-10, HQ-9, Type-99 MBT, and 052C. According to the article, the AESA project would get R&D funding of 210 million yuan plus 20 million yuan for infrastructure improvement funds, a huge amount at the time (for comparison, China's official national defense budget in 1993 was 37.7 billion yuan).
The 1996 Taiwan crisis when the US sent two aircraft carriers, and later the bombing of Chinese embassy in Belgrade completely turned around the defense spending picture. Since then, China's defense spending had been growing in double digits for twenty years, riding along the concurrent explosive growth of Chinese economy.
I am very surprised of the author being allowed to leave China and settle in a foreign country when the project was still ongoing IF he is what he claims to be, a key person in such project (as I understand a team leader).
I personally know people of much lower sensitivities who told me that they can not leave China for settlement abroad for many years of "?declassification?". Using "family visit" as he said, but never return will put all approvers liable of legal or disciplinary punishment. As he said the approvers are quit high-ranked including the head of the 14th institute and some of them (the head of 14th) knew his intension of not coming back.
Was China's security regulation that sloppy at that time? Jian Zemin's era. Maybe as the big names of the corruptions caught recently are all appointed during his time. Or, I should and would take a grain of salt of the author's word, maybe he is just a common engineer involved, and his words are his own imagination like many fanboy's habit of pitching SAC and CAC.
I personally know people of much lower sensitivities who told me that they can not leave China for settlement abroad for many years of "?declassification?". Using "family visit" as he said, but never return will put all approvers liable of legal or disciplinary punishment. As he said the approvers are quit high-ranked including the head of the 14th institute and some of them (the head of 14th) knew his intension of not coming back.
Was China's security regulation that sloppy at that time? Jian Zemin's era. Maybe as the big names of the corruptions caught recently are all appointed during his time. Or, I should and would take a grain of salt of the author's word, maybe he is just a common engineer involved, and his words are his own imagination like many fanboy's habit of pitching SAC and CAC.
