Because priority should be given to systems necessary for military use. You would do the same yourself if you think of it.
COMAC C919
- Thread starter Deino
- Start date
I am talking about not relying on external sources of military-related parts because these can easily be embargoed by Western countries. If you are diverting Western aircraft supply chains into your military planes, it would most definitely be a violation of current embargo laws and could and would be shut down immediately if discovered. It's not like these parts aren't inventoried and tracked; it's not like Western suppliers are stupid and don't know that China could try to divert their parts into military planes. If you are sourcing the 20% of remaining external suppliers from Russia, then that would be another story. But let's get real, these suppliers are almost invariably Western companies.Because priority should be given to systems necessary for military use. You would do the same yourself if you think of it.
You're thinking of the civil version of the C919, which is to be offered for international and domestic markets and needs to be competitive with the A320neo/B737Max. The parts that go into it must perform equal to or better than what the C919 is sourcing from foreign suppliers now, and these also need to go through certification procedures of the CAAC and hopefully the FAA/EASA.
A militarized version wont have to be made competitive with the Airbus/Boeing planes and wont need to go through such rigorous civil certification procedures. Hence its subsystems can be developed much faster and integrated faster as well. Now most of these are already within the technological capability of Chinese companies (re: the Y-20), soo your timeframe of 2030 is an extremely pessimistic one, to say the least.
I expect a militarized fully domestic variant to enter service in the early 20s. The significance of this aircraft for China is probably even more than that of the Y-20.
If systems are to be developed in China for C919, and the talk is that 80% will be available by 2025, than those systems that are not needed for the military version can be delayed in favour of those that are needed.
This wildly fanboistic enthusiasm is extremely humorous. The C919 hasn't even gone into service yet, and won't do so until 2020 at the earliest, and you expect a militarized version "in the early 20s"??? ROFLMAO! So within like 3 years of C919's civilian induction we will see a military C919 in service according to you. I SERIOUSLY hope you are still around SDF in 2023 for us to revisit this issue.
I don't even remotely know what this means. Whatever you are trying to do with your 80% in this post, you still have the 20% that are foreign-sourced from Western suppliers that can be embargoed at will.
Equation
Lieutenant General
Name me a single country on Earth that is 100% self sufficient from everything. I'm talking about from high tech to rare earth minerals and processing to productions.
Boeing 737s and other variants are definitely sourced from multiple countries outside of the US, including military variants. Are any of those countries going to embargo parts that are used in military planes? Not even remotely. So what's your point?Name me a single country on Earth that is 100% self sufficient from everything. I'm talking about from high tech to rare earth minerals and processing to productions.
Umm.. are you forgetting the C919 is preparing for flight testing right this year--in 2017. If they were to start now, from 2018-2025 it is 8 years to design, manufacture and flight test domestic subsystems that Chinese companies are already mass producing for the Y-20A. Yes, all of them have already been developed by Chinese companies for the Y-20 including avionics, flight control systems, hydraulics, landing gear, environmental control, electric and power systems and so on. So unless you think that cabin interiors or seating represents a major design challenge for the C919 that time frame is more than enough to get the job done. This is assuming that COMAC hasn't already put in place a Plan B for developing domestic alternatives for the foreign gear in the C919 by now, which would be very surprising to me, given the strategic importance of this program since its inception.
You do realize that the most risky part is always the engine, which also happens to be the component most vulnerable to development delays. And guess what, assuming the original news is accurate, the prototype of the domestic engine will be completed this year and 8 years is enough to complete all flight testing. So yes, a domestic version could be made ready well before 2030-40
The question here isn't if they can, but whether they will. COMAC may want to focus all resources on readying the commercial version for service entry, particularly if there are major problems encountered during flight testing. That, I believe, is the thing that can actually delay the military version.
Equation
Lieutenant General
Are those countries relied on China for rare earth metals or high tech parts and softwares as well? My point is the US military DOES NOT have absolute independence when it comes to building and providing from start to finish. For example all major high tech parts relies on rare earth elements and processing in which China has 97% control of the world supplies. China can simply cut off that supply if push comes to shove.