In my opinion, I am starting to believe that Sukhoi may have relented and waived the residual 30% must buy Russian content for the Chinese licensed Flankers. This probably came from under poltiical and marketing pressure to assure the political marketability and budget support of the Shengyang-Sukhoi J-11/SU-27 against the local home boy Chengdu J-10.
By offering to present the J-11 as having 100% indigenous Chinese content, Shenyang/Sukhoi may be attempting to continue justification of the J-11 program under the eyes of the more nationalistic factions of the Chinese government and Communist Party advocating a stronger stand on self reliance.
I am thinking that Shenyang may have chucked away any attempts to license the SU-30 for now and choose to concentrate on obtaining the rights to a 100% indigenous content Flanker instead.
What could Sukhoi get out of this?
My speculation is that Sukhoi might get an initial monetary fee for revising the license agreement. In addition, Sukhoi may still get a a standard commission for every plane/unit finished and delivered regardless of the origin of the content. That way as a firm, Sukhoi still obtains revenue for every 100% Chinese content Flanker, even though other Russian companies (Salyut, Phazotron, Tikhomirov etc,.) stands less to benefit. Furthermore, such a fee goes to Sukhoi directly, which it does not have to share or distribute to factories like IAPO and KnAAPO (which already had a lawsuit with Sukhoi on the disbursement of funds from the Chinese SU-30 contracts.)
Sukhoi is still government owned, so what could force this concession could come from other places. I beleived that the SU-30 purchases may be tied to this, that in exchange for conceding the Russian content requirement, China will procure more planes directly from Russia (aka SU-30s, A-50s, IL-76s, Mi-17s, KA-28s) But especially the SU-30s. Considering the R&D being invested on the continued evolution and upgrade of the SU-30MKKs, I suspect the Russians believe that Chinese will continue purchasing SU-30s for a few more years to come, and banks to on both the licensing program and the SU-30 purchases to help finance the PAK-FA.
There is probably up to 80 packaged kits supplied to the Chinese, with the Russian content decreasing from each batch, from 100% to 30%. This means that “J-11” alone varies from batch to batch.
The first initial batches may be generic SU-27SK. The idea is simply to get the planes out and master the production, and being technologically conservative, rather than choosing a more advanced version of the Flanker, would help better in this regard.
As production becomes more confident. This may be followed by versions with more tricked up radar. I am looking at the N001V, an upgraded version of the Myech similar to the one used in the SU-30MKK, that could support the R-77 but without the ground attack systems. This system most probably equipped the last batch of SU-27UBKs for China, which is most probably intended to train.
With the must requirement of the PLAAF for multirole planes, later J-11s might be fitted with multirole radars like the Zhuk N010-27 or the N001VE. If China upgrades their SU-30MKKs to the Zhuk-MSE, there is going to be spare N001VE radar sets that can be passed on to the J-11s. This would give some multirole capability, although the lack of a second seat means it won’t be as extensive or easy to use as the SU-30MKK.
A number of J-11s could be equipped with more advanced radars as testbeds. 20 Sokols were imported in 2001, and these could have been installed on an equal number of J-11s. The purpose may not just be to upgrade the J-11s eventually but it could be that China is interested in licensing Phazotron’s phase array technology for a variety of aircraft. Phazotron claims that its non equidistant field distribution technology can make its antennas cost as much as five times less than a phase array with a traditional linear distribution field.
In June of 2002, in a historic first flight (for the PRC), a J-11 took off with one engine bay fitted with the domestic WS-10A engine while the other remains the AL-31F. Aside from the imbalance due to the weight and thrust differences, the plane apparently managed to ignite the engine and fly on the WS-10A’s own power after diving from 8,000m to 5,800m. The revised WS-10A has a maximum thrust rating of 13,200kg, more powerful than the basic AL-31F, and it is interesting this flight occured months before Russia managed to fire its own 13,200kg thrust engine, the AL-31FM1, in October of 2002.
The latest info now suggests that J-11s will be the first beneficiary of the WS-10A, not the J-10 itself.
While this is speculative, I seem to have a more focused picture on the J-11A as it should appear.
1. Digital cockpits. This is a no brainer given all the domestically made HUDs and MFDs shown in the last Zhuhai. The end result may be a cockpit that looks more Western or J-10 than an SU-27.
2. Type 1474 or KLJ-4 phase array radar from NRIET (Nanjing based). This is a bigger brother to the Type 1473/KLJ-3 radar used on the J-10. Could this include the Sokol phase array technology with the non equidistant field distribution?
3. A variant of the Iron Bird FBW, a digital quadruplex four axis FBW system used in the J-10.
4. WS-10A engines max rated at 13,200kg max thrust, 7750kg dry.
5. Composite manufacture. I suspect the Chinese engines may be heavier while the radar could be lighter, creating an weight imbalance. Composites may be used to lighten certain portions of the aircraft and restore the balance. Composites may be used to substitute parts of the aircraft that could be using more expensive titanium based alloys, which is much cheaper for Russia to mine than for China’s natural resources.
6. Armament may include support for R-73, R-27, R-77, and Kh-31P missiles, with Chinese missile support for the PL-8, PL-9C, SD-10 and air launched C-803. Blue Sky pod (LANTIRN/FLIR equivalent) could enable use of LGBs.
I don’t beleive that Shenyang would try to complicate the plane by incorporating canards and TVC initially. The Chinese system of development is based on taking more numerous smaller and conservative steps of gradual development and evolution rather than taking a few big ambitous bounds. The objective would be to first get the plane off the ground and working. Trying to make a virtual SU-37 would have to come later as they become more confident with the design.
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March 29, 2003 at 2:21 am