looks like AL-31 for the J-10: how big is the J-10 production run and will it eventually
be in line for a chinese engine?

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/07/12/042.html

Report: China in $300M Engine Deal
By Lyuba Pronina
Staff Writer

Jet engine-maker Salyut agreed to deliver 100 engines to China’s air force in a $300 million deal signed last week, Kommersant reported Monday.

The engine used in Russia’s best selling Sukhoi fighter jets will be installed on China’s J-10 light fighter, Salyut general director Yury Yeliseyev told the business daily.

“This is a new contract with China. We will deliver 100 Al-31FN engines to the customer over the next two years,” he said.

Moscow-based Salyut refused to elaborate on the contract on Monday, as did Rosoboronexport, Russia’s arms selling agency.

Russian arms export deals are traditionally sensitive, and those with China are ranked as state secrets.

Last year, 54 Al-31FN engines were delivered to China for use in J-10 jets, said Konstantin Makiyenko, deputy head of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies.

The Salyut deal marks Russia’s third engine contract this year, he said.

In April, Rosoboronexport signed a $267 million agreement with Beijing to deliver 100 RD-93 engines to equip China’s new FC-1 single-engine fighters.

Late last month, engine-maker Saturn signed a deal with India to deliver new Al-55 engines to India for installation on HJT-36s trainer jets.

Some 1,000 such engines are to be produced at the facilities of Hindustan Aeronautics under a license agreement.

Makiyenko said that the two engine deals with China — Russia’s No. 1 weapons client — were revitalizing the bilateral arms trade.

“This year’s engine deals also demonstrate that our main clients are walking away from buying Russian jets and instead opting for engines that they can fit on their own products,” Makiyenko said.

Last year, according to the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, Russian engine makers earned $986 million.

Aircraft exports have dominated in Russia’s arms sales over the past few years. In 2005, however, Rosoboronexport expects naval weapons to account for more than 50 percent of sales, officials have said.

—
Russians seem to be expecting AL31FN in the entire J-10 fleet going by their hopes of
a 2nd order…

http://www.kommersant.com/page.asp?id=589840

Russian Engines Fly to China
// Military export
Kommersant has learned that Rosoboroneksport, the state arms sales middleman, has concluded a $300-million deal for the export of reactive motors from the Salyut Moscow Machine Building Production Enterprise to China. The motors will be installed in Chinese J-10 fighter planes.

The J-10 light fighter plane, also known as the Super-10, is the Chinese version of the Israeli Lavi, which was developed by the Israeli firm IAI in the 1980s. That project was closed in 1988 under pressure from the Americans, who feared that a competitor to the F-16 on the world market. Instead, F-16s were delivered to Israel on highly advantageous terms and the documentation on the J-10 as sold to the Chinese with the right to develop and mass produce it. To improve its flight characteristics, Chinese engineers decided to install in them exclusively Russian AL-31FN engines, which are an update of the AL-31F used in the Su-27.

Between 2002 and 2004, Salyut delivered 54 Al-31FPs to China for a test fleet of J-10s. Lat year, Salyut, through Rosoboroneksport, negotiated the sale of the first lot of engines for mass production of the plane.

Salyut general director Yury Eliseev told Kommersant that “This is the latest of our contracts with China. It is for the delivery of 100 AL-31FN engines. It is worth more than $300 million. The engines will not be installed in Russian fighters, but in Chinese. Therefore, the contract allows us to enlarge the spectrum of our collaboration with China while avoiding ties to production only of engines of the Su family.”

Salyut services and renovates engines for Su-27SK and Su-30MK2 fighters delivered to Beijing previously. A $100-million contract was recently concluded for the delivery of parts for those engines over the next three years. Eliseev said that Salyut signed that contract directly, since it has a five-year license for the independent delivery of spare parts and technical servicing. It received that license in September 2002.

Experts say that the total demand of China for AL-31FN engines is 250, which could earn Russia about $900 million. Obviously, after receipt of the first lot of engines, China will sign a new contract with Salyut.

The contract with Salyut is the second within three months for the delivery of Russian engines for Chinese fighter planes. At the beginning of April, Rosoboroneksport signed a contract with Beijing for the sale of 100 RD-93 engines for the new Chinese FC-1 for $267 million. The engine was developed by the Klimov plant based on the RD-33 used in the MiG-29. Mass production of the RD-93 for China will be carried out at the Chernyshev plant in Moscow. Beijing’s total demand for RD-93 will be about 500 pieces.

The orientation of Russian engine builders to the export for non-Russian planes is due to the fall last year in the export of Russian planes. According to the Center for the Analysis of Strategy and Technology, there was a decline last year in proceeds from fighter plane sales. That tendency, the center said, was due to reduced production of the AL-31F family of engines, which forebode a fall in the sales of Su-27s and Su-30s in 2005. The sales volume at Salyut, the largest Russian producer of aviation engines, was $388.9 million in 2004, which is 31.1 percent lower than in 2003. In light of that, the new agreements with China may mark a serious improvement for 2005.
by Konstantin Lantrov

JDW reports AMS of south africa has finished supplying 75 sets of onboard system & health monitoring kits for the Su30 fleet.

air vice-marshal Masand who is the IAFs liaison man for LCA has expressed this desire for transfer of control from ADA -> HAL in another article in Vayu Aerospace mag.

The way I see it, ADA has the do the radar, weapons and flight envelope tests for LCA , HAL simply cannot do it no matter what anyone desires. and HAL will do the production because ADA is just a R&D shop and has no production lines.
HAL can continue system tests via ASTE and IAFs LRIP set-of-8 once the initial work is done by ADA.

This “control” thing seems more like turf war – maybe HAL and IAF are more buddy-buddy via long interaction and ASTE than with ADA who live across the street in their own compound :diablo:

what is the source and is it because they expect to buy 18 MKIs from IAPO to replace the 18 MK ?

> would they be nuclear powered?

ofcourse not, see the new anglo-french designs. electric catapult, conventional propulsion. nukular only justifies the cost and complexity for submarines. ADS pgm was de-risked by following behind the Cavour and engaging its designer Fincantieri. so they can wait until the first 60Kt british/french carrier is well underway before the next buddy-buddy session.

are there estimates on the frontal RCS of a flanker ?
be interesting to see how far off a APG68 type radar sees that target.

doesnt it also generate much better faster scanning via electronic beam steering compared to mechanically scanned radars ? shud be useful to deal with lo-RCS new gen fighters and cruise missiles.

israel is reportedly not satisfied with the APG68v9 and will likely try and get Unkil to agree replacing with EL-2052 in future.

Block60 has the very latest in radar tech via APG80 small though it is compared to APG77.

I’d go with the Block60 as a piece of hardware. the 16I probably occupies a niche between the Block52 and Block60…the Block52MKI :diablo: