Igor Grigoriyev, Commercial Director, NPO Saturn, interviewed Dec.’08
c/o Igor’s blogspot:
— What niches are still open for NPO Saturn?
After all, it often happens: an agreement is signed, but the essence of the terms outlined in it does not coincide with what the signatory parties keep in their heads. Our relations with China often represented the following pattern: we sell a number of engines, whereas the other party uses them for copying. We want such an approach no more. In current talks with China we are proposing to build such relations where none of the partners would have either possibilities or desires to cheat. It would hardly be possible to cooperate with China in the same manner as with France under the SaM146 project. We need to look for another ver*sion. Saturn has proposed a variant of cooperation which is under considera*tion in China. We are looking forward to a reply to our proposals. That is, an optimal form of rela*tions with China hasn’t been developed yet.
…The Chinese can manufacture almost any product. However, there is no an established [Engine] design school in China, whilst we cannot «sell» our design school because this is our last resource. That is why we offer the Chinese party the following: order engine development from us, we shall jointly manufacture the engine, reserving only key technologies.
— Coming back to the military subject, has China shown any interest in heavily upgraded versions of the AL-31F engine?
– NPO Saturn has done a lot of upgrade work on the AL-31F engine. We have developed its several versions surpassing in their performance the products from other Russian enterprises working in the same area. The Chinese customers are showing considerable interest in them. There are plans redevelop special versions around these upgrades for Chinese-developed warplanes.
http://igorrgroup.blogspot.com/2009/11/russian-intention-towards-china-we-want.html
The AL-31FN is built by Moscow-based Salyut Machine Building Enterprise. The development of the AL-31FN was completed in 2000. Between 2002 and 2004, Salyut delivered 54 AL-31FN engines to China, with a unit price of US$3 million. A Russian source also confirmed to Interfax that China was seeking to maintain and repair these engines locally in a Chinese plant.
In July 2005, Russian media reported that the state-owned arms trading company Rosoboroneksport has concluded a US$300 million deal with China for the export of an additional 100 units of the AL-31FN engine to be delivered within the next three years. China also reserved the right to order a further 150 units by 2010, and may consider a licensed co-production.
Salyut has also introduced an improved version of the AL-31FN, featuring a fully variable, all-aspect thrust vector control (TVC) nozzle and an increased afterburning thrust of 124.54kN (12,700kg, 27,998lb). Currently Salyut is actively marketing the engine to China, but it is not known whether this engine will be fitted on future production J-10 fighters.
Shenyang-based AVIC Aviation Engine Institute (also known as 606 Institute) and Shenyang Liming Aero-Engine Group carried on the development of the indigenous WS-10 throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. The revised design, possibly based on some of the AL-31F technology, was known as WS-10A, or “Taihang” in its commercial name. AVIC I announced that the development of the WS-10A was completed in November 2005.
The WS-10A is slightly larger than the AL-31F in size. The engine is reportedly rated at 73.5kN (7,495kg, 16,523lb) dry and 110kN (11,217kg, 24,729 lb) with afterburning, which may result in slightly reduced aerodynamic performance in the WS-10A-equipped J-10.
http://www.sinodefence.com/airforce/fighter/j10.asp
Addendum: China ordered a further 100 AL-31FNs 02/09 so that’s 254 AL-31FNs delivered/ordered to date. Hardly a ringing endorsement of the WS-10a, huh, Showtime?
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