The Russian plane China needs to rule the South China Sea

By Zachary Keck

Russia appears intent on selling China its most advanced fighter jet by the end of the year, a move that will greatly enhance Beijing’s ability to project military power in the South China Sea.

Speaking to reporters at the Paris Air Show this week, Yuri Slyusar, chairman of United Aircraft Corp, a Russian civilian and military jet manufacturer, said his company is aiming to ink a deal with China to sell Beijing 24 Su-35 fighter jets.

“Our position is that we still believe that we will sign the contract to sell 24 aircraft this year,” Yuri said, according tomultiple Western defense news outlets. He added that the decision would have to be approved by the “federal service on military cooperation.”

China and Russia have been in negotiations for years over the potential sale of the Su-35, which Moscow refers to as a 4++ generation multi-role fighter jet. The talks have bogged down over Russia’s fears that China will reverse engineer the plane in order to produce a domestically-built version, something that China has done with previous Russian aircraft like the Su-27.

There have also been reports that Moscow is concerned Beijing only wants to buy a small number of Su-35s in order to reverse engineer the jet’s NIIP Irbis-E passive electronically scanned array radar and 117S engine, which China could then use on domestically-produced planes.

As such, Russia has long held that China must purchase a large batch of the planes in any initial sale, so Moscow can receive enough financial compensation to make the deal worthwhile even if China steals the jet or its technology.

However, last year, as tensions between Russia and the West increased over Ukraine, Moscow softened its position. In November 2014, IHS Jane’s reported, citing Russian defense industry sources, that Moscow was only asking Beijing to purchase 24 Su-35s, not the 48 jets it had previously demanded.

At that time, the Russian side indicated that the sale of the Su-35s was imminent. One Russian industry source told Jane’s “I think that the contract will be signed at the end of 2014 or at the beginning of 2015. There are no obvious political or technical reasons hindering the signing of the contract. The only thing to be done is the elaborate consideration of some details and technical issues.”

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