【Military Sub-Plane】Author: Le Le
Since the official start of the Russian-Ukrainian battlefield, the military-used UAV has become an area of great concern to the outside world. On the one hand, this concern comes from the fact that the Ukrainian army uses its Turkish-made TB-2 type Tsatta UAV, especially the Ukrainian army uses flexible UAV tactics, after the battle against the Russian logistics line has achieved considerable results. On the other hand, due to the serious lack of detection and attack drones by the Russian army, even after discovering the high-value "Haimas" rockets of the Ukrainian army, they could not immediately attack the embarrassment. The most advanced experience on the modern battlefield is often the theoretical basis for the targeted development of national defense forces in participating countries and other countries, and the performance of armed drones on the Ukrainian battlefield quickly triggered the sale of related equipment. In fact, in late August, AVIC exported two advanced Tsata drones in quick succession, totaling more than 1.7 billion yuan, and the buyer should be a small local tycoon from North Africa.
▲The signing site of the domestic "Rainbow-4" UAV
According to the official public information, the domestic "Rainbow-4" unmanned aerial vehicle, which has been exported to many countries and has been well received, has once again been successfully exported. Not only is the order amount more than 100 million US dollars (more than 700 million yuan according to the current exchange rate), but the buyer is a country that has purchased "Rainbow-4" many times in 2016 and 2018. In view of the mature performance of "Rainbow-4" and even successfully exported a complete production line to foreign countries, most countries purchase "Rainbow-4" often have a large number and a small number of times, and there are not many international buyers who purchase multiple times. In addition, the official report mentions cooperation between the two sides in the field of unmanned aerial vehicle satellite communications, in fact, only Algeria in North Africa meets these conditions.
The Rainbow-4 has been exported to Algeria several times before
In addition to the "Rainbow-4", the domestic WJ-700 "Falcon" UAV exported for the first time has actually attracted more attention from the outside world. According to official reports, this UAV with a maximum take-off weight of 3.5 tons belongs to the high-altitude high-speed model that is further designed in China to solve the defects of conventional low-speed detection and UAVs. The official report said that its successful export, and the amount of 1 billion yuan, not only means that the performance of an advanced UAV is really mature, but also represents the avic industry for the conventional low-speed cha-up UAV shortage, and the comprehensive upgrade model developed has been recognized by international buyers. Technically, this is a new technical route evolved after the birth of the Cha-Ta integrated UAV, and its significance is similar to the evolution of the J-20 two-seater type on the basis of the J-20A in China. Judging from the official report of the signing site data, the strong Algerian element means that the buyer should be the latest batch of "Rainbow-4" users.
▲ Domestic WJ-700 "Falcon" UAV is a special high-speed model
The joint export of the "Rainbow-4" and WJ-700 "Falcon" not only shows the buyer's recognition of drones based on modern battlefield experience, but also represents a stage mark of China's military industry's exports, especially for Algeria, a special country. As the largest country in Africa, Algeria's economic development is very uneven, and its GDP of about 170 billion US dollars is in the absolute first echelon in Africa, but more than 70% of it comes from oil and gas resources exports. In order to protect the revenue generated by being the world's second largest natural gas exporter, Algeria spends a huge amount of money every year to develop its defense forces, of which 6.1% of GDP (about $9.1 billion) is invested in military spending in 2021 alone, and this is also the result of a decline in the proportion of military spending due to the impact of the world situation.
▲ Algerian su-30MKA multi-role fighter
It was influenced by previously good relations with the Soviet Union and Russia's pledge in 2006 to exempt Algeria from $4.7 billion in debt it had signed during the Cold War in exchange for a $7.5 billion pledge to purchase Russian-made weapons. The algerian armed forces are equipped with a large number of advanced Russian-made equipment, of which more than 70 Su-30MKA are the most typical. In 2006, Algeria introduced the first batch of Su-30MKA based on the Indian Su-30MKI, a total of 28 at a cost of about 1.5 billion US dollars, and after experiencing performance, it introduced two batches of 32 Su-30MKA at a unit price of US$1 billion in 2010 and 2015. Finally, in December 2018, Algeria placed its fourth order, buying 16 Su-30MKA and 14 MiG-29M for $1.8 billion. This brings the total number of Su-30 MKA equipped to 74, with direct procurement costs of more than $4.5 billion and life-span expenditures expected to be no less than $8 billion.
▲ There have been rumors that Algeria intends to introduce Su-57s
In addition, Algeria also made a very decisive move in 1998, buying 6 Il-78 tankers left over from the Soviet Air Force at a low price from Ukraine, and because of its early order, the final Il-78 was in much better shape than the Il-78 purchased by Pakistan and China from Ukraine. The excellent strategic vision it has shown in this round of procurement also proves that the Algerian Air Force's higher development pursuits and its emphasis on national defense forces in order to protect its own oil and gas resources are definitely not comparable to the level of ordinary African armed "pickup trucks" and "gas tank rockets". It is precisely because of this that the decline of Russia's military industry in recent years has gradually affected Algerian procurement. In December 2021, there was even a public announcement that it would not purchase the Russian-made Su-35S radar and avionics performance in view of the demand. The rumor of "2 billion US dollars to purchase 14 Su-57s" that once attracted great attention also disappeared with the opening of the War between Russia and Ukraine, and the high-intensity sanctions imposed on Russia by Europe and the United States ceased to exist.
C-28A corvettes equipped by the Algerian Navy
At this time, the Chinese military industry, which has made great progress in the field of advanced military equipment, began to enter the vision of the Algerian military, and as of now, the officially confirmed procurement equipment has been 3 Type 056A frigates enlarged foreign trade version, 3 C-28A corvettes, 24 "Pterodactyl II" UAVs, an unknown number of "Rainbow" series UAVs, and YLC-8B ground anti-stealth radar. This time, its systematic procurement of advanced Tsatta UAVs exported by AVIC is directly affected by the experience of the Russian-Ukrainian battlefield, but it is also a recognition of the advanced combat system of AVIC. In view of the fact that the sanctions imposed by Europe and the United States on Russia are difficult to end in a short period of time, algeria, as a country that mainly exports oil and gas resources, it is difficult to bear the cost of sanctions for continuing to purchase advanced Russian-made equipment. Therefore, the purchase of considerable performance without the risk of sanctions, while the new technology of China's export equipment, has become a reasonable choice. From this point of view, the export of the two advanced drones is likely to be just a brilliant beginning.