According to French media reports, Serbian President Vučić made it clear during his visit to Paris that he would spend $3.26 billion to purchase 12 Rafale fighters and supporting equipment. And why did Serbia, as China's "hardcore" friend and customer in Europe, give up the better Chinese J-10C fighter and buy the French fighter at a high price?
Chinese "hardcore" customers abandoned the J-10
Serbia is the most "pro-China" of European countries, since the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Serbia, the economic, diplomatic, military cooperation between the two countries has risen steadily, since 2017 after Vučić became the president of Serbia, the relationship between the two countries has become more and more close, Serbia is actively participating in the "Belt and Road" led by China.
CH-92/95 UAV
In terms of weapons procurement, Serbia has also tended to purchase China's advanced foreign trade equipment in recent years, especially drones, and Serbia has purchased a batch of CH-92/95 drones and DJI drones. In the construction of the air defense system, the Serbian military also tends to choose to purchase Chinese air defense systems, and has purchased a large number of Hongqi-17 and Hongqi-22 medium- and short-range anti-aircraft missiles in recent years.
MiG-29
In terms of air force equipment, Serbia inherited from the Soviet equipment, after all, because Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union had close relations at that time, mainly equipped with Soviet MiG-29 fighters, but in 1999 NATO brazenly launched an armed invasion, Yugoslavia was not an opponent at all in front of the NATO air force, and the Chinese embassy in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was also tragically attacked by NATO, resulting in the unfortunate death of three Chinese citizens.
Serbian Air Force
After the disintegration of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, independent Serbia purchased and installed a batch of MiG-29s from other CIS countries, and the current Serbian Air Force has a total of 11 MiG-29s, which are the backbone of its air force's fighter force. The rest is 13 of its self-developed J22 attack aircraft, which have long been behind.
Therefore, the Serbian Air Force has also been actively strengthening the replacement of its advanced fighters in recent years, considering that the entire Serbian air force system is supported by Soviet/Russian equipment.
Su-30SM
Therefore, Serbia first chose Russia's foreign trade fighters, the first choice is the "Sukhoi" series, the Serbian Air Force is very interested in the Russian Su-30SM fighter, this fighter is a heavy multi-purpose conventional fighter, exported to many countries in the international market, with a strong anti-air combat capability and multi-purpose combat capabilities.
But because of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, it is no longer possible for Russia to sell fighter jets to Serbia, after all, now the entire Russian aviation industry production capacity is all for the current war, and the fighters produced are given priority to the Russian Aerospace Forces.
Su-30SM
In addition, after the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the United States wielded the stick of sanctions against Russia, and Serbia did not dare to purchase Russian fighters under the threat of the United States. At that time, some foreign media analyzed that in view of the good cooperative relationship between China and Serbia, Serbia may choose China's advanced foreign trade fighter "J-10C" or "Thunder" series fighter.
歼10C
The J-10C is currently the most advanced fighter exported by China, and according to the Pakistan Air Force, the J-10C exported by China is better than the F-16 fighter equipped by Pakistan. Pakistani media analysis said that the J-10C is a "battle rule" changer for the Pakistan Air Force, overpowering all the fighters of the Indian Air Force in air combat performance, including the "Rafale" fighters purchased by India from France.
And most importantly, the J-10C inherits the characteristics of China's domestic foreign trade weapons with high quality and low price, with a price of 56 million to 65 million US dollars, which is the world's lowest price advanced fourth-generation and a half fighter.
And for the same type of Rafale fighter, J-10C is very good in the vital air combat performance, after all, the core technical indicator of the fighter is the air combat capability, if the air combat capability is not good, no matter what other performance is excellent, it is unrealistic. Compared with Rafale, the main feature of the J-10C is that it has a more advanced radar system and stealth capabilities.
Rafale fighter
For example, the J-10C's foreign trade large array active phased array radar has a larger detection range and farther than the Rafale, and the detection distance of air targets is also farther. The stealth design adopted by the J-10C is better than the Rafale, and the stealth performance is stronger than the Rafale.
In addition, the J-10C also has the PL-15E air-to-air missile for foreign trade, with a range of more than 145 kilometers. If the two planes confront each other, then it must be the J-10C fighter that wins.
Rafale fighter
But now, Serbia has instead chosen French fighters, and has purchased 12 Rafale fighters at a sky-high price of $271 million per unit, which is a huge amount of money for a small country like Serbia, which is $30 million more expensive than the unit price of the Rafale that India spent money on.
There are two main factors in abandoning Chinese fighters
If this money is used to buy the J-10C, it can buy more than 30 planes, why does Serbia spend unjust money to purchase legal fighters? Could it be that the wind has changed?
In fact, there are two factors, the first is the influence of the United States, the United States has always been very vigilant about the export of Chinese weapons to European countries, foreign media reported that the United States has been pressuring Serbia to hinder the export of Chinese fighters, forced by political pressure, Serbia has to consider Western fighters, and political factors have overwhelmed the performance factors of fighters.
China's domestically produced advanced weapons are usually sold on a cost-effective and low cost of use, and if there are no political obstacles, it is undoubtedly a very attractive option for Serbia, which has a relatively weak economy.
Vučić is seen as "pro-China" in foreign policy
Second, Serbia's foreign policy is focused on achieving its strategic goal of becoming a member of the European Union, so that it has to obtain French support through high-priced military purchases of French fighter jets. Serbia officially applied for EU membership back in 2009 and was also officially qualified as a candidacy.
Therefore, this high-priced procurement of legal weapons is a way to express their political stance and intention to cooperate with the core countries of the EU. By making such high-priced arms purchases, Serbia not only demonstrates to France and the EU its sincerity in its willingness to become a member state, but may also accelerate its accession to the EU to a certain extent.
Although such an arms purchase decision may not seem economically cost-effective, it is a diplomatic investment from the perspective of Serbia's strategic objectives.
Some of the sources in the article are: 1. It plans to spend 3 billion euros! Serbia wants to buy "Rafale" fighters from France