Recently, Major General Ameri, Joint Operations Commander of the UAE Ministry of Defence, led a delegation to visit China, opening the prelude to a new round of exchange activities between the Chinese and Arab militaries.
[Major General Amery, Joint Operations Commander of the Agargent Ministry of National Defense, and General Chang Dingqiu, Commander of the Chinese Air Force, held a meeting]
Judging from the pictures released by the UAE military, after arriving in Beijing, Major General Ameri went to the Chinese Ministry of National Defense for the first time, and held a meeting with General Chang Dingqiu, commander of the Chinese Air Force, in a meeting room with oil paintings of Jian-20 fighters and a large number of fighter models, to discuss issues related to deepening military cooperation between the two countries, which reflects the focus of cooperation between the Chinese and Arab militaries at this stage, which will be in the field of air force.
Since the defense ministries of the two countries have not released too many details, it is not clear what the two sides have specifically discussed, but in the field of air forces, the two sides can discuss two main topics, one is to strengthen communication and exchanges between the air forces of the two countries, and the other is a series of military-technical cooperation, including the introduction of fifth-generation aircraft and China's help in the establishment of missile production lines in the United Arab Emirates.
First of all, let's talk about the issue of strengthening exchanges between the air forces of the two countries. In 2023, the exchanges between the Chinese and Arab Air Force, the exchange of the Chinese and Arab Air Forces, a joint air force exercise codenamed "Falcon Shield-2023" was held for the first time, and a batch of Western-made fighters of the Afghan Air Force flew to Xinjiang, China, and conducted a series of air confrontation training with the Chinese Air Force, learning from each other's strengths and weaknesses, and achieving good training results.
[The Chinese and Arab Air Forces conducted a joint training last year]
A few months after the end of the joint training, a number of J-10C fighters of the Chinese Air Force's "Bayi" air show team flew to the United Arab Emirates to participate in the air show.
Major General Amery's visit is bound to continue this good atmosphere of communication and exchange and to determine the specific arrangements for the exchange activities of the air forces of the two countries for a period of time to come.
Let's talk about the issue of technical cooperation in equipment. At present, the UAE does not have the ability to produce fighter jets and other equipment, but it has sufficient defense funds to purchase all kinds of advanced fighters from the international market, and because it likes to "pinch and pick" when buying weapons, the UAE Air Force often purchases more advanced weapons and equipment in the international market at that time.
At the current stage, there are two main types of advanced fighters that the UAE Air Force is most likely to purchase from China, one is the L15 "Falcon" trainer aircraft, and the other is the J-35 fighter.
[The UAE Air Force has been equipped with Chinese-made L15 trainer aircraft]
Last year, the UAE Air Force was officially equipped with the L15 trainer aircraft, which is also the first Chinese fighter equipped by the UAE Air Force, but the total number of purchases in the first batch is only 12. The Argentine side's plan at that time was to buy 12 planes first, and if there were no problems in using them, they would order another 36 planes to complete the large-scale refitting of the training planes. So, we can now make a bold guess that Major General Amery and his party are tasked with determining follow-up orders.
At the same time, the UAE Air Force has repeatedly asked the United States to buy F-35 fighter jets and want to form its own fifth-generation aircraft fleet, but in the end it has not succeeded. The Argentine military then turned its attention back to the international market, wanting to change the aircraft type and realize its fifth-generation aircraft plan.
At present, there are two main aircraft under consideration for the UAE, the Chinese J-35 and the South Korean KF-21.
[The UAE is currently relatively inclined to purchase South Korea's KF-21]
The advantage of the KF-21 is that it uses a large number of relatively mature NATO standard technology, the versatility of parts and ammunition is better, and the UAE Air Force, which is equipped with a large number of American-made fighters, is easier to maintain and maintain, and the purchase of South Korean equipment is not easy to trigger a fierce reaction from the United States and Europe.
However, the KF-21 can only be said to be a 4.5 generation aircraft at the technical level, although the performance is enough to crush the main models of most countries around the United Arab Emirates, but there is still a certain gap compared with the Israeli F-35.
As a result, the UAE military is now in a wavering wait-and-see phase, and although it is more inclined to the KF-21, it is still possible to exchange views with China on the issue of J-35 imports.
[J-35 is still likely to win orders from the UAE and other countries]
In addition, many Gulf countries, including the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, have been actively developing their own defense industrial systems in recent years to reduce their dependence on foreign weapons and equipment.
However, due to their poor industrial base and insufficient technology accumulation, most of the Gulf countries can only choose to import technology from overseas, and gradually improve their own design and manufacturing capabilities on the basis of digesting and absorbing technology, so as to finally achieve the development goal of independent military industry.
Specific to the UAE, after several years of accumulation, EDGE Group and other UAE local military enterprises have the production capacity of drones and other equipment, and have begun to pursue the production capacity of large main battle equipment and advanced ammunition such as hypersonic missiles. And in the world, there are only a handful of countries that can provide the Arab side with the technology for the production of these weapons, and China is precisely one of them.
More importantly, with the changes in the Middle East and even the global situation, the UAE, which used to rely more on the United States, is also adjusting its geostrategy, actively deepening cooperation with China and other countries, maintaining distance from Washington, maintaining balance among major powers, and achieving the goal of multilateralism.
[UAE's domestically produced "Fairy" drone]
This geostrategic adjustment is reflected in the military, that is, the UAE will be more proactive in carrying out military cooperation with China and other countries.
Therefore, although the focus of this Sino-Arab military exchange is in the field of the air force, the topics discussed by the two sides will not be limited to this one branch of the armed forces, and it is very likely that topics such as joint exercises and training of multiple arms of the armed forces and all-round military-industrial cooperation will also be topics discussed by the two sides. As for what consensus the two sides can finally reach, it will depend on the follow-up actions of the two armies after Major General Amery and his entourage return home.