Looking back at the development history of the Chinese Air Force, it is not difficult to find that the first flight of the J-20 in 2011 was indeed a critical point in time.
[J-20 first flight site]
Since 2011, various new fighters of the Chinese Air Force have emerged one after another, and in a short period of time, they have formed combat effectiveness and equipped troops.
【Chinese Air Force】
Today, the Chinese Air Force has the world's largest fleet of advanced fighters, but among the cutting-edge fighters equipped by the Chinese Air Force, there is one model that seems out of place, that is, the 24 Su-35SK fighters introduced by the mainland from Russia in 2015.
At the same time, the military procurement related to the purchase of these fighters at that time was also quite controversial in China.
The ultimate flanker who is disliked
The Su-35S is known as the ultimate flanker in Russia, which is the latest model developed from the famous Su-27 family and a representative work of Russia's four-and-a-half-generation fighters.
Sukhoi himself even divides the Su-35S into the so-called 4++ fighter, which means more advanced than the average four-and-a-half-generation fighter.
【Su-35S】
The Su-35S is a model purchased by the Russian Aerospace Forces, and the Su-35SK of the Chinese Air Force has the K suffix being the first letter of the Chinese word in Russian, and this naming method is also a tradition of Russian-made fighters exported to China.
Although the name is different, the Su-35SK of the Chinese Air Force is actually no different from the Russian army's own Su-35S, and Sukhoi has repeatedly stated that the Chinese Air Force is a direct purchase of the Russian army's own version of the fighter, and there is no castration of equipment and performance.
It is said that when China ordered these fighters, it asked Sukhoi to replace all the Russian expressions on the panel with Chinese to facilitate the operation of our pilots, but in the end Sukhoi did not make any modifications, focusing on an original taste.
[Su-35S]
In addition to the performance is completely consistent with the Russian army's own Su-35S, the price of the PLA to purchase this batch of fighters is also the internal procurement price of the Russian army: the total contract value of 24 fighters is 2 billion US dollars, and the average 1 fighter is less than 100 million US dollars.
It is really quite a low price for a fourth-and-a-half-generation fighter.
It stands to reason that these fighters should be very cost-effective after arriving in China, but the strange thing is that both the domestic military fan circle and the air force have a lot of complaints about the Su-35SK.
This situation will occur because the actual technical level of Russia's fourth-and-a-half-generation fighters is too far from what it advertises, and it is also too far from the expectations of our army.
【Su-35SK escort】
It is said that as soon as these 24 Su-35SKs returned to China, they were equipped with elite units on the front line against Taiwan, and in order to get a feel for the bottom of the new equipment, our army immediately organized Su-3SK and domestic J-10B and J-11BG fighters to carry out confrontation training.
To everyone's surprise, the advertised Su-35SK is not at all an opponent of Chinese fighters, you must know that in the propaganda of the Russians, the Su-35SK can even pose a certain threat to fifth-generation institutions such as the F-22A in the air.
【Su-35S】
But the reality is that the Su-35 was pressed and beaten by the J-10B and J-11B in the BVR over-the-horizon operation, and the Snow Leopard-E passive phased array radar can be said to be useless in the face of domestic active phased array radars such as the JKL-24.
【Su-35SK】
The J-11B, as a branch of the Flanker family developed by China, can comprehensively suppress the strongest product created by the original Sukhoi factory, which has to be said to be extremely ironic.
Seeing that the long-awaited new equipment was humiliated by domestic fighters in turn, the Chinese Air Force naturally did not buy it, and once thought that the Russian side had secretly castrated the performance of the fighters, and it was not at all the self-use version as they said.
But when our army found Sukhoi to negotiate, the other party said very sincerely that the fighters were really not castrated, and China's orders were directly cut out of the orders of the Aerospace Forces, which was originally this performance.
【Su-35S】
Sukhoi and China still have a foundation of trust, and our army suddenly realized that the Su-35SK is not good, not because the Russians are clever, but because its own technical level is only that.
The Air Force's most controversial military purchase
Spent $2 billion to buy back 24 fighters that are not advanced, the Chinese Air Force said that it did not regret it, it was fake, and many military fans also felt incomprehensible, the introduction of the Su-35SK was already a matter of 2015.
Not to mention that the J-20 will be officially installed in the army after 2 to 3 years, and the domestic four-and-a-half-generation fighters J-10C and J-16 will also mature one after another, which is much more advanced than the Su-35SK, why does the Air Force still insist on introducing the Su-35SK?
[China's "Weilong" J-20]
In fact, the reason why our military will introduce Russian-made fighters again at this point in time is determined by the external situation facing the mainland at that time, and the time is set back to around 2015, when the strength of the United States and the West can be said to be pressing forward step by step around China, and various tactical provocations are emerging one after another.
Not to mention the 2016 confrontation between China and the United States in the South China Sea, when war broke out between the two countries, the Chinese Navy pulled all the elites of the three fleets to the South China Sea to confront the US aircraft carrier strike group face-to-face.
【U.S. Aircraft Carrier】
It can be said that at this point in time, China's national defense and security situation was extremely bad, and the Chinese Air Force at that time was not like today, with a luxury lineup of four and a half generations and five generations of aircraft that was sufficient, so it began to seek a way to quickly upgrade the air force fighters in a short period of time.
In the 90s of the last century, the mainland responded to this situation by introducing the Su-27SK, and in this case, the introduction of the Su-35SK is not unavoidable, which is much faster than the mainland's own development of four-and-a-half-generation fighters to form combat effectiveness.
In the final analysis, the 2015 Su-35SK is in the same role as its predecessors decades ago, playing the role of a firefighter.
If the Su-35SK can enter the Chinese Air Force in 2016 as planned, it will indeed play a certain deterrent role, and our military will be more confident to respond to US provocations.
【Su-35SK】
But the problem is that Russia's military production is really not competitive, and it was not until 2019 that 24 Su-35 fighters were delivered, which was directly distributed from the Aerospace Forces order.
At this time, the most sinister period of China's external situation has long passed, and even the J-20 has been unveiled at the Zhuhai Air Show, and the domestic four-and-a-half-generation fighters have also begun to be delivered to the air force on a large scale, and the Su-35SK is naturally dwarfed by these cutting-edge fighters.
But then again, the introduction of the Su-35SK has at least given the Chinese aviation industry more confidence, the Su-27SK was once China's most advanced fighter, but in less than 30 years, the mainland has completed the overtaking of Russian aviation technology through imitation improvements.
[J-16 is a strong proof that China has surpassed Russian aviation technology]
This is indeed a commendable achievement and a testimony to China's rapid development.
Sources:
[1] Transcript of the regular press conference of the Ministry of National Defense in April 2018 Answering questions from reporters Su-35. Ministry of National Defense [cited 2018-04-27]
[2] Chinese: China and Russia reached the largest "arms sales agreement" in a decade.China Youth Network.2013-03-26 [cited 2019-09-25]