Chinese Order 38 Russian Fighters
China plans to buy $2 billion worth of Russian ground attack aircraft, according to Russian press reports and diplomats, which would improve China`s ability to invade Taiwan.
Reports said Chinese officials signed the contract with the Komsomolsk-on-Amur Aviation Production Association. A report by the Itar-Tass news agency put the number at 38 Su-30 MKK jets.
Russia`s Military News Agency said the factory`s 5,000 workers would be working overtime until 2003 to fulfill the terms of the contract.
The Su-30 will provide China`s air force with a potent ground attack complement to the Su-27 fighter that China first purchased from Russia in 1992, analysts said. So far, Russia has delivered between 70 and 100 Su-27s to China, and the two are currently co-producing the fighter.
News of the contract came after China and Russia concluded on Monday their first treaty since the failed military alliance of 1950. China`s president, Jiang Zemin, and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, signed the treaty on the second day of Jiang`s four-day visit to Russia, the second of four planned summits between the two leaders this year.
China`s military modernization is of concern to the United States because it`s geared toward threatening Taiwan, an island 100 miles off China`s coast that the United States is vaguely committed to defending.
Ken Allen, a former U.S. Air Force officer and an expert on the Chinese air force, said the purchase of the Su-30s is even more significant than China`s decision in 1992 to buy Su-27 fighters. China now has a sophisticated ground attack aircraft after years of relying on 450 H-5s, a slightly redesigned MiG-19 with no defensive capability and a short range.
However, Taiwan`s air force also has potentially powerful countermeasures: American-built F-16 fighters, French-built Mirage 2000s and a Taiwanese-designe…
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