China Buys 24 Advanced Russian Su-35 Flankers

China has signed a contract to buy 24 Sukhoi Su-35 multipurpose fighter jets from Russia, becoming the first foreign buyer of the advanced warplane, according to manufacturer Rostec. The deal, estimated to be worth $2 billion, is a significant boost to Russia’s arms exports.
“The long negotiation on the Su-35 sale to China has been completed. We have signed a contract,” Sergey Chemezov, the head of the Russian state-owned high-tech giant Rostec, told Kommersant business daily.

Chemezov didn’t disclose the details of the deal, but Kommersant cited sources in the Russian arms industry as saying that China had purchased 24 Su-35s at a price of about $83 million each.

              Su-35 Flanker

The Su-35 (designated Flanker-E+, not to be confused with the Su-27M, which used to be called the same name before its discontinuation) is a long-range “4++ generation” fighter jet. It is armed with an internal 30mm cannon and has 12 hardpoints with a combined capacity of 8,000 kg, compatible with a wide range of unguided and guided missiles and bombs.

The Russian armed forces are the primary operator of the aircraft, with 36 series Su-35s currently in their possession and more to be produced. China first showed its interest in buying Su-35s in 2008 during the Airshow China international expo. Formal negotiations started in 2011.

According to Kommersant, the deal does not involve domestic production of Su-35s in China, a condition usually desired by Beijing due to its strategic goal of producing an entire range of the weapons it uses on its own territory.

Pakistan has Signed Contract With Third Party Xiaolong two-seater First Flight Next Year

The 14th Dubai International Air Show in the first two days, the aircraft industry under the Air Ratko card technology with Pakistan Aeronautical Complex hold "Fierce Dragon" fighter press conference. Conference site, China and Pakistan jointly to the international media on the latest progress of this fighter jointly developed by China and Pakistan, and to publish outside the models to develop a blueprint for the international market. Liu, deputy general manager of CATIC, Pakistan cards Ratko Commonwealth Air Vice-Admiral Arshad Malik attended the press conference, and make answers to questions from the media concern.

Major General Arshad Malik also said that since the "Fierce Dragon" fighter Pakistan Air Force equipment, the improvement and upgrading works have been none stop. Subsequent production of "Fierce Dragon" fighter will have air refueling capability, it will increase in the future as well as advanced data link electronic warfare capabilities, to mount new guided weapons. Referring to the "Fierce Dragon" two-seat combat trainer aircraft development schedule, the Major General Arshad Malik revealed , "Fierce Dragon" two-seat combat trainer is designed not only to meet pilot training and other tasks, with both machines with the same single-seat combat capability, kind, will realize its first flight next year, Pakistan Air Force plans to equip two-seat "Fierce Dragon."

China makes breakthrough in Li-Fi technology, with speed of 50 Gbps

Visible light communication (VLC) technology

A new Chinese breakthrough in visible light communication (VLC) technology may enable people to download a HD movie in around 0.3 second simply using the light of a lamp.

A test conducted by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology confirmed that the real-time traffic rate of a Chinese VLC system had reached 50 gigabytes per second (Gbps), the ministry announced Friday.

The real-time speed is the highest obtained by China so far. In August 2014, media reported a group of Mexican scientists used similar technology to transmit data with speeds up to 10 Gbps.

IT expert and academic Wu Jiangxing said it will be possible to establish a huge VLC network based on the billions of bulbs and LED lighting facilities already around the globe.

"Every bulb can serve as a high-speed Internet access point (similar to a WIFI hotspot ) after VLC technology is widely applied in the future," said Wu, unable to give a specific time frame. "Imagine downloading several movies while you are waiting for a green light at a crossroad or surfing the Internet on planes and high-speed trains via the lights."

The technology is green and consumes far less energy and can secure information better than radio, which has loopholes such as signal disturbance, leaks and interception, according to the ministry.

Chinese Scientists Unveil New Stealth Material Breakthrough

A group of scientists from China may have created a stealth material that could make future fighter jets very difficult to detect by some of today’s most cutting-edge anti-stealth radar.

The researchers developed a new material they say can defeat microwave radar at ultrahigh frequencies, or UHF. Such material is usually too thick to be applied to aircraft like fighter jets, but this new material is thin enough for military aircraft, ships, and other equipment.

Today’s synthetic aperture radar use arrays of antennas directing microwave energy to essentially see through clouds and fog and provide an approximate sense of the object’s size, the so-called radar cross section. With radar absorbent material not all of the signal
bounces back to the receiver. A plane can look like a bird.

“Our proposed absorber is almost ten times thinner than conventional ones,” said Wenhua Xu, one of the team members from China’s Huazhong University of Science and Technology, in a statement.

In their paper, published today in the Journal of Applied Physics, the team describes a material composed of semi-conducting diodes (varactors) and capacitors that have been soldered onto a printed circuit board. That layer is sitting under a layer of copper resistors and capacitors just .04 mm thick, which they called an “active frequency selective surface material” or AFSS. The AFSS layer can effectively be stretched to provide a lot of absorption but is thin enough to go onto an aircraft. The next layer is a thin metal honeycomb and final is a metal slab.

The good news: the material isn’t locked away in a lab but published openly, so it’s not going to surprise anyone.
Stealth is considered by many to be one of the key technologies that enabled U.S. military dominance throughout the last century, effectively neutralizing, or offsetting, technological gains made by rival nations and the Soviet empire.

America says China’s fifth-generation jet fighter J-31 stolen from its F-35

American experts have accused China of stealing the US design in its first indigenously developed fifth-generation fighter jet, which was displayed at Dubai Airshow on Sunday, raising doubts over the achievement of the country which has stolen a march over India in developing the aircraft.

US defence and strategic affairs experts alleged that the design of the FC-31 "Gyrfalcon" or J-31, which was showcased for the first time abroad according to a Chinese military run portal, was stolen from the US-made F-35 in April 2009 when Chinese hackers entered the networks of American defence equipment maker Lockheed Martin.

The FC-31's airframe is similar to that of the F-35. The FC-31 also has two internal weapons bays that can carry guided and unguided weapons, just like the F-35.

FC-31

"The similarity includes the use of two tracking mirrors and a flat-facetted optical window, with bottom fuselage placement just aft the radar radome," IHS Jane's Defence Weekly said.

The Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) is trying to sell FC-31 as an alternative to Lockheed Martin's F-35 joint strike fighter. Besides Chinese Air Force, Iran and Pakistan are understood to have shown some interest in this fighter jet.

AVIC officials present at the Dubai Airshow hailed the aircraft's "outstanding situational awareness" and said that the FC-31 is designed for "the demands of future battlefield environments".

Pakistan Orders 40 JF-17 Fighter Aircraft, Contract signed with Foreign Customer

he Pakistan Air Force (PAF) is expected to order 40 JF-17 Thunder light fighter aircraft made the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC) and the Aviation Industries Corporation of China (AVIC).

The order adds to the 60 aircraft already in PAF service, an AVIC statement said yesterday.

In addition, The AVIC –PAC partnership has signed a contract with a third party customer for the purchase of the JF-17 Thunder, AVIC Executive Vice President Liu Yu was quoted as saying in the statement.

However, the customer was not identified nor details of the sale revealed.

Liu Yu said JF-17 Thunder had demonstrated capabilities in air-to-air, air-to-surface combats and its great cost-effectiveness had received attention from the global aviation industry.

JF-17 Thunder

As China and Pakistan improve their ability and skills in co-developing JF-17 Thunder, the aircraft is becoming a “Blue Ocean product” with much market potentials as an ideal replacement for second-generation fighters in many countries’ air force.

AVIC and PAC anticipate a market for 300 JF-17 fighter aircraft in the near future.

Mi-35 Deliveries to Pakistan will begin in the year 2016

Director General of State Corporation Sergey Chemezov Rustech reported on the signed contract with Pakistan to supply Mi-35. Requests for Mi-28 helicopters from the Pakistani side were reported.

Delivery of Mi-35 in Pakistan will begin in the year 2016, told reporters on Monday the State Corporation Sergey Chemezov, General Director of Rustech International Airshow Dubai Airshow-2015.

Dubai Airshow is held from 1989 onwards, with the assistance of the Government and the Emirate of Dubai Civil Aviation Authority and U.A.E. Defense Ministry. Its subject is the armament and military equipment of the AIR FORCE, air defence, space technology, civil aviation and technology. This year's air show takes place from 8 to 12 November.

Mi-35

Russia Says UAE in talks for Su-35

Rostec head Sergey Chemezov said at the Dubai airshow that his employees are currently engaged in negotiations with the UAE for the Su-35.

Russia is presenting its aircraft and air defense systems at the Dubai Airshow in the UAE.


“Su-35 presentation here [at the airshow] is very good, and we are currently engaged in negotiations with the [United Arab] Emirates about the delivery of these aircraft,” Chemezov told journalists.

Su-35

Earlier in the day, head of Rostec's International Cooperation Department Viktor Kladov told RIA Novosti that the UAE expressed its interest in the aircraft, however the sides have not discussed the number of Su-35 that could be delivered to Abu Dhabi.

The Su-35 fighter (NATO reporting name Flanker-E) jet is an upgraded version of the Su-27 multirole fighter. In 2013, it was first introduced to a foreign audience in Paris.

MiG-29UPG Upgrade Programme Goes On

The MiG Corp. and Phazotron Corp. continue deliveries of knockdown kits to India for upgrading the entire fleet of Indian Air Force MiG-29 fighters under the contract signed on 7 March 2008 (MiG-29UPG programme). In all, 63 aircraft, including nine MiG-29UB twin-seat combat trainers, are subject to upgrade. They are to be given more up-to-date avionics, with their weapons suite to be beefed up with advanced missiles. In addition, airframe and powerplant improvements will extend the fighters' service life by far, and the aircraft will switch to on-condition maintenance. The fuel load will increase owing to a conformal spine fuel tank aft of the cockpit. At the same time, the fighters will get the mid-air refuelling capability.

Overall, the concept of upgrading the IAF MiG-29s corresponds to that of the MiG-29SMT that has been in service with the Russian Air Force since 2009 and mastered by Russian pilots. At the same time, there will be a high degree of avionics and weapons commonality with the MiG-29K/KUB carrierborne fighters that entered service with the Indian Navy on 19 February 2010. At the customer’s request, systems from various foreign manufacturers are integrated with the avionics suite of the upgraded MiG-29UPG (the so-called international avionics suite). Similar experience has been gained from the fulfilling of the Russian-Indian contracts for upgrade of the IAF's MiG-21bis to MiG-21UPG Bison standard and for development and manufacture of the Su-30MKI and MiG-29K/KUB fighters. The experience has showed itself to good advantage.

MiG-29UPG

The upgraded MiG-29UPG's fire control system is wrapped around the advanced Phazotron-NIIR Zhuk-M2E slotted-array radar and OLS-UEM IRST with the laser, thermal-imager and TV capabilities from the Precise Instrument Systems Scientific and Production Corporation (NPK SPP). The same radar and IRST fit the MiG-29K/KUB. The cockpit management system is based on colour multifunction liquid-crystal displays. The international segment of the avionics suite includes a helmet-mounted target designator from Thales, an inertial/satellite navigation system from Sagem, an Indian electronic intelligence system and an Israeli electronic countermeasures system (the same gear equips the MiG-29K/KUB).

In addition to the conformal fuel cell behind the cockpit and the mid-air refuelling boom on the portside, visual differences between the MiG-29UPG and the baseline MiG-29 include the underwing chaff/flare dispensers from Bharat Electronics and advanced antennae of the defence aids suite under wign and in the root of the right fin.

The basic weapons carried by the MIG-29UPG are the same as those carried by the MiG-29SMT and MiG-29K/KUB. Unlike the weapons suite of production MiG-29s, they also include the RVV-AE medium-range active radar homing air-to-air missiles and such precision-guided air-to-surface weapons, as the Kh-29T general-purpose TV-homing missile, Kh-31A active radar homing antiship missile, Kh-31P passive radar homing antiradation missile, KAB-500Kr TV-homing bombs, etc.

The MiG-29 has been in IAF's inventory since 1987. Overall, 80 aircraft of the type had been delivered from the later 1980s to the mid-'90s, including about 70 MiG-29 singleseaters (version B, or MiG-29B) and 10 MiG-29UB twinseaters.

Pakistan-Russia Relationship – Closing in on Su-35 and Mi-35s Delivery

Pakistan-Russia relationship is set to grow with talks about delivery Mi-35M helicopters and Su-35 fighter jets continues. This comes from the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov. Earlier in this year, Moscow sent a draft contract to Islamabad regarding the delivery of four Mi-35M ‘Hind E’ combat helicopters and Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jets. It would seem that the draft contract has been bumped up a level considering the talks being held, as we speak, regarding the delivery of said machines. These helicopters and fighter jets would become a valuable to addition to Pakistan’s growing air force.

SU-35

Pak-Russia relationship have not always been one to be proud of, however, lately, the two countries are warming up to each other. In November 2014, Moscow and Islamabad were able to sign a landmark defense operation agreement. This agreement will allow exchange of information on political and military issues, extend cooperation between the two for promoting international security, intensify counter-terrorism and arms-control activities, strengthen collaboration between Pakistan and Russia on various fields including military, education, medicine, and hydrography, and increase cooperation on peacekeeping operations. While no actual deal was signed at this moment for trade of military equipment, this deal would provide the platform for Pak-Russia relationship to grow and enhance.

 Mi-35M Attack Helicopter

 As far as the deal of fighter jets and helicopters goes, the Russian deputy Foreign Minister was noted to have said:

I do not think that the contacts under discussion will cause jealousy on the part of any of the two sides.

He was referring to India and Pakistan. Military cooperation between Pakistan and Russia will not impact Moscow’s relationship with New Delhi. He also mentioned that Pak-Russia relationship is improving in other sectors such as energy. As far as India being jealous or concerned goes, India has frequently been involved in military purchases with Russia including 20 Mi-35s not so long ago. In comparison, four attack helicopters of the same kind, should not be an issue. However, it the deal has significance when it comes to creating ties with countries other than China. The deal involving Su-35s and Mi-35s is a major one, and hopefully just a stepping stone to greater deals between Islamabad and Moscow.