After submarines for Thailand and littoral patrol ships for Malaysia, China’s defense industry conglomerates continue to reap orders from South and Southeast Asia.
The state-owned Aviation Industry Corp of China (AVIC) indicated on its WeChat account earlier this week that it had a haul of orders from an unspecified Southeast Asian county for its FTC-2000G multipurpose aircraft, the export version of the J-7 interceptor jet that ceased production in 2013, which in turn was a license-built version of the Soviet Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21.
AVIC stressed it owned “independent intellectual property rights of the aircraft.”
The company said the first batch of FTC-2000Gs with improved aerodynamics and fuel capacity would roll off its production line in Anshun in southwestern Guizhou province for their maiden flights by the end of this month, and the aircraft would then head for the southern city of Zhuhai in Guangdong province for the China Airshow, to be held in November.
Xinhua also reported on Wednesday that the first FTC-2000G finished production and was pulled out from the plant to appear at a ceremony held by its manufacture, Guizhou Aviation Industry Corp under the AVIC umbrella.
AVIC said the versatile aircraft would suit patrols, training, aerial combat and ground attack and could be fully converted into a reconnaissance plane.
The aircraft uses a diverterless supersonic inlet, a large leading edge root extension and has up to seven hard points for armament with a maximum suspension weight of 3,000 kilograms. It has an endurance of three hours and a range of 2,500 kilometers.
Observers say the FTC-2000G could be highly marketable across Southeast Asia and Africa where many air forces have long been rustling up their fleets made up of the outmoded MiG-21, F-5 and the like that are nearing the end of their service lives.
Compared with rival offerings like South Korea’s FA-50 and Italy’s M-346, the FTC-2000G’s distinctive cost-performance appeals to foreign militaries with limited budgets to upgrade their fleets.
Previous buyers of China-built aircraft, including Myanmar and Pakistan, will be its potential clients, an expert told the Global Times.
So UK sent a rust bucket about to be decommissioned to confront China ? Ha! Ha! Ha!
Nonsense….. F-16 or F-18……IAF would reject both! The SU-30MKI is notably superior to both and the IAF has been operating 220 of them since the last decade. With 36 Dassault Rafale’s due to be delivered that, Washington doesn’t have much on the menu to offer, other than the F-35. It will be big though if the F-35 is offered, but seems unlikely.
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I classify it as the “El MiG-21 Asiático” because of the Asiatic touch…
It’s likely of the Mitsubishi F-1, the F-20 Tigershark, F-16 Bliock A, FCK-1, and Korea’s T-50 and South Asia’s LCA class…
Have ground attack roles and air superiority dog fighter specifications…
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Very small weapons, and very small hands.
Dog fighter ? What you fight them now rather than eating them, or is it just you’re small enough to ride on ?
Yashad Rizvi
Small:
Think A-4 Skyhawk-small or Etandard-simple…
Think HMS Shefield http://historylists.org/other/list-of-6-british-ships-sunk-during-the-falklands-war.html and think Isla de Malvinas when you use the word small…
It’s the French Exocet my friend… It’s the Exocet…
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Useful for making a booming sound for the parade.
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Well…
What would be the next best thing if a client can’t get into the JF-17, which is China’s counterpart to the MiG-29, Mirage-2000, Grippen, and F-16?
The FTC-2000 of course.
FTC-2000, my opinion, is an upgrated version of the J-7G modified to take on both ground attack and AA roles whereas the J-7 series of Chinese fighters are principally AA role designed to deal with Asia’s F-16 threat.
A win win proposition for the buyer who can’t afford the JF-17…
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It’s a fighter perfect for small Air forces on tight budgets. You can see this fighter in Africa and Latin America countries.