China has acquired many Ukrainian defense weapons enterprises in recent years.
Therefore, experts say that the current unstable situation could harm China’s production of replica weapons because the industry is significantly dependent on some of the major Ukrainian defense companies.
Defense Production Center of the USSR
An-124 fighter aircraft designed by the Antonov Bureau.
It can be said that after independence, Ukraine’s defense industry declined without stopping. From a defense-industrial powerhouse, Ukraine has gradually become dependent on Western aid.
The country has only about 30% of the Soviet defense industry left on its territory, including about 750 factories and 140 scientific and technical institutions with more than 1 million employees.
Ukraine’s Antonov Design Bureau was a key player in the Soviet aerospace sector and designed the Russian AN-124 four-engine heavy transport aircraft, and the six-engine AN-225 Mriya. – remains the largest aircraft ever built.
The aircraft engine manufacturer Motor Sich, co-located with the Ivchenko/Progress design office in Zaparozhye, Ukraine, was one of the largest factories producing these aircraft engines during the Soviet era.
It is also the sole manufacturer of a number of engines, some of which are used in the leading helicopter rigs of the Soviet armed forces.
Times change
As part of the Soviet Union, Ukraine already has large customers and large export markets inherited from the Soviet era.
But after gaining independence, they did not have a suitable export market, most of the market still belonged to Russia, although until 2014 (the year Russia annexed Crimea), Ukraine was still the second largest arms exporter. 8 in the world. There are two reasons for this.
One is because Ukraine has somehow secured its position in a number of Asian and African countries, mainly through gray arms markets and black markets in the aviation, shipbuilding and rocket technology.
Ukraine has built a number of anti-aircraft missiles, space satellites and Antonov planes since the Soviet era. And they sell these weapons cheaper than Russia.
Two is, (this is also the most important thing), relations between Ukraine and Russia at that time were still “good enough”. Many Russian systems such as planes and helicopters that need parts such as engines and wings are supplied by Ukraine.
Weapons systems that are indispensable in the strategic nuclear forces of Russia are also sent to the regular service of Ukraine. In fact, Russia was the third largest buyer of defense-related products from Ukraine from 2009 to 2013, after China and Pakistan.
Ukraine is also home to a large network of repair and overhaul plants that can service any major weapon platform or subsystem.
Aircraft overhaul plants are particularly active in supporting Soviet-era designs still in use by Russia, primarily by Warsaw Pact allies and by Russian system buyers, including including India use.
And in many cases, Russian-designed aircraft are maintained by Ukrainian companies rather than by Russian original equipment manufacturers.
Why is China concerned?
Things took a turn for the worse after 2014, especially after relations between Russia and Ukraine deteriorated when the Crimean peninsula was annexed by Russia.
And this is where China begins to get involved, as Ukrainian analyst Reuben F. Johnson, Research Fellow at the Casimir Pulaski Foundation, has made clear.
China’s J-11 fighter is copied from Russia’s Su-27.
It is well known that if the Russian arms industry survived after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, it would be largely due to the Chinese and Indian markets.
And in this case, as pointed out above, Ukraine has become the main supplier of Russian weapons and subsystems. However, there are many Russian systems and sub-systems copied and cloned by China.
According to many sources, Shenyang Aircraft Corporation in northern China’s Liaoning province has illegally copied the Russian Su-27SK fighter jet and identified by China as J-11B. But redesigning the radars and other components is said to be too challenging. As a result, the radars used for these pirated planes were then manufactured in Ukraine.
Likewise, according to Ukrainian analyst Reuben F.Johnson at the Casimir Pulaski Foundation, most of the air-to-air weapons used with the J-11B models are made from manufacturing machinery that Ukraine sells to China’s Eastern Xi’an factory.
“Even more alarming is the extent to which Beijing tries to acquire major Ukrainian defense companies and then transfer weapons and personnel to China.“, this expert said.
The goal is to solve the problems where China is still dependent on imports from Russia, specifically aviation engine technology, and it is taking advantage of the fact that the rest of the world has ignored it. possibilities of Ukrainian industry for many years.
Both the United States and Ukraine have tried to block the sale of Ukraine’s leading aviation engine company Motor Sich to China, on the grounds that it would boost Beijing’s rapidly expanding military capabilities.
Mr Johnson quoted a NATO official as saying: “It is risky if the US, NATO and other countries do not seek to get involved in Ukrainian industry. Ukraine’s armed forces cannot provide enough work to support its industrial base.”.
According to the expert, if not many countries follow Turkey’s path in cooperating with Ukraine, the remaining technological expertise will eventually be in China’s hands.
at Blogtuan.info – Source: Soha.vn – Read the original article here
