Chinese Order 38 Russian Fighters

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-designed fighter.

China has concentrated its military buildup on ensuring military superiority in the Taiwan Strait. The Pentagon has predicted that the military balance will begin to shift between 2005 and 2010. China`s purchases, particularly of Kilo-class submarines, Su-27s, Su-30s and Sovremenny-class destroyers, are designed, analysts say, not simply to threaten Taiwan but to give U.S. commanders in the region pause before they engage China in a fight were China to attack Taiwan.

The Washington Post