Defense News
10/31/2011
China Expanding Air Mobile Capabilities
By WENDELL
MINNICK
TAIPEI — After decades of
largely ignoring fixed-wing military cargo aircraft, China now appears eager to
expand with new aircraft and upgrades to older airframes.
The People’s Liberation Army Air Force
(PLAAF) operates 18 Ilyushin II-76 heavy transports, about 40 Shaanxi Y-8
medium transports and a small number of X’ian Y-7 and Y-5 light transports.
These are roughly the same number of aircraft the PLAAF was operating a decade
ago and the lack of interest in air mobility is a “bit puzzling” given China’s
supposed focus on a Taiwan contingency, said Roger Cliff, a China military analyst
with the Project 2049 Institute.
Any increase in the number of transports
“would be an indication that they are serious about acquiring the capability to
actually invade Taiwan,” he said.
China has about 1,400 commercial
airliners, which could be used for transporting troops and cargo, but they are
not as rugged as military airlifters and cannot be used for transporting
vehicles, Cliff said. However, not all military missions suggest damaged runways,
said Richard Fisher, an analyst for the International Assessment and Strategy
Center in Washington.
“While their use presupposes the capture
of a large airfield plus its cargo handling equipment, in a Taiwan scenario
this number of cargo transports could perform a vital early logistic support
mission for invading PLA forces,” Fisher said.
Beyond Taiwan, China has a variety of
other contingencies that require a strong airlift capability, including the
South China Sea, India, Vietnam, the Korean Peninsula, and counterinsurgency
missions in Tibet and Xinjiang. It also has to support a growing list of allies
in Africa and the Middle East who rely on inexpensive Chinese arms.
Earlier this year, Beijing reportedly
considered sending arms shipments to shore up the Libyan regime of Moammar
Gadhafi, but “had to quickly revise the scheme whereby it could use arms already
sold to neighboring Algeria to rearm Gadhafi, that would later be replenished,”
Fisher said.
The PLAAF appears to be taking the deficiency
seriously. There are a number of new platform programs designed to address the
problem.
■ The Shaanxi Aircraft Corp. is testing a
long-awaited variant of the Y-9 medium transport with new engines, glass
cockpit and a lift capacity allowing it to carry a ZBD-03 tracked airborne
infantry fighting vehicle or a low-weight ZBD-09 eightwheel-drive armored
personnel carrier, Fisher said.
This variant is possibly a codevelopment
with the Russian aerospace company Antonov, “but it is not clear when it will
be in production,” Cliff said.
■ The X’ian Aircraft Industry Corp. is
building the new four-engine turbofan Y-20 transport with a 60-ton capacity.
The engines will either be Russian Soloviev D-30 turbofans that also power the
Il-76 or a coproduced version of this turbofan, Fisher said. Other options
include a reported high-bypass development of the Shenyang WS-20 turbofan,
possibly called the “SF-A,” to improve efficiency, he said.
“While intended for the COMAC C-919 civil
transport, the thrust target for this engine would be the same for the new
X’ian four-engine transport,” Fisher said.
■ There are unconfirmed reports the PLAAF
continues to express interest in additional Russian built Il-76 and Il-78
tankers, as well as the Antonov An-124.
“Should the An-70 ever begin production,
the Ukraine could be expected to mount a major sales effort in Beijing,” Fisher
said.
■ China is also pushing to end the European
Union’s 1980 arms embargo. If so, the PLAAF is expected to pursue the Airbus
A-400 military transport.
■ There are also concerns the U.S. could
lift its embargo on China as relations improve if the Taiwan issue is resolved.
China might be hesitant to procure U.S. airlifters, however, out of fear
another embargo could be reinstituted. China has struggled to maintain 20
Sikorsky Black Hawk helicopters procured during the 1980s.
■ China is also engaged in the research
and development of aerostats and airships for short-range, heavy-lift missions,
particularly over mountainous terrain and large bodies of water.
More than 30 Chinese aerospace research
institutes and companies have programs dedicated to the study of lighterthan-air
platforms for commercial and military applications.
Many of these programs are expected to
reach fruition by 2020. The new airlift capability will allow the Chinese
military to field medium-weight airmobile Army units.
“The building of this power-projection
capability will be an important complement to the PLA’s developing
carrier/amphibious battle groups,” Fisher said.
They will give China’s leadership a range
of global intervention options to sustain its gathering network of allies and
partners, he said.
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