BAF will have J-10Bs, rumor suggests.

According to the Russian military news network reported on December 1,2010, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh Army in the country before his speech at the ceremony said the government would purchase a large number of various types of weapons and equipment for the protection of its exclusive economic zone, to participate in UN peacekeeping action. China has been a major arms supplier to Bangladesh, the procurement of most of the weapons may be in the favorable financial conditions or military assistance to China within the framework of supply.

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina announced that the government is drafting a large number of weapons and equipment import contract, plans to purchase modern tanks, artillery, air defense missile systems, fighter aircraft and helicopters. British ” Defence Industry” magazine reported that Bangladesh had purchased 140 armored personnel carriers, have all been received and the armed forces.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said the Government of Bangladesh will also increase the cost of training military personnel, while Cox’s Bazar improve air base infrastructure, strengthening patrolling the waters of the Bay of Bengal, in the Mill Pool will also be set up 37 anti-aircraft regiment.

Now the leadership of Bangladesh attaches great importance to non-traditional security threats, including piracy, natural disasters and the Bay of Bengal waters, increasing competition for energy. In addition, Bangladesh and Myanmar, also, the Indian territorial disputes, mainly some countries with large oil and gas resources in the territorial ownership of the continental shelf. Myanmar, Bangladesh, 2008 6 vessels accused, including two warships, violating the exclusive economic zone of Bangladesh. Both sides insisted that a large number of oil and gas resources with the Bay of Bengal as its territory in the disputed region.

Bangladesh military budget after only 15 billion dollars. Baoji, Shaanxi Province in recent years in China, Special Purpose Vehicle Co., Ltd. has been providing credit to Bangladesh within the framework of 4×4 wheeled armored personnel carriers supply ZFB05 type. The end of 2009 the company announced that it is with Bangladesh to negotiate a new batch of equipment supply. Chengdu Aircraft Industrial Group in 2007 to Bangladesh supply 12 F-7BG the type, 4 FT-7BG two-seater fighter, currently being negotiated and Bangladesh Air Force JF-17 and the more modern F -10 fighter supply. According to unofficial information, Bangladesh Navy from China have been two, “Jiang Wei” class Ⅱ type (053H3) frigates.

Bangladesh had purchased three British naval vessels on active service, including a hydrological observation vessels and two offshore patrol vessels. In addition, the Bangladesh Navy and the Italian Augusta Westland has signed a two AW-109 light twin helicopter purchase agreement.

The Chinese Air Force's Super Weapon: Beware the J-11D Fighter

According to Russian media outlets, which cited unnamed Chinese reports, on Wednesday the People’s Liberation Army Air Force conducted the first flight tests of its J-11D fighter aircraft. The plane is an upgraded version of the J-11B fighter jets, which themselves are copies of the Russian-made Sukhoi Su-27.

According to the reports, the new J-11D incorporates a number of technologies from China’s J-16 fighter jets. Both planes are manufactured by the Chinese company, Shenyang Aircraft Corp, and the J-16 is believed to have incorporated some technologies from the J-11. However, the J-16 is a multi-role strike fighter.

Perhaps most notable of the J11-D’s upgrades is that it reportedly incorporates the J-16’s advanced Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar. When the PLAAF first took delivery of the J-16 in April of last year, Jeffrey Lin and P.W. Singer wrote in Popular Science that:

The most important upgrade to the J-16 is an Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar, which is more powerful than the slotted array radars that the Su-30 and JH-7A have. The AESA radar allows the J-16 to intercept enemy aircraft at longer ranges than either of its predecessors, and to attack multiple surface targets simultaneously. The AESA radar would also be datalinked to other Chinese platforms, including unmanned vehicles, to increase their situational awareness.

This AESA upgrade significantly enhances the J-11D’s capabilities over those of its predecessors. In fact, pointing to the AESA upgrades, some analysts have said the new J-11Ds could be China’s version of the Sukhoi Su-35s, which is Russia’s most deadly fighter jet. In fact, some U.S. military officials have told The National Interest the F-15C Eagle and Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet “would both have their hands full” in combat against the Su-35.

Besides the AESA radar upgrade, Russia Today reports that the new J-11D uses more composite materials and boasts more air-to-air missiles like the PL-10 and PL-15 than did earlier versions of the plane. It also has a new in-flight refueling arrangement that is similar to the J-15.

Also very notable is that according to some sources, the new J-11D is powered by two WS-10A engines, which are indigenous engines. For all its rapid advances, Chinese aerospace companies have continued to struggle to make high-powered engines that are reliable.

Stealth Changes for China’s Stealth Fighter

When China unveiled its J-20 stealth fighter in 2011, analysts noted the aircraft’s potential to shift the regional balance of power further in the favor of the People’s Liberation Army Air Force. And the country is clearly committed to investing in military hardware. On Wednesday, China announced it was increasing its defense spending in 2014 to 808.23 billion renminbi, or about $132 billion, a rise of 12.2 percent. 

 

Sonic boom of J-20 Mighty Dragon

But many analysts have suggested that the J-20, ostensibly the showpiece of the air force’s modernization, had the “look” of being stealthy without actually incorporating many of the details that make aircraft difficult to detect on radar, as the defense journalist David Axe noted in The Diplomat in 2011.

For one thing, Mr. Axe wrote, “several rear-aspect photos seem to show traditional, fixed, round engine nozzles. The F-22, B-2 stealth bomber and now-retired F-117 stealth fighter-bomber all have carefully shaped, angular nozzles meant to scatter radar waves. In the F-22, these nozzles can move, ‘vectoring’ the engine thrust to boost maneuverability. The T-50 can pull the same vectoring trick with its round nozzles. The apparent absence of stealthy nozzles and thrust-vectoring places a hard limit on the J-20’s ability to evade radar detection from behind.”

The J-20’s nozzles are also mounted in such a way that infrared sensors could easily detect their heat signature. (The engines themselves pose a different type of engineering challenge for China, which may be more difficult to overcome.)

But the three aircraft seen so far are prototypes. Their manufacturer, Chengdu Aerospace Corporation, appears to be learning as it tests, based on photos circulating this week.

The first prototype, serial number 2001, shows significant differences from the latest prototype, serial number 2011, in the position and serration of the landing gear doors, the shapes of the nose and engine intakes (just to the rear of the cockpit) and the shape of the vertical stabilizers, or tail fins.

All those areas have been adjusted, presumably for performance and stealthiness reasons, as The Aviationist points out. The latest version also has a different paint scheme, which could mean absolutely nothing, but could also indicate a different type of radar-absorbent coating. The F-22, B-2 and F-35, the world’s only operational stealth aircraft, all use such coatings. 

 

The Chinese J-20 stealth fighter, in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, in 2011.

The J-20 made headlines when it was unveiled, not just because of the technology it represented, but because it came during Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates’s visit to China. At the time, Mr. Gates questioned “just how stealthy” the Chinese fighter really was, then said the Pentagon was stepping up investments in a range of weapons, jet fighters and technology in response to the J-20 and other aspects of the Chinese military buildup in the Pacific. A Pentagon spokesman later said that the J-20 “has not changed the strategic calculus at all.”

The Pentagon has since suggested that the J-20 will be ready for deployment no earlier than 2018, but it remains unclear how many of the planes China could field. China’s other stealthy aircraft prototype, the J-31, produced by Shenyang Aircraft, has been suggested as a potential export. So far the J-20 has, officially, only been earmarked for use by the Chinese military.

Meanwhile, it remains to be seen how much the J-20’s design changes matter and indeed how effective an aircraft it is. But it is evident that the plane’s flight testing, at least, is far more than just a publicity stunt.

Chinese J-10A Fighter Jet Locks on SU-30MKK2 Flanker During Exercise

Very interesting images of the Chinese J-10A Fighter Jet Locks on SU-30MKK2 Flanker During Exercise

Chinese fighters tail U.S. aircraft in disputed airspace

The Want China Times has quoted the Tokyo’s Sankei Shimbun newspaper as saying that Chinese J-7 and J-10 fighters tailed two US aircraft as they reached the airspace close to the border between China and Japan.

The two U.S. aircraft allegedly shadowed by the People’s Loberation Army Air Force were a U.S. Navy P-3C from Misawa and a U.S. Air Force C-130 from Yokota airbase.  According to the Japanese media outlets, the Chinese fighter jets were scrambled to intercept them.

J-10

Image credit: Wiki/Retxham

This incident took place on January 10, the same day when a  Japanese reconnaissance aircraft attached to Japan’s Maritime Self-defence Force were dispatched to monitor Chinese aircraft movements near to the disputed Diaoyutai islands (Senkaku in Japan).

The following day Japanese F-15J Eagle interceptors tailed two Chinese J-10s that were launched to observe Japanese aircraft movements close to the border.

Even if it would appear that both sides are only conducting routine patrols in the area, there is a concrete risk that such close encounters turn into something more serious, escalating tensions into a conflict.

On April 1, 2001, a U.S. Navy EP-3E SIGINT plane was intercepted by a PLA Navy J-8 of the island of Hainan. The two planes went a bit too close each other and collided mid-air.

The collision, caused the death of the Chinese fighter pilot, whereas the American spyplane was forced to perform an emergency landing on Hainan.

The 24 crew members were detained and interrogated by the Chinese authorities until being released on April 21, 2001.

Written with Richard Clements