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Old January 10th, 2011, 06:04 PM
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Marcello Marcello is offline
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Default Re: Jets & Planes but no UAV's here.

Quote:
Next the Russian fighter it was based on as we know the Chinese are great copycats with a high degree of technical sophistication also they might have received some help as well. This did not see service with the Russians.
I would be very careful before stating that a design is derived from an other on the basis of some superficial configuration resemblance.
After all it is not like this...

was actually derived from this...


It is probably a safe bet that the chinese have sought whatever knowledge could be obtained; I certainly would not be surprised if some MiG 1.42 material was handed over to them or if sensitive F-22 data had ended in the hands of chinese intelligence and it cannot be ruled out that some of that might have been used in the design process. That however should not be mistaken for some kind of genetic inability to design from scratch.
When closing a technological gap it is only sensible to aquire foreign designs for evaluation, license/copy them and only once you have sufficiently mastered the technology move on to original designs. This has played out a number of times in the past: assuming that those copying and catching up would remain stuck there has caused its share of unpleasant surprises...

As for the PAK FA and the Berkut they are both already in the game, as SEAD assets: I suppose that's mostly to placate all the people that would be screaming if the latest whiz bang fighter was not available.In the game aviation primary task is CAS, which is somewhat of a cinderella as far as air forces are concerned and not something you want to throw a rare, expensive fifth generation air superiority fighter at. SEAD is probably the only "economic" employment of such aircraft that is included in the game.
Though I doubt the Berkut would enter production: it would be a wasteful duplication. I could see it happen for political/bureaucratic reasons if the Berkut was, say, a MiG project. Being both Sukhoi there is not even that rationale.

Last edited by Marcello; January 10th, 2011 at 06:19 PM..
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