There are many considerations in purchasing FC-1 fighter jets from China. In fact, South Korea¡¯s air force suffered heavy losses in the rebellion and is already somewhat weak in the face of the potential North Korean threat. Although it has the support of the US military stationed in South Korea, in name only China will not allow chaos on the Korean peninsula, but only things of its own will make you feel at ease.
On the other hand, it is natural to hope to achieve a closer relationship with China, which has gradually begun to show its power advantage in the geopolitics of Northeast Asia. In other words, it means paying protection fees. Many equipment purchases in the international arms market have strong political connotations, and are usually based on taking sides. It is impossible for South Korea to join China's team. It is said that China does not have its own team now, but there is nothing wrong with building a good relationship.
On the other hand, South Korea naturally wants to further isolate North Korea. North Korea¡¯s biggest supporter for its survival until now is China. Compared with the traditional socialist camp, North Korea has never directly taken orders from the Soviet Union. On the contrary, it is a subordinate of China. Take the Sino-Vietnam War in 1979 as an example. Most Western countries in the world expressed regret and urged both sides to withdraw their troops; the Soviet Union and other socialist countries condemned China for supporting Vietnam; but only Cambodia and North Korea supported the use of force against Vietnam from China's standpoint. .
Most of the civilian material assistance and military weapons assistance that North Korea needs for a long time come from China. If it can pull China from completely tilting towards North Korea, it will be a victory for South Korea.
The new Foreign Minister Choi Yoon-soo, representing South Korea, also came to China at the end of February. He was accompanied by some senior officers and technicians of the Air Force. However, because the Air Force almost collectively turned left during the rebellion, a large number of Air Force generals were beaten to the end. Many pilots were sent directly to political prisons, so most of the air force personnel who could be sent to China were only capable but not professional.
In fact, before the Korean rebellion began, AVIC was informed by Qi Yiming that it would build an international version of the FC-1 fighter, and the project was generously handed over to Chengdu itself. Tu Jida and a group of leaders and technicians with excellent work ability and strong enterprising spirit also seriously discussed the issue of international version modification.
Tu Jida and others believe that in essence, the technical and tactical requirements for the modification of the international version do not exist at all, and the emergence of the international version is only a political issue. Although this kind of thing is very annoying for technicians, it is also inevitable. After some reforms, military industrial enterprises have gained more autonomy and their subjective initiative has also been enhanced to a certain extent. As long as it is about making money, it is of course not necessary.
Therefore, since September, Chengdu Aircraft has opened up a number of unimportant technical indicators and began to issue project bids to a series of companies in the United States, such as Hughes, Texas Instruments, Grumman, Pratt & Whitney, GE, etc., because Among them, Project 9527 has given certain support in terms of technical information, so Chengdu Aircraft is not as ignorant as when it cooperated with Saber II\/Super Seven. Their bidding has been strongly directional from the beginning.
??Chengfei is mainly responsible for the fuselage and final assembly work. Hughes provided the APG-67 radar originally used for the F-20. After slight adjustments, it was just big enough to fit into the Xiaolong's not-so-large nose. The engine should be able to make F404 or WS-13 interchangeable as much as possible. Digital systems such as flight control can also choose Chinese-made or American-made products. In addition, the weapon system is also compatible with Chinese weapons and American weapons.
This way, Chengdu Aircraft Corporation of China retains its control over the Xiaolong project to the greatest extent, and prevents leakage of some key technologies. At the same time, it can adopt some American subsystem products to achieve organic unification with the fighter aircraft. It is said that in the original history, Xiaolong itself had some American and European ancestry, and the radar it used at one time was the French RC-400 radar.
Because the 1553B bus and other technologies are originally American benchmark technologies, such modifications are essentially not difficult. Qi Yiming helped provide the initial funding. When the Koreans formally submitted the purchase application, Chengdu Aircraft had already completed the preliminary The work of adapting the international version of Xiaolong technology has been carried out.
At least from the appearance, there is no difference between the FC-1 international version and the purely domestic version. Perhaps because of the replacement of an F404 engine, the shape of the nozzle is somewhat different. Qi Yiming, who has a lot of experience in marketing, also suggested that Cheng Fei paint a Korean Air Force logo on the fuselage to enhance the affinity when visiting Nanbang.
Grumman¡¯s International President Pellehak was also present to sell the product to the Koreans, but his expression was somewhat more smiley than that of Chengdu¡¯s staff. Because a few days ago, their main partner Qi Yiming moved out of the Xiaolong mountain and suppressed the F-14 mountain. Grumman Corporation hoped to export 50 more F-14s to China before opening the production license. However, the Chinese did not accept such a threat. Instead, Qi Yiming directly threatened that if Grumman ignored the original agreement, he wanted to If you want to tamper with it, then the part that was originally assigned to Grumman in the Xiaolong International version,He wouldn't mind giving it to Lockheed or LVT.
Of course Pelehak understands that Chinese people actually have many choices, which are incredible. Grumman must act based on the Chinese people's opinions. China has received 70 F-14s from Iran and has begun comprehensive upgrades and modifications. If the contract is spoiled by a small problem, the contract for 80 new fighter jets originally given to Grumman will also fall through, let alone 50 more. The Chinese have no shortage of replacement candidates. First of all, Pellehak has heard not long ago that XAC, a subsidiary of AVIC, has completed a comprehensive upgrade of the JH-7. This heavily modified fighter is not a fighter-bomber at all. It became a heavy-duty multi-purpose fighter. Even though Pellehak is confident that the F-14 is definitely stronger than this heavy-duty fighter adapted from a second-generation and semi-basic fighter-bomber, China has all the technologies and can build as many as it wants. If pressed, they will naturally give up. The F-14 project is expensive but not affordable.
In addition, Dassault has begun to contact Shenghua Company to outsource some Mirage 4000 parts to China. It is expected to reduce the cost of the fighter to about 30 million US dollars. This figure is still cheaper than the F-14. It is difficult to guarantee that if Grumman relied on favor and became arrogant, and ultimately lost everything.
It is said that McDonnell Douglas is now as anxious as an ant on a hot pot. Some managers have gone to China to lobby China not to accept Dassault's cooperation agreement, fearing that once the Mirage 4000 is truly finalized, the impact on the F-15 will be Very big. Not only McDonnell Douglas is worried, Grumman is also worried, but they don't have to put much effort into this matter. It is really not an easy task for them to control China and Qi Yiming.
In the end, Grumman chose to compromise with Qi Yiming for the sake of more secure business interests, which stabilized some of its own interests in the Xiaolong International Edition and ensured that the F-14 project proceeds according to the original plan.
But no matter what, this trick did not look good at all. Instead, Grumman looked like a clown, which made Pelehak look quite embarrassed in China.
"Mr. Tu, this time the Koreans purchase fighter planes, it is actually just a formality. The order for these 60 aircraft will undoubtedly fall on the FC-1. I would like to express my congratulations to you." Pelehak Said to Tu Jida.
Tu Jida shook his head and said confidently: "General Dynamics' F-16 project is also participating in this round of procurement. Although we have a certain advantage in price, after all, the Koreans have already signed a contract with General Dynamics to purchase F-16s. With the contract, it is still very advantageous to maintain one type of aircraft in terms of logistics.¡±
Pellehak disagreed and said: "General Dynamics' F-16 is priced at 16 million, and the actual price may be close to 18 million or 19 million, while the international version of the FC-1 is only priced at 11 million. If we purchase 60 aircraft, The price difference is more than 400 million U.S. dollars. South Korea¡¯s situation is not particularly good, but it is imperative to consolidate air force equipment, so our evaluators believe that the FC-1, which has a price advantage, is more likely to win this order. "
Tu Jida also smiled and said: "At least in terms of combat capability, the FC-1 is still stronger than the F-16A\/B." Although the newly modified international version has a reduced power, the bomb load has been reduced from four tons. It's reduced a bit, but it doesn't have much impact on a pure air combat level. In terms of radar system, because the performance of APG-67 still has some advantages over the domestic KJL-7 radar, the avionics performance has been improved to a certain extent.
What the Chengfei leader did not say is also worth pondering. The international version of FC-1 itself can be integrated with a series of guided land attack weapons such as Thunder, Thunder Stone, and Feiteng. However, due to political considerations, they actually changed it. The fighter plane does not have the ability to accurately strike the ground, but it retains a relatively complete anti-ship level and can mount two C-705 anti-ship missiles to deal with enemy warships. For South Korea, this function is of little use against North Korea, which has a weak navy, but it can be used to deter the Japanese. Of course, there is also a certain threat to the PLA Navy, but the order of magnitude difference is too large. The C-705 Xiaolong will not pose much of a threat to the luxuriously equipped navy.
Pelehak was very complimentary to Tu Jida, and he said with emotion: "At least from this project in South Korea, our company has a revenue of 50 to 60 million, which is not bad."
As the general project contractor, Tu Jida naturally has a high status. He comforted Pelehak as if he was doing a long job and said: "It doesn't matter. Although it is smaller than a project like F-14, South Korea is just the beginning. If the international version of Xiaolong performs well, Pakistan would also like to order a batch of international version of Xiaolong for use. For the majority of third world countries, the international version of Xiaolong is also a very attractive option, as long as we can sell the quantity. , your company¡¯s profits will naturally be greater.¡±
What he said is certainly true, but most of the proceeds from the project must belong to Chengfei. Pelehak naturally laughed and couldn't reveal it. What makes him uneasy is that there is still a question of how many people with insufficient IQ can choose the international version of Xiaolong. There is almost no difference in performance between the domestic Xiaolong and the international version of Xiaolong.There is still a price difference of US$3 million. Even if the real countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America want to buy it, they will definitely buy it cheaply. What the international version really pries away is the market of the traditional weapons exporting countries of the United States.