Defense exports to China provide Russia with a bunch of strategic benefits.
Besides bringing in bucket loads of quick cash, Russian weapons generate a strategic
spinoff by counterbalancing US military power in Asia.
Beijing’s insatiable appetite for advanced weaponry keeps the Russian defense industry
ticking along nicely and forces the Americans to divert substantial offensive and defensive
resources to check China.
This reduces pressure on Russia’s European flanks.
However, Russian arms exports to China come with a major downside.
The Chinese often buy limited quantities or ‘samples’, take them apart, and then reverse
engineer the weapons.
These knock-offs are then peddled cheap overseas, undercutting Russian exports.
The impact of this copy is so large that some quarters of Russian power circle objected
to sell the S 400 to China, due to fear of copy.
S 400 is considered to be most powerful anti air defense system in the world.
The deal was eventually sealed after Russian analysts said that state of art; S 400 is
too complicated to copy.
In this video, we look at 5 different weapons china has copied from Russia.
The S19 "Msta-S” is a self-propelled 152 mm howitzer designed by Soviet Union, which
entered service in 1989 as the successor to the SO-152.
The vehicle is based on the T-80 tank hull, but is powered by the T-72's diesel engine.
It is designed to defeat unsheltered and covered manpower, weapons and materiel to division level.
Few of these were bought by China.
Chinese expert started reverse engineering the system.
They faced lots of difficulty especially in replicating the engine and transmission.
But finally a decently working copy was created; it was named as PLZ-05 Self-Propelled Howitzer.
Weighting 35 tones, it can fire its munitions at a maximum range of 100 km.
As seen, the remarkable similarities leave little doubt about its origin.
The BM-30 Smerch is a Soviet heavy multiple rocket launcher.
The system is designed to defeat personnel, armored, and soft-skinned targets in concentration
areas like artillery batteries, command posts and ammunition depots.
It was created in the early 1980s and entered service in the Soviet Army in 1989.
A Smerch unit is typically composed of six launchers and six trans loaders.
China bought few of these systems and was impressed by its effectiveness.
Dedicated team of engineers and technical experts was set up to dissect the system and
eventually it was reversed engineered.
Chinese copy of Russian BM-30 “Smerch” known as PHL03, has been spotted, in recently
held Azm e Nau-3 exercise.
As can be very well understood , PHL03 is a direct copy of BM-30 “Smerch”
The Antonov An-12 is a four-engine turboprop transport aircraft designed in the Soviet Union.
It is the military version of the Antonov An-10 and has many variants.
In the 1960s, China purchased several An-12 aircraft from the Soviet Union, along with
a license to assemble the aircraft locally.
Due to the Sino-Soviet split, the Soviet Union withdrew its technical assistance and the
first flight of a Chinese-assembled An-12 was delayed until 1974.
The Xi'an Aircraft Company and Xi'an Aircraft Design Institute worked to reverse-engineer
the An-12 for local production.
In 1981, the Chinese version of the An-12, designated Y-8, entered production.
Since then, the Y-8 has become one of China's most popular military and civilian transport/cargo
aircraft, with many variants produced and exported.
The People's Republic of China bought a single BMP-1 from Egypt in 1975.
Soviet-Chinese diplomatic relations were at the time, confrontational, and the Chinese
could not ask for a Soviet BMP-1.By reverse-engineering, the Chinese developed an almost full copy
of a Soviet BMP-1 in 1986.
The Chinese model WZ 501 was 200 kg lighter and with a copied 320 HP NORINCO 6V150 diesel
engine, it had the same maximum road speed as the BMP-1.
The WZ 501 was originally intended for the export market, but the People's Liberation
Army (PLA), which only used APCs, was desperate for a dedicated IFV.
The PLA adopted a number of WZ 501s in 1992, giving the WZ 501 the designation 'Type 86',
even though the vehicle, like the original BMP-1, was already obsolete.
In spite of its characteristic drawbacks, (weak armor, low efficiency of the 73 mm gun),
the Chinese upgraded the Type 86 in the mid-1990s.
A modernized variant, designated the Type 86A (WZ 501B), was fitted with a 400 hp engine,
a modern radio and 2nd generation infrared vision devices.
Type 86A IFVs will remain in service with the PLA for the foreseeable future.
The PLA maintains around 1,000 of those IFVs, which are mostly used by armored units stationed
in northern Mainland China.
The 1990s saw several huge arms deals between Moscow and Beijing.
One of the most important involved the sale, licensing, and technology transfer of the
Su-27 “Flanker” multirole fighter.
The deal gave the Chinese one of the world’s most dangerous air superiority fighters, and
gave the Russian aviation industry a lifeline.
But the era of good feelings didnot hold.
Details remain murky and disputed, but the Russians claim that the Chinese began violating
licensing terms almost immediately, by installing their own avionics on Flankers, under Chinese
designation J 11.
The deal fell apart after about half of the Su-27s were sent to China and Moscow accused
Chinese manufacturers of replicating the jet under the names J-11 and J11-B.
The Chinese also began developing a carrier variant, in direct violation of agreed-to terms named
J-15 Flying Shark
J-15 Flying Shark is a derivative/illegal copy of the Russian SU-33 which was originally
based on Sukhoi-27 airframe.
Beijing-based Sina Military Network (SMN) criticized the Flying Shark calling it a “flopping fish”.
It has limited attack range up to a distance of 120 kilometers from the carrier: when it
is carrying 12 tons of weapons.
When the aircraft is fully loaded with fuel it can’t carry more than 2 tons of missiles
and munitions, meaning that only two YJ-83K anti-ship missiles and two PL-8 air-to-air
missiles could be carried in an anti-ship configuration.
Many other Chinese Defense Analysts have blamed limitation of aircraft carrier Liaoning on
the under-performance of J-15.
They believe it will be rectified in bigger aircraft carriers China is building which
also boost of electromagnetic catapults allowing heavier J-15 take off with better weapons load.
The appropriation of Russian technology undercut the relationship between Russia and China,
making the Russians far more wary of transferring their crown jewels to the Chinese military.