Aircraft

Rosoboronexport brokers $300 million deal for Beijing's new indigenous fighter

China has signed a contract with Russia's Rosoboronexport arms agency to buy 100 modified Salyut AL-31FN engines to power its indigenously designed and produced Chengdu J-10 fighter. The deal is worth around $300 million, according to Russian news reports, which say Beijing has also contracted Salyut to service the engines in its Sukhoi Su-27SK and Su-30MK2 fighters.

The contract comes about two months after Rosoboronexport agreed to sell China 100 Klimov RD-93 engines for its JF-17/FC-1 fighter a deal worth almost $270 million. It has not been confirmed whether Pakistan, which jointly developed the JF-17 and received its first two examples early this year, will receive aircraft powered by the RD-93, as Russia has stalled on approving the transfer.

"The [RD-93] engine is a contract between the Chinese and Russian governments. We are not a party to that contract," says Pakistan's chief of the air staff Air Chief Marshal Tanveer Mahmood. "The re-exporting of these engines to Pakistan is an issue between Pakistan and Chinese industry. They have ensured us there would be no impediment in this regard. We hope this engine issue will cease to be an issue."

Beijing is, meanwhile, developing its own engine so that it can export the J-10 and JF-17 without depending on Russia. Work on the WS-10A Taihang has been under way for almost 10 years, but has reportedly faced several technical difficulties. However, the engine programme entered its final design stage early last year, and Chinese officials hope to fly a J-10 powered by the WS-10A by year-end.

• Ilyushin's $1.5 billion deal to supply China with 30 Il-76 transports and eight Il-78 tankers has been temporarily suspended while its terms are being renegotiated. The contract was signed in September 2005, but industry sources in Moscow say the rising cost of raw materials and labour and the need to shift final assembly from Tashkent, Uzbekistan to central Russia have led Moscow to request a price increase of around $100 million.