A homemade aircraft carrier, a mid-sized civilian aircraft and a fighter jet that is as good as the best in the world have been developed by China in the last one year.
And added to it is the testing of the largest seaplane in the world, the country announced through its state media. It should be noted that the country has increased the defense expenditure by over 7 per cent this year. State-run China Daily online says that the seaplane AG600 was commissioned right years ago and it took its maiden flight this Sunday. The sea plane is as large as a Boeing 737.
The report ads that peers from Japan and Russia can be out-performed by it.
The AG600 is among the Chinese aircraft “borne from the nation's ambitious effort to become a top-tier player in the global aviation sector,” China Daily says.
Transportation of people and supplies, in addition to environmental inspections and resource surveying at sea are the most likely use of the AG600, said the state media. It may also be used for military use even though its has not been said officially.
Chinese media as well as outside analysts claim that Japan’s US-2 and the Be-200 aircraft in Russia, the two major rivals of the Chinese seaplane, would be outclassed by the technical abilities of the new Chinese seaplane.
Collin Koh, a maritime security research fellow at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, says that Japan and Russia have been building amphibious planes from the time of the Cold War but China had lagged behind because of a “gap of several decades.”
Koh says that the operating range of the AG600 is more than the Russian model and same as the US-2. The maximum take-off weight is greater than both the competitors. And the costs of building the place is less than getting them done from Japan or Russia. The planes would also be optimized for export due to the lower cost.
The manufacturer ShinMaywa on its website says that search-and-rescue use was the main reason for Japan designing the seaplanes in 2007. And since 2003, transport and firefighting have been the main functions of the the Be-200 aircraft that is manufactured by Russian firm Beriev Aviation Co.
Koh says that questions about the quality of the sea planes in comparison to that of the peers is rising because of the “long follow-on” in process of development between the old and new Chinese planes. He says that the max possible fuel efficiency of sub-systems like the turboprop is not probably attained by the new place.
Andrew Yang, a former Taiwan defense minister and secretary-general of the Chinese Council of Advanced Policy Studies think tank says that for China to ensure that it can fight, more than new hardware is needed by China’s military.
(Source:www.forbes.com)
And added to it is the testing of the largest seaplane in the world, the country announced through its state media. It should be noted that the country has increased the defense expenditure by over 7 per cent this year. State-run China Daily online says that the seaplane AG600 was commissioned right years ago and it took its maiden flight this Sunday. The sea plane is as large as a Boeing 737.
The report ads that peers from Japan and Russia can be out-performed by it.
The AG600 is among the Chinese aircraft “borne from the nation's ambitious effort to become a top-tier player in the global aviation sector,” China Daily says.
Transportation of people and supplies, in addition to environmental inspections and resource surveying at sea are the most likely use of the AG600, said the state media. It may also be used for military use even though its has not been said officially.
Chinese media as well as outside analysts claim that Japan’s US-2 and the Be-200 aircraft in Russia, the two major rivals of the Chinese seaplane, would be outclassed by the technical abilities of the new Chinese seaplane.
Collin Koh, a maritime security research fellow at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, says that Japan and Russia have been building amphibious planes from the time of the Cold War but China had lagged behind because of a “gap of several decades.”
Koh says that the operating range of the AG600 is more than the Russian model and same as the US-2. The maximum take-off weight is greater than both the competitors. And the costs of building the place is less than getting them done from Japan or Russia. The planes would also be optimized for export due to the lower cost.
The manufacturer ShinMaywa on its website says that search-and-rescue use was the main reason for Japan designing the seaplanes in 2007. And since 2003, transport and firefighting have been the main functions of the the Be-200 aircraft that is manufactured by Russian firm Beriev Aviation Co.
Koh says that questions about the quality of the sea planes in comparison to that of the peers is rising because of the “long follow-on” in process of development between the old and new Chinese planes. He says that the max possible fuel efficiency of sub-systems like the turboprop is not probably attained by the new place.
Andrew Yang, a former Taiwan defense minister and secretary-general of the Chinese Council of Advanced Policy Studies think tank says that for China to ensure that it can fight, more than new hardware is needed by China’s military.
(Source:www.forbes.com)
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