China and Russia signed a huge arms deal
China has signed two military sales framework contracts with Moscow, including four giant submarines, which is said to be the largest military procurement contract between the two sides in the past 10 years.
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China has signed two military sales framework contracts with Moscow, according to the wantchinatimes online newspaper, citing the Sina military news portal. Accordingly, Russia will build four Amur-class AIP submarines with China to sell to China. Beijing will also buy 24 Su-35 fighter jets from Russia.
This is China's largest military procurement contract with Russia in the past 10 years. According to Voice of Russia, China needs submarines to deal with threats from the Indian fleet as well as a fleet to counter US influence.
Moscow and Beijing are still negotiating submarine technology, a Russian defense export company manager said.
Sivkov, a retired Russian Navy general, said that Russia's Amur-class submarines are technologically superior to China's Type 877 submarines and Beijing wants them because India already has them. Russian submarines can also effectively fight US submarines and destroy Los Angeles-class and Virginia-class nuclear submarines from a long distance.
Due to their low noise underwater characteristics, American submarines find it difficult to detect this type of submarine. These characteristics also allow Amur-class submarines to effectively fire warning shots or destroy enemy ships in actual combat.
Although the Amur-class submarines can attack a variety of land targets, they cannot carry a guided missile interceptor. To date, China has no submarines equipped with such a missile interceptor.
China currently has more than 60 submarines, while India has a total of 14 submarines and has leased the Russian nuclear submarine Nerpa since 2012. According to Russian experts, this ship is superior to Chinese submarines.
Mr. Sivkov said that although India's ships are few, they are considered to be more effective than China's submarines, which make less noise, and China will not go to war with India despite having a larger fleet. Beijing sees its fleet as a counterweight to the US and does not feel threatened by India.
According to Vietnam.net