J-10 crash: China blames Russia

According to the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the mid-air collision between two Chinese J-10 aircraft on November 12 was due to a faulty Russian-supplied engine.

Blame Russia

SCMP quoted a statement by military expert Ni Lexiong, in Shanghai, saying that there have been many accidents involving J-10 aircraft but the causes have not been made public. This expert believes that the accidents are the price to pay for the modernization of the Chinese Air Force.

According to this expert, the J-10 is a single-engine light fighter developed by Chengdu Aircraft Corporation in the 1990s and officially served in the Chinese Air Force since 2005.

The aircraft was designed with the powerful Russian AL-31 engine - an engine originally intended for the twin-engine Su-27. However, during operation, the J-10 encountered some incompatibility problems in using the AL-31.

However, at that time, the WS-10 engine developed by China was not even as reliable as the Russian engine. That is why China continues to use the Russian engine until now, Ni Lexiong stated.

Pilot Yu Xu before the crash.

It is known that the plane crash on November 12 occurred when two J-10 fighter jets of the Chinese Air Force collided in the air, causing one to fall into a field in Yutian County, Hebei Province, creating a large hole about 2 meters deep.

At the time of the collision, there were two pilots on the plane, including Yu Xu (female), 30 years old, who died and her male co-pilot who managed to escape from the plane and was only injured.

Continue to buy Russian engines

While claiming that Russian engines are unreliable and that they may have been the cause of the accident on November 12, strangely enough, China continues to buy these engines from Russia and equips them for its 5th generation fighter, the J-20.

According to internal sources in the Russian engine manufacturing industry, Russia will supply the latest improved version of the AL-31 engine generation, the AL-31M, to China and it will most likely be installed on China's 5th generation stealth fighter, the J-20.

Canadian defense magazine Kanwa Defense Review quoted information from Russia's Saturn Engine Plant saying that Russia will sell China the AL-31M engine, a highly upgraded version of the AL-31F engine. At the same time, Moscow will also sell and maintain 100 relatively advanced AL-31FN engines to Beijing.

China's J-10 aerobatic team.

China's continued import of AL-31F engines points to two problems. One is that the country has yet to make any progress in producing the WS-10 domestic aircraft engine. Engine manufacturing is a very difficult industry, requiring a high-tech foundation and a long process of experience accumulation. To get to where it is today, the Russian engine manufacturer has gone through a process of experience accumulation of nearly a century.

The second problem is that China is still producing J-10 generation fighters but mainly focusing on J-10B. The number of China's 3rd generation fighters is still not enough (it is expected to produce at least 1000 J-10s), so they are focusing all their efforts on manufacturing J-10 aircraft, leading to massive import of Russian aircraft engines, and at the same time, the domestic composite materials manufacturing industry is not keeping up with the speed of aircraft production.

Kanwa said that China had previously imported a large number of AL-31F engine overhaul equipment from Ukraine, but because the AL-31F and AL-31FN were very different in technology, most Chinese aircraft engines still had to be sent to Russia for repair and overhaul. Meanwhile, a large number of J-11B fighters used domestic WS-10A Taihang engines from Le Minh Engine Manufacturing Company.

Saturn Engines specifically noted that it will supply China with a new engine, the AL-31F-S42, also known as the AL-31M. This engine has a thrust of 13,500 kg, 1,000 kg more than the AL-31FN engine currently widely used in Chinese aircraft. Its thrust without afterburner is also many times higher than the previous generation (8,250 kg/7,770 kg).

Due to the increased propeller size from 905 to 924mm, the weight of the AL-31M engine is also larger than the AL-31F (1,520/1,490kg), the engine's lifespan is also equivalent to the AL-31F with 4,000 flight hours, but the fuel consumption is less than the old engine type.

Currently, AL-31M is mainly assembled on the latest version of the Su-27 series, the Su-27SM multi-role fighter and the Su-34 bomber of the Russian Air Force.

According to Baodatviet