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China has what Ukraine wants: Business for its military factories. - The Washington Post
Anton Troianovski
May 20 at 5:32 PM

ZAPORIZHIA, Ukraine — The president of a top Ukrainian aerospace company says its new Chinese investors often ask the staff for “little conversations.”

They want to know about record-keeping and planning, the setup of production lines and the interplay between workshops.

“They’ll talk for three hours, and the next day, a totally different group of people will come,” said Vyacheslav Boguslayev, whose sprawling Soviet-era company, Motor Sich, is one of the most advanced military aircraft engine manufacturers in the world.

“They’ll ask all the same questions as yesterday, and this continues for a week,” he said.

Racing to upgrade its military, China has been turning to Ukraine. And Ukraine — with its economy scrambled by hostilities with Russia — has been willing to accept China’s embrace.

“If they ban us from working with China,” Boguslayev said, “then the first thing I’ll do is fire 10,000 people.”

Motor Sich, dubbed the “Czar of Engines” in the Chinese media, has what Beijing wants: It can supply warplane engines and the know-how to one day possibly make a Chinese-built version.

The Chinese, in turn, have what Motor Sich wants: reliable buyers.

The company lost its biggest market — supplying engines for military helicopters and other aircraft in Russia — after war broke out in eastern Ukraine in 2014. Now it sells mainly to China.



“If someone comes with money, they’ll take it,” Andreas Umland, a Kiev-based political analyst, said of Ukraine. “They don’t have the luxury to think very strategically here many years ahead.”

At the time of the 2014 revolution, China already had an economic and defense-industry relationship with Ukraine. It bought an unfinished Soviet-era aircraft carrier from Ukraine in 1998 and ordered four huge military hovercraft in 2009. Western countries, by contrast, had little use for Ukraine’s Soviet-legacy defense production.

“One way or another, Ukraine will have to choose,” said one Western diplomat in Kiev who is examining Ukraine’s links with China and who wasn’t authorized to comment publicly. “They cannot eternally integrate with China while moving toward the West.”

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry declined to comment for this article. Ukraine-China relations are a delicate issue, officials in Kiev said, given Ukraine’s desire for close ties with the United States on the one hand and China’s expanding partnership with Russia on the other. But Ukraine’s new president, Volodymyr Zelensky, who took office Monday, met with the Chinese ambassador in Kiev early this month and offered a vote of confidence.

“China’s experience and investments are important to Ukraine,” he said.

China has been aggressive in expanding its influence across the former Soviet Union. In Belarus, China is co-financing a massive new industrial park to house more than 100,000 workers. On the Black Sea, the country of Georgia is emerging as a key hub for Chinese trade with Europe.

But Ukraine offers unique resources for China in helping fill knowledge gaps as Beijing looks to build a world-class military, Western diplomats and analysts say.

Motor Sich’s Boguslayev said the only engines his company is building for China are for aircraft that don’t carry weapons, such as the L-15 training jet. But Reuben Johnson, an American defense industry analyst based in Kiev, said a tighter relationship with Motor Sich could allow China to mass-produce its own fighter jets.

“The Chinese — for all of the resources they have poured into the endeavor — have not been able to develop reliable fighter-jet engines that are producible in large numbers and run for enough hours between overhauls to be practical,” Johnson said. “Acquiring the brainpower and the expertise of Motor Sich could allow them to jump over that very big hurdle.”

A Chinese firm, Beijing Skyrizon Aviation Industry Investment Co., tried to buy a controlling stake in Motor Sich in 2017. Ukrainian authorities froze the deal on national security grounds. But Boguslayev said that $100 million of Beijing Skyrizon’s promised $250 million did come through and that the Chinese company now owns a stake of at least 25 percent in Motor Sich.

A spokesman for Motor Sich said 35 percent of the company’s $450 million in sales last year went to China, making the country the company’s biggest destination for its aircraft engines. No sales went to Russia, the spokesman said. Six years ago, by contrast, one-third of the company’s $1.1 billion in total sales went to Russia.

“Russia is gone. So I have to be in China now,” Boguslayev said.

He said he hears frequently from Ukrainian government officials that the United States is unhappy with his dealings with China. His response: “Then how about the State Department gives us work?”

Asked for comment about Motor Sich, a State Department spokeswoman said the United States doesn’t “oppose China’s economic and technological development through legitimate means. However, we are concerned by actions China’s government has taken that are out of step with international norms.

“The United States encourages our partners to consider national security risks that may arise from foreign investment transactions,” the spokeswoman said.

In the southwestern Chinese city of Chongqing, Motor Sich and Beijing Skyrizon in 2017 agreed to jointly build a plant to service and manufacture aircraft engines. The Chinese partners offered to build a small town in which Ukrainian engineers would feel at home, Boguslayev said.

“They said, ‘Give us 1,000 people,’ ” Boguslayev recalled. “ ‘We’ll build a church for you here. We’ll build a kindergarten.’ ”

The plant has been partially built, Boguslayev said, but is not yet operational.

Beijing Skyrizon representatives continue to tour Motor Sich plants regularly, Boguslayev said, taking copious notes and interviewing workers.

China is interested in Ukrainian technology beyond Motor Sich, hiring Ukrainian engineers and bringing them to China, Western officials and Ukrainian defense industry specialists say.

“It’s not just outsourcing, but taking our specialists in both the missile sector and in aircraft-building,” said Sergii Bondarchuk, a former head of Ukrainian defense export company Ukrspecexport who now lives in London. “Ukraine is losing a generation of engineers in this way.”


Paul Sonne in Washington, Lyric Li in Beijing, Oksana Parafeniuk in Kiev and Natalia Abbakumova in Moscow contributed to this report.
 
Chinese company in bid to buy Ukrainian aeroengine giant
By Liu Xuanzun and Wang Yi Source:Global Times Published: 2019/7/14 21:38:40

697b86b4-ff4a-41f8-9f15-b00cdbcf2a27.jpeg
A Ukrainian Antonov An-225 'Mriya' (Dream) aircraft takes off from Gostomel airport near Kiev, Ukraine, on November 10, 2016. Photo: IC

A Beijing-based aviation industry investment company reportedly renewed its attempt to acquire stakes in a Ukrainian aircraft engine manufacturer and the application is being reviewed by the Ukrainian antitrust authority.

The Ukrainian company, which has built engines for the world's largest transport aircraft the An-225, could help China boost its aeroengine industry if the deal materializes, Chinese analysts said on Sunday.

Skyrizon, also known as Beijing Tianjiao Aviation Industry Investment Company, is waiting for the result of an assessment by the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine.

The result will be announced after July 22, according to a reorganization note between Skyrizon and Beijing Xinwei Technology Group Co published on the website of the Shanghai Stock Exchange by Xinwei Technology on Friday.

Skyrizon and Xinwei Technology are under the control of the same legal representative, according to tianyancha.com, a business inquiry service provider.

The new application was handed to the relevant Ukraine government authority on June 7 and accepted on June 21. Skyrizon would own more than 50 percent of Motor Sich if the acquisition works, read the note.

China has 13 types and more than 1,200 aircraft engines built by Motor Sich, the note said.

But the US is unhappy about Motor Sich's dealings with China, saying there might be national security risks from foreign investment transactions, the Washington Post reported in May.

The Ukrainian company lost its Russian clients when relations between the two countries broke down, according to the report.

Established in 1907, Motor Sich is considered one of the largest advanced aircraft engine manufacturers in the world and produces engines including turbofans, turboshafts and turboprops.

China still lags behind the world's top level in aeroengines, an anonymous military expert told the Global Times on Sunday.

China could close the gap on the foreign aeroengine industry and boost its domestic aeroengine supply if the acquisition becomes successful, the company note said.

China is also independently progressing with its own aeroengine development plan, the expert said.

A Chinese J-10B fighter jet performed with a homemade engine with thrust vector control system at Airshow China in Zhuhai, South China's Guangdong Province in November 2018.
 
Chinese company in bid to buy Ukrainian aeroengine giant
By Liu Xuanzun and Wang Yi Source:Global Times Published: 2019/7/14 21:38:40

697b86b4-ff4a-41f8-9f15-b00cdbcf2a27.jpeg
A Ukrainian Antonov An-225 'Mriya' (Dream) aircraft takes off from Gostomel airport near Kiev, Ukraine, on November 10, 2016. Photo: IC

A Beijing-based aviation industry investment company reportedly renewed its attempt to acquire stakes in a Ukrainian aircraft engine manufacturer and the application is being reviewed by the Ukrainian antitrust authority.

The Ukrainian company, which has built engines for the world's largest transport aircraft the An-225, could help China boost its aeroengine industry if the deal materializes, Chinese analysts said on Sunday.

Skyrizon, also known as Beijing Tianjiao Aviation Industry Investment Company, is waiting for the result of an assessment by the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine.

The result will be announced after July 22, according to a reorganization note between Skyrizon and Beijing Xinwei Technology Group Co published on the website of the Shanghai Stock Exchange by Xinwei Technology on Friday.

Skyrizon and Xinwei Technology are under the control of the same legal representative, according to tianyancha.com, a business inquiry service provider.

The new application was handed to the relevant Ukraine government authority on June 7 and accepted on June 21. Skyrizon would own more than 50 percent of Motor Sich if the acquisition works, read the note.

China has 13 types and more than 1,200 aircraft engines built by Motor Sich, the note said.

But the US is unhappy about Motor Sich's dealings with China, saying there might be national security risks from foreign investment transactions, the Washington Post reported in May.

The Ukrainian company lost its Russian clients when relations between the two countries broke down, according to the report.

Established in 1907, Motor Sich is considered one of the largest advanced aircraft engine manufacturers in the world and produces engines including turbofans, turboshafts and turboprops.

China still lags behind the world's top level in aeroengines, an anonymous military expert told the Global Times on Sunday.

China could close the gap on the foreign aeroengine industry and boost its domestic aeroengine supply if the acquisition becomes successful, the company note said.

China is also independently progressing with its own aeroengine development plan, the expert said.

A Chinese J-10B fighter jet performed with a homemade engine with thrust vector control system at Airshow China in Zhuhai, South China's Guangdong Province in November 2018.
Interestingly, Xinwei is involved with Space technologies too.
 
China masters fatigue-resistant tech for chopper
By Liu Xuanzun Source:Global Times Published: 2019/7/16 18:08:14
5fab16c9-afa6-498c-a23e-9b747f197ae0.jpg

A Z-10 attack helicopter attached to an army aviation brigade under the PLA 80th Group Army hovers at low altitude for last-minute checks during the flight training on November 21, 2017. Photo: eng.chinamil.com.cn



China recently mastered a new fatigue-resistant technology for helicopter rotors, which could greatly expand the helicopters' capability and service time, a development which military experts said on Tuesday could be of strategic value to China's domestic helicopter industry as the technology could be used on China's future heavy-lift transport helicopters and attack helicopters.

During the development of an unidentified helicopter, engineers at Changhe Aircraft Industry (Group) Corporation Ltd under the state-owned Aviation Industry of China (AVIC) found that the newly designed rotor using a titanium alloy failed to pass fatigue tests, China Aviation News, a newspaper affiliated with AVIC, reported on Tuesday.

The company, cooperating with scientific research teams at Xi'an-based Northwestern Polytechnical University and the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Aviation Materials, then developed a new technique that helps reduce wear and tear on components, doubling their service time, the report said.

The anti-fatigue feature is important because rotor fatigue is not always noticeable, causing unforeseen dangers, the report said.

Wei Dongxu, a Beijing-based military analyst, told the Global Times that a fatigue-resistant rotor could also allow a helicopter to work under higher stress, including maintaining high speeds for extended periods or lifting heavier cargo for longer distances.

A titanium alloy is a strong metal and, together with the new technique, could make helicopters more reliable in difficult environmental conditions, including at sea and in the desert, analysts said.

The breakthrough took three years of research and is of important strategic value to China's domestic helicopter industry, the China Aviation News report said, noting that China had grappled with the key issues to independently make fatigue-resistant rotor wing components.

The new rotor could be used on China's future heavy-lift transport helicopters and attack helicopters, which need to perform extreme maneuvers in combat, Wei said.

AVIC has developed military helicopters, including the Z-8 transport helicopter and Z-10 attack helicopter, and is currently developing a 40-ton class heavy helicopter with Russia, according to media reports.

The heavy helicopter, dubbed Advanced Heavy Lift, would have a weight-lift capability of 15 tons, a range of 630 kilometers and a top speed of 300 kilometers an hour, RT reported.
 
It is about the problems of manufacturing qualities on AL-31F engines.. It is horrible..

No translation
still they bought more than 900 engines just in 2002 they bought 300

Speaking to AIN at the Aviation Expo 2011 in Beijing, Salut general director Vladislav Masalov said that negotiations continue on a second batch of nearly 140 AL-31FNs and that a follow-on contract is expected to be signed in October.

Masalov further said that the grand total of Salut-made AL-31 series engines in China “is nearing one thousand units.” To serve them, Salut has established partnerships with Limin Corp. and Tyan Li company in Chengdu on deliveries and manufacturing of spare parts for both the AL-31F and the AL-31FN. Russia has also agreed to provide all necessary maintenance and repair documentation to the Chinese partner


https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-...big-new-chinese-order-russian-fighter-engines

so bad quality they have bought 1000
 
still they bought more than 900 engines just in 2002 they bought 300

Speaking to AIN at the Aviation Expo 2011 in Beijing, Salut general director Vladislav Masalov said that negotiations continue on a second batch of nearly 140 AL-31FNs and that a follow-on contract is expected to be signed in October.

Masalov further said that the grand total of Salut-made AL-31 series engines in China “is nearing one thousand units.” To serve them, Salut has established partnerships with Limin Corp. and Tyan Li company in Chengdu on deliveries and manufacturing of spare parts for both the AL-31F and the AL-31FN. Russia has also agreed to provide all necessary maintenance and repair documentation to the Chinese partner


https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-...big-new-chinese-order-russian-fighter-engines

so bad quality they have bought 1000
It's not like there was much of a choice back then. Now there is.
 

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