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| Pakistan Air Force Chengdu JF-17 |
By Robert Farley
A recent article in the New York Timeshighlighted China’s rise as a major arms exporter. The mainstream discovery of China’s growing weight in the international arms trade won’t surprise many close observers (or many Diplomat readers), but it’s nevertheless worthwhile to study the trends in some detail.
According to SIPRI, China is the fastest growing arms major arms exporter in the past decade. Also, Chinese arms exports have moved beyond small arms and into heavier equipment, such as aircraft and warships.
For countries seeking medium-range arms with no-strings-attached, Chinese equipment is a good option. But cornering the market on low-end, inexpensive options is difficult. Numerous firms have begun to chase the “practical-minded” defense dollar; countries which have clear defense needs and are less interested in high-profile, high-prestige defense acquisition. In the aviation sphere, the Textron Scorpion light attack aircraft, the Saab Gripen, the KAI FA-50, and the Embraer Super Tucano fit this bill. China’s JF-17 (built and sold in cooperation with Pakistan) represents a potential inroad into this market if reliability problems can be solved.
Read the full story at The Diplomat