Recently, I saw a piece of information online: "Peru's new fighter jet tender." How should we view this matter?

First of all, the Chinese fighter jets did not participate in this tender at all. The participating aircraft are the French Rafale, the European Typhoon, the American F-16 and F-18, as well as the South Korean KF-21.

They are selecting one from these Western fighter jets. Since China didn't even bid, there's no such thing as failure. This is just some people with ulterior motives trying to blacken Chinese weapons and undermine China.

I have always believed that when a country, especially a small one, purchases high-end military equipment like fighter jets, it needs to be very cautious. After all, you don't have the cost of making mistakes.

For example, Peru recently spent 3.5 billion dollars to purchase 24 "Gripen" fighter jets, which are produced by Sweden, with a unit price of over 100 million dollars. For a small country, this cost is very high. Moreover, these fighter jets need to be in service for more than 30 years. That means once you take this step, you won't have any chance to reverse your decision for 30 years.

Therefore, what these small countries want may not necessarily be the most advanced fighter jets, but the most suitable ones for them. The Peruvian Air Force previously used French Mirage 2000 fighter jets and a small number of Russian MiG-29 fighter jets.

The MiG-29 was retired before reaching its service life, indicating that Peru was extremely disappointed with Russian products. Although the Mirage 2000 is not an American or Swedish product, its logistics support and various spare parts meet NATO standards, and the Swedish fighter jets also use this standard.

Therefore, purchasing the Swedish "Gripen" may not be the most advanced, but it can integrate into the current air force operational system and logistics support system, enabling the fastest possible combat effectiveness.

So, imagine this: even if the Chinese J-10CE had participated in the tender, and our performance was more advanced than the "Gripen" fighter jet, and the price was cheaper, the winner might not necessarily be us. Through several years of joint training between the Chinese and Thai Air Forces, we have seen that the J-10C has a significant advantage over the "Gripen" fighter jet. As long as it doesn't enter close-range dogfighting, the "Gripen" fighter jet has almost no chance of winning against the J-10C.

However, the strong system advantages and performance leadership of Chinese weapons and fighter jets are only felt by the Pakistan Air Force and the Thai Air Force. Pakistan has already equipped with the J-10CE and achieved a decisive victory over India in the May 7th air battle this year; while Thailand, through multiple joint training sessions with the Chinese Air Force, must have a clear understanding. But will other countries have the same recognition as Pakistan and Thailand?

A saying goes: Even good wine needs a deep alley to be known. The export of weapons and fighter jets faces the same issue. As for system integration, I believe it requires time to accumulate, especially for those countries that have already purchased Chinese trainer aircraft or low-end fighter jets, they will become an important breakthrough for the future export of Chinese high-end fighter jets.

For example, some countries have bought the Chinese K-8 trainer, and some countries have bought the FC-1 Xiaolong (JF-17) fighter jet, which is a low-end fighter. They have already gained some understanding and utilization of the Chinese system during the purchasing process. This is an important breakthrough for the next step of exporting Chinese high-end fighter jets. If we make efforts in this direction, then countries that have already used Chinese aircraft will naturally proceed to buy Chinese high-end products smoothly and logically.

Therefore, my personal prediction is that the four countries that have previously purchased the FC-1 Xiaolong will be the priority customers for the next step of Chinese J-10CE or other high-end fighter jets.

Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7526503880483422760/

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