Russia has refused to sell to China deck-based SU-33 fighters over fears of losing military secrets if China copies the fighter, according to Kanwa Defense Review.

China has been negotiating the purchase of SU-33s for quite a time. At first it was said that China needs 50 carrier-based fighters for future aircraft carriers to be built for the Chinese Navy. China insisted that before buying all 50 fighters it needed only two to give it a “try”.

J-11, a China's modified format of the Russian Su-27 two-seater combat fighter

Naturally, Russia refused to do so. Then Beijing raised the quantity of fighters to be bought to 14. Still, besides the data leakage, it was not acceptable because, as Russian experts put it, no less than 24 planes must be built to recoup the production.

Now it looks like the dead-locked negotiations will be dropped altogether.

Meanwhile, China plans to float out a 48,000-tonne aircraft carrier with a traditional propulsion system next year. By 2020 Beijing plans to put into service a 93,000-tonne nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.

In addition to these two ships China has already purchased out-of-date ex-Soviet cruisers around the world to copy the technology or even make some of them operational.

These moves will come at a serious price, as Russian deck-based fighters are significantly cheaper then any similar models, such as the French Rafale M or American F-35C or the F/A-22N Sea Raptor.

China is notorious for making illegal copies of almost anything from prêt-a-porter of famous brands to Russian fighter jets.

SU-27SK fighter

When back in 1995 Russia sold China a licence to produce 200 SU-27SK fighters (under the J-11 name) Russian experts were sure that the Chinese military industrial complex would be unable to copy the jet due to a huge technological gap. Experts were sure that the Chinese would not be able to copy the jet’s engines until 2013.

But Chinese engineers did their best. The quantity of Chinese components of J-11 had been rising slowly, but after a breakthrough in jet-engine construction, it rose to over 90%.
China bought equipment packages for 95 J-11s, but in 2003 refused to buy the remaining 105.

Dealing with the licence to produce deck-based SU-33 fighters China has not even bothered to hide its copying intentions behind big contracts.

If China manages to organise mass production of J-11s with all Chinese-produced components, Russia will face serious troubles and a fierce struggle with the Chinese for traditionally Russian military markets around the world.