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During this year’s IDEX (International Defense Exhibition and Conference), the Chinese aerospace industry achieved great success in obtaining an export customer for the L-15 Falcon advanced trainer. The point is not in the huge number of machines required, but in the fact that Chinese aircraft will be used to train pilots of Western combat aircraft.
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The deal was announced on February 21 this year. It includes 15 L-15 aircraft, which will be delivered by the Chinese company CATIC (China National Aviation Technology Import and Export Corporation), which represents the Chinese aerospace company Hongdu. Information about the UAE’s interest in the L-15 appeared a year ago, and in this context there was earlier talk of a contract for 12 machines plus another 36 as an option. Therefore, it is not excluded that other orders for the Chinese Falcons will appear in the coming years.
Work on the L-15 has been carried out practically since the beginning of the 21st century and was carried out in cooperation with the Russian Yakovlev company, which created an aircraft of the same class – the Yak-130. Contrary to some opinions, it is not a “clone” of the Russian design, because the Chinese machine clearly differs from the Russian one in terms of design, including the shape of the nose and the engine ports located behind the vertical tail. .
The aircraft can be used as a trainer and combat aircraft and has nine sling points for armament.
The L-15, like the JL-10, competed in China with the JL-9 derived from the MiG-21 and was a much more ambitious design than it. In this competition, it won as the solution most likely to enable pilots of fourth and fifth generation aircraft. Currently, it is estimated that more than 50 of them are in use in the Armed Forces of the People’s Republic of China, both in the Air Force and in the Navy. In addition, the Chinese managed to sell 6 pieces to Zambia. Of course, the contract with the United Arab Emirates is more valuable and prestigious. Especially since the UAE possesses advanced versions of the Mirage 2000 and F-16E fighters, and will begin in the near future to receive the required multi-mission Rafale aircraft at the end of 2021.
This means that advanced Chinese training aircraft will be used to train pilots of advanced Western aircraft, which is a great precedent these days. Time will tell if other countries will follow this first order, and it will not turn out that other countries that build their air forces on Western machines will also start choosing the L-15. If so, it means that the L-15 will become a competitor not only to the Yak-130, but also to machines such as the M-346 Master, T-50 Golden Eagle or T-7 Red Hawk that are being offered in the USA. In the long term, this may be the way to introduce Chinese fighter jets to global markets
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