China is slowly but surely becoming a master of concurrent ordering
- something they accuse India of all the time. They are heavily reliant on Russia and are basically lobbying to have the EU ban lifted. this is of course something the chicom posters here won't care to admit.
While on one side China flies examples of its 'latest products,' it orders equivalents (Mi-17 , IL-476 etc) from Russia and of course the fact is none of their indigenous stuff can operate without foreign propulsion units and that includes the J-10A.
The point is they'll show a Y-20 flying around while ordering IL-476s but pretend as if the Y-20 will become their mainstay tomorrow itself. Far from it.
there is now a big industrial lobby in china that pushes products in the name of 'sluperpower race' only to have their military order analogues from Russia. These industrial lobbies are also trying to convince the CPC that stuff like J-31 constitutes a 'disruptive development' which they can export to some semi-dictatorial regimes that would create troubles for western planners and also shore up the 'prestige' of these regimes with China making some money as also tying them in a classic arms source-client state nexus. But even these very shaky regimes don't always buy this chicom soup.
The chief reason the Pakis are courting the Russians is because they don't want to become totally reliant on chicom once the americans stop supplying platforms. they know that an all chicom supplied junk force will mean that the fizzle ya will drop out of the sky more rapidly than it already does.
China itself is negotiating the Su-35 hoping to get the IRBIS-E as part of that package.
They are also looking at new Amurs now. One would have thought everything was hunky dory with their indigenous diesel-electric SSKs like the Yuan. But it probably isn't.
Now that the Chicom military is being told to get ready for short and intense wars, it is telling the CPC that they should also be allowed to have different grades of equipment. Either way, the 'business end' for the Chinese military is turning out to be Russian stuff, which is why these orders.
BTW the T-99A3 may be 62 tons but remember the Arjun Mk II is 67. So if the chicom posters here are trying to make suggestions about the grade of armour, the Arjun Mk II is ahead.
The real focus of Chicom's power projection is their Second artillery corps. They are bringing in new short range missiles like the DF-16 and a new IRBM.
They are also investing in very long range cruise missiles that have supersonic terminal stages,.
India is countering this with a superb missile program of its own that will keep reaching new heights.
Chicom planners know this.