Kommersant, Novye Izvestia
Russia has already supplied 57 such engines, said Konstantin Makiyenko, an analyst with the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies.The engines are to be mounted on the FC-1 fighter planes, which China makes for export. It signed the first contract for 150 such aircraft with Pakistan, where the fighter plane is assembled.
A more complicated and expensive fighter designed for the Chinese Air Force in the past two decades, J-10, also has a Russian engine, AL-31FN, Makiyenko said. The latest contract for the delivery of 122 such engines, worth approximately $500 million, was signed in January 2009.
The FC-1 is the biggest rival of Russia"s MiG-29 Fulcrum in developing countries, the analyst said. However, the Russian plane won the first direct competition in Myanmar, which decided to buy 20 MiG-29s for 400 million euros in December 2009 even though China offered better terms for a mixed delivery of the FC-1 and J-10 planes.