HONG KONG: With modern seems to be mirroring the US UH-60 Black Hawk, the Chinese language army’s superior Z-20 helicopter packs a punch however could make its greatest impression at sea, analysts mentioned because it was displayed at China’s greatest air present in Zhuhai on Tuesday.
The Z-20’s potential at sea to plug gaps within the Chinese language navy’s skill to guard itself from submarines is attracting scrutiny from regional defence attaches and safety students charting its evolution after a decade of growth.
State media just lately highlighted the primary armed assault model of the helicopter, and on Tuesday the army showcased the Z-20J armed naval variant – a key step in the direction of a full-blown anti-submarine platform, the Z-20F.
Though China is fielding ever-more superior warships as a part of its long-term army modernisation, it struggles to protect them, together with its rising plane provider fleet, from undersea assaults – a functionality already finely honed by a lot of its rivals.
Pentagon experiences and Western analysts have lengthy famous that weaknesses within the Folks’s Liberation Military Navy‘s (PLAN) anti-submarine capabilities may damage longer-range naval deployments in a battle.
The Pentagon’s newest public report on China’s army modernisation, launched in October 20U,23, famous a naval model of the Z-20 was beneath growth.
“The Z-20F is much like the US Navy’s SH-60 and can present vital enhancements in ASW (anti-submarine warfare) capabilities over the smaller, helicopters the PLAN at the moment operates,” the Pentagon report mentioned.
Singapore-based safety scholar Collin Koh mentioned the navy’s Z-8 and Z-9 helicopters had been too heavy and too mild, respectively, limiting the type of ships they’ll function from, their vary and payloads of sensors and weapons.
They’re additionally primarily based on Eighties European designs obtained earlier than defence expertise sanctions took impact in opposition to Beijing after the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown.
“The Z-20 is subsequently the reply,” mentioned Koh, of the S Rajaratnam College of Worldwide Research.
He mentioned he anticipated the Z-20 to quickly turn into the usual naval and anti-submarine helicopter, given its skill to land on ships starting from corvettes and destroyers to plane carriers.
The Taiwan navy’s tutorial publication, Navy Skilled Journal, in December 2022 revealed a prolonged piece on the event of China’s anti-submarine helicopters, noting a number of the Z-20F’s capabilities exceeded that of the US MH-60R, made by Sikorsky Plane, a unit of Lockheed Martin.
“The entry into service of the Z-20F will successfully lengthen the operational distance for antisubmarine fight for destroyers and corvettes,” it mentioned, including it could be double the vary of the prevailing fleet.
Trendy anti-submarine techniques concerned helicopters working removed from their host ships, searching and monitoring enemy vessels with numerous sensors, coordinating with ships and different plane. Most additionally carry light-weight weapons, comparable to depth fees and torpedoes, however typically different platforms are used to assault submarines.
Tuesday’s show adopted state media experiences in Might that Z-20 now had an assault functionality and mentioned anti-submarine variations had been being developed. No date was given.
In its newest annual evaluation of worldwide army deployments, the London-based Worldwide Institute for Strategic Research notes that China has up to now fielded 15 Z-20 helicopters for search and rescue work.
