In recent years, as the United States has proposed and implemented the so-called "US priority" strategy, sales of US-made weapons and equipment have increased in the world's arms market. For various reasons, some countries, including some U.S. allies, have purchased US-made weapons and equipment at a high cost, and on the other hand, they are increasingly worried, so that they may have an impact on the independent research and development capabilities of their own weapons and lay a hidden danger to future defense security.

Prior to this, some countries had already had concerns and began to "separate new portals" in the development of advanced weapons and equipment. Some countries insisted that "my weapon is my master" when choosing main battle weapons and equipment. The implementation of the "U.S. Priority" strategy is likely to cause greater concerns among these countries, making their R & D and selection of advanced weapons and equipment more "autonomous."

At the end of December last year, the Spanish defense news website published a report entitled "Top Ten International News in the Year of the 70th Anniversary of NATO", saying that at the time of the 70th anniversary of NATO, the EU and the US had unprecedented differences on military issues. And Europe is seeking a "new stove" in defense.

Many allies insist on "my weapon is my master"

In the world today, there are many countries that purchase US-made weapons and equipment. But it is undeniable that in the field of advanced weapons and equipment, especially cutting-edge weapons research and development, some countries are choosing to bypass US-made weapons and equipment, and develop or "independently purchase" related weapons and equipment.

Currently, some European countries are developing next-generation air combat systems. The "future air combat system" jointly developed by France and Germany is one of them. The system is said to include not only fighter jets, but also future cruise missiles and drones.

In March last year, the European Commission passed a work plan and decided to inject 500 million euros into the joint defense industry projects in 2019 and 2020, and proposed to use one fifth of them to support the "European Airborne Long Hour UAV" system. R & D work.

In November of the same year, the new CEO of French Airbus Guillaume Forry advocated the integration of the "Future Eurofighter" project into one. Currently, there are two major fighter R & D projects in Europe: one is the "Future Air Combat System" promoted by France, Germany and Spain; the other is the "Storm" plan implemented by the United Kingdom, Italy and Sweden. Forry believes that it is imperative to strengthen the European defense industry through independent development of future aviation systems.

In Asia, although Japan participated in the investment and development of the F-35 stealth fighter, Japan is still working hard to develop a domestic fifth-generation stealth fighter, the F-3 fighter, and plans to replace it with the F-2 fighter in 2030. The twin-engine heavy air combat fighter is said to be dominated by Japanese technology.

After a preliminary trial of the "Mind" fighter, Japan has accumulated a certain amount of experience. Therefore, F-3 fighters are likely to be better than active American stealth fighters in stealth, empty weight, combat radius, and load capacity. Among the various alternatives, the "features" independently developed by Japan are more obvious.

With regard to the selection of advanced weapons and equipment, Turkey also insists that "my weapon is my master." Last July, the U.S. Department of Defense announced plans to kick Turkey out of the F-35 stealth fighter sales program. The communique explained that this approach is a response to Turkey's purchase of the Russian S-400 air defense missile system. In this case, although the United States obstructed and pointed out the possible risks, Turkey eventually decided to purchase the S-400 air defense missile system.

At present, the main force of the Turkish Air Force is F-16 fighters, which use US-made airborne missiles. However, Turkey has begun to develop its own domestic missiles that can replace US-made airborne missiles, and is preparing to develop the fifth-generation fighter TF-X with Malaysia.

The "high price" and "hidden dangers" of US advanced weapons and equipment are the direct reasons

The reason why these countries make this choice is that some experts believe that it has nothing to do with the price and performance of US-made weapons and equipment.

On the one hand, although US-made weapons and equipment are advanced, they are expensive. According to a report released by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute in December last year, U.S. manufacturers accounted for $ 246 billion in global arms sales in 2019. Among them, the high price is one of the reasons for its top sales.

Of these US-made exports of US-made weapons and equipment, the prices sold to Middle Eastern countries are particularly noticeable. For example, the unit price of the M1 main battle tank exported to Saudi Arabia by the United States is as high as more than 8 million U.S. dollars, and the price of the F-15SA fighter jet is even higher.

In the arms sales market, the F-35 stealth fighter is recognized as a major "burner". At present, the purchase of this fighter has become a major item of expenditures on weapons and equipment of relevant US allies in recent years. In October last year, South Korean media reported that in the 13 years from 2006 to 2018, South Korea purchased more than 30 trillion won in weapons and equipment from the United States. Among them, more than one-fifth of the expenditure was for the introduction of the F-35 stealth fighter. The F-35A fighter jet ordered by Australia put a lot of pressure on the Australian defense budget and had to gradually retire the old F / A-18A / B fighter jets and sell 25 of them to Canada in exchange for some funds.

Not only that, the F-35 stealth fighter's flight cost of more than 30,000 US dollars per hour also makes it affordable and not necessarily affordable for some countries.

On the other hand, in order to maintain performance leadership, US-made weapons and equipment use a lot of immature technology, which makes some of these equipment have many hidden dangers.

Take the F-35 stealth fighter as an example. In June 2018, the U.S. Government Accountability Office issued a report entitled "Project Research and Development Enters the End Stage, and Defects in Testing Need to Be Solved". The report stated that as of January of that year, there were 966 defects in the F-35 stealth fighter. Among them, there are 111 defects that belong to the category of "may cause damage to safety or other important requirements" during the flight. Although the U.S. inspection department recommended that the military eliminate key defects before the model is put into mass production, the US Department of Defense still plans to postpone the resolution of some key issues to the mass production stage, that is, production while solving, due to the problem of capital investment. This means that the F-35 stealth fighter is in a "sick" production to some extent. The F-35 stealth fighter that has been in service has exposed many problems such as blistering of stealth coating and cabin discomfort caused by high pressure in the cabin.

In addition to the hidden dangers of cutting-edge weapons and equipment, many other weapons and equipment have also revealed many problems. The South Korean military purchased six millimeter-wave radars when it installed Apache AH-64E helicopters. I wanted to use this to better cope with the penetration of maritime speedboats. I found that the error rate of this millimeter-wave radar was high. In 2018, an EA-18G electronic warfare aircraft from Australia participated in the annual military exercise in Nevada, USA. When taking off, the fighter plane suddenly failed and the engine exploded. The reason is said to be that the quality of the fan wheel forging is not good, and the fan-contained casing designed by the manufacturer does not cover the high-speed ejected parts.

These factors will obviously make some countries question the US-made advanced weapons and equipment at the time of arms purchase, and will also allow some countries to finally make "independent research and development" and "independent selection" decisions.

Long-term considerations in defense and security are the deep impetus for a "new stove"

On the surface, some countries are "starting another stove" in the development of advanced weapons and equipment, because American manufacturing has failed to achieve "cheap prices" and "good quality." From a deeper level, the long-term consideration of national defense security is the underlying reason.

As the third-type partner of the F-35 stealth fighter project, Turkey has shared hundreds of millions of dollars in development costs for this fighter, invested 1 billion dollars to build supporting production facilities, and is also preparing to undertake more than 900 parts production tasks. Even so, when Turkey was determined to purchase the S-400 air defense missile system, the United States seized fighter jets that were about to be delivered to Turkey and made a decision to kick Turkey out of the project. According to the plan, Lockheed Martin will withdraw most of the supply chain of F-35 stealth fighters from Turkey by March this year. This obviously has a significant impact on Turkey's defense security.

Not only that, Turkey has installed a lot of US-made weapons and equipment. The supply of ammunition, accessories and subsequent upgrades of these weapons and equipment depends on the producing country, which also makes the United States have more chips in the struggle between the two sides. In addition, some domestically produced weapons and equipment in Turkey also use US-made core components such as engines, which makes their arms manufacturing and exports bound to be strongly restrained by the United States.

The reason why France and Germany chose to say "no" to the F-35 stealth fighter is probably from this aspect.

There is money to buy weapons but not technology, especially the core technology of cutting-edge weapons, because it concerns national security. The main reason for the conflict between the United States and Turkey's two NATO allies may be precisely this. To purchase the US "Sad" anti-missile system, Turkey has to face many additional conditions. After weighing, Turkey purchased the Russian S-400 air defense missile system, but was kicked out of the F-35 stealth fighter program. Among the reasons, in addition to the major countries' competition for market share in the military trade, one of the major factors is the fear of leakage of core technologies.

One of the great benefits of developing weapons independently and mastering core technologies is that they are “available at any time” and are not constrained. In addition, independent research and development and the improvement of defense can complement each other and form a virtuous circle. This is precisely why some countries have insisted on moving towards "autonomy" in the development of advanced weapons and equipment.

France is currently one of the European traditional military powers with a well-developed defense industry system. It has a good foundation for the development of the Mirage 2000 and Rafale fighters. Germany is the lead R & D country for Europe's Tornado and Typhoon fighters. These have undoubtedly given them the confidence to seek independent research and development of advanced weapons and equipment and defense independence.

(Author: Air Force Engineering University)

Wang Peng