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| Wendell Minnick |
Wendell Minnick:
At February’s Singapore Airshow, the WMD-7 Targeting Pod was once again presented as an export product at China’s pavilion for its national aviation export agency, the China National Aero-Technology Import and Export Corp. (CATIC).
CATIC displayed the WMD-7 at the 2012 Zhuhai Airshow, and mock-ups have appeared at the 2013 Dubai Airshow and the 2010 and 2012 Farnborough shows.
Another Chinese product beginning to make an appearance on the export market is the Type OC2 laser/infrared-targeting pod produced by the Norinco Group/Harbin Jiancheng Group. The OC2 made its first appearance at the 2012 Zhuhai Airshow.
“That China can market two basically similar optical/infrared targeting pods is a result of their 1998 defense logistics reform decision to invest in a broadly redundant but competitive military production sector,” said Richard Fisher, a senior fellow of Asian military affairs at the International Assessment and Strategy Center.
This means that China will have a “better chance of offering the lowest price when it competes with Russian and Western systems,” he said. “We have seen this work for the Chinese in Turkey’s recent surface-to-air missile competition.”More in Defense News.
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