The Accountant
PDF THINK TANK: ANALYST
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Why do you think its commercial deal? the aircraft life is 30 years, in which the buyer is dependent on the seller both in terms of upgrades and spares. For example, F14 tomcat of Iran become toothless after Irani revolution.other than that i agree .Its commercial deal unless you have FMS package type which in our case is not
Another example could be Russia. As of now Russian tech is much more reliable than China as they have decades of experience but same cannot be said about China. However, in long terms Quality of Chinese weaponry and upgrades are becoming better and better, even at a pace faster than USA. So on paper Russian Su series is much better but strategically J10 can be a better platform judging from the pace of new capabilities being acquired by J10.
Another example could be Ukraine. Ukraine, tanks or strategic lift aircraft are one of the best in terms of value for money but they are having difficulties in getting orders due to question over their ability to provide spares in future.
So its a strategic decision as cost of buying aircraft is usually a very small portion of aircraft life cycle cost and therefore reliability of relationship and capacity of supplier to provide spares and upgrades is really important.