Foreign Correspondence

[Amaunet]

Not sure which weapons deal has made the U.S. furious at Israel. Might be AWACS and the PHALCON deal was not aborted in its entirety or something was leaked???

Despite US efforts to block the sale of technology from Israel and Russia, the Chinese military has managed to develop its own version of the AWACS aircraft used by the West to manage and control the airspace over a battlefield.
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Sometimes when China is blocked from obtaining military systems it desires, that denial serves as an incentive to develop the arms and technology domestically. For example, in 2000, the US pressured Israel to back out of a $1 billion agreement to sell China four of its Phalcon phased-array radar systems, which would have been used for a Chinese AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System). Last week the Washington Post reported that China has developed its own AWACS, using a domestically produced advanced radar mounted on a Russian-made Il-76 transport aircraft, and is test-flying the first models for early deployment in the Taiwan Strait. The AWACS could be operational within one or two years, assuming the tests are successful.
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