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View Full Version : New Chinese Chopper Really Rooivalk!


The Guvnor
30th Dec 2001, 22:44
From today's Sunday Times:

[quote]Chinese website rips off Rooivalk

Roger Makings

A Chinese website has published an image of what it says is China's new attack helicopter but is, in fact, a doctored picture of South Africa's Rooivalk attack helicopter.

The picture of the Chinese "Z-10 attack helicopter" was published in the authoritative AirForces Monthly magazine but shot down by international experts last month as nothing but a bad fake of the Denel Aviation-built Rooivalk.

The picture shows a reversed version of the original Rooivalk photograph with the tail section of a French-built helicopter grafted on with a suitable "Chinese" background.

In the letters section of the November issue of the UK-published AirForces Monthly, readers took the magazine to task for what one US Air Force intelligence officer called "a second-rate photographic hack job", adding that the original picture of the Rooivalk could be found on several military websites.

He writes: "Note the exact match of the weapons fitted, the pattern of the camouflage . . . and the suitably Chinese background substituted."

In another letter from a Denel employee, headed "Much amusement at Denel", writer Howard Thacker calls "China's secret attack helicopter" a "blatantly doctored" version of the "Advanced Development model of Rooivalk, retired from service and which differs considerably from those in service with the South African Air Force".

The assistant editor of the magazine, David Willis, said this week staff had had their suspicions about the picture, which was sourced from an unofficial Chinese website.

"Which is why we used the word 'alleged' in the caption.

"We don't know the exact source of the photograph but an important factor is the timing of the pictures."

He was referring to pictures which appeared in the May edition of AirForces Monthly headlined "New Chinese attack helicopter" and depicting a variation of the French-built Dauphin, which was about the time China impounded a US Navy spy plane following a midair collision between one of its fighters and the four-engined EP-3 aircraft.

The picture of the "Chinese Z-10" appeared just months before a high-profile South African delegation, headed by President Thabo Mbeki, made an official visit to China.

Denel's deputy chief executive officer, Max Sisulu, who visited China in July, said the sale of the Rooivalk to China had been discussed but that this was unlikely to happen. "This does not surprise me. China wants the Rooivalk, but for as little as possible. We want to sell a package, but they are only interested in the transfer of technology, to reverse engineer it and possibly sell it cheaper than we could elsewhere in the world."

He said Denel was flattered but unconcerned by use of the Rooivalk picture. "Certainly they have an intention to build an attack helicopter and would like to model it on Rooivalk. China obviously thinks Rooivalk is an excellent product. There is no sense in copying pictures of a bad product."

A military attache at the Chinese Embassy in Pretoria said he had no knowledge of the article and could therefore not comment.
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