China’s defence exports, a troubled tale

China’s defence exports are increasingly under scrutiny as international operators report persistent reliability failures and poor after-sales support. From structural defects in fighter jets to catastrophic tank failures, quality control issues are undermining global partnerships.

By Sam Cranny-Evans, published on February 2, 2026. 

BLUF: 

• Widespread Technical Failures: Major platforms across land, sea, and air—including VT4 tanks, JF-17 fighters, and F-22P frigates—have suffered from critical defects ranging from exploding barrels to structural airframe cracks.
• Inadequate Support Infrastructure: Export customers frequently report a lack of essential spare parts and insufficient after-sales maintenance, leading to the grounding or premature retirement of expensive military hardware.
• Operational Risk: These reliability issues have manifested during active conflicts, potentially compromising the national security of purchasing states like Thailand and Myanmar

In 1988, a crowd of curious journalists and dignitaries gathered around some great steel beasts on display in Thailand. They were newly delivered Type 69-II tanks from China, a domestically developed model with some links to the very successful T-55 from the Soviet Union. Like all Soviet tanks, the T-55 was simple and reliable. The question was, would the Type 59 follow suit? The journalists soon found that they did not. The tanks had been procured along with around 400 armoured personnel carriers to equip the Royal Thai Army’s (RTA) 2nd Cavalry Division. It marked a break with the RTA’s reliance on the US for armour, and signalled the growing relationship between China and Thailand. At the time, the two states were cooperating to dampen Vietnam’s efforts at expansion into Cambodia. However, they proved unreliable and sourcing spare parts was problematic. They entered service alongside M48s from the US, a design that was already 27 years old at the time, but by 2004 the Type 69-IIs had been retired from service, and in 2010 they were dumped into the sea to form artificial reefs. The M48s…still in service. 

The RTA’s situation was understandable, however. Western tanks were known and acknowledged to be better at the time, but with that came a hefty price tag. China had offered political support for the Thai forces operating against Vietnam, and its tanks came at “friendship prices.” Better to have unreliable tanks than no tanks. The Type 69 experience didn’t dampen Thailand’s attitude to Chinese kit, and in the early 2000s a further procurement of APCs was in the works, China had graciously offered to trade them for dried fruit. This deal fell through, partly because of quality concerns, and because the main Thai official driving the relationship retired from politics, according to the Jamestown Foundation. Then, in 2016, the RTA placed a contract for the VT4, China’s newest export main battle tank at the time, reflecting some of the domestic developments powering the modernisation of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). 

• Leonardo DRS to integrate BMS for Thai Stryker fleet – Calibre Defence 
• Thailand orders Gripen E/F amidst regional tensions – Calibre Defence 
• The role of protected mobility in the age of drones – Calibre Defence 

60 VT4s had been delivered by 2023. However, in 2025 as Thai and Cambodian forces fought near their border, the 125 mm barrel of a VT4 exploded, wounding the crew of three. The RTA kept quiet at first, but some unconfirmed accounts on social media indicated that there were multiple issues with the tanks, extending from reliability to the service life of the gun barrels. There are a number of things that can cause a catastrophic failure like that, but firing high explosive (HE) ammunition, as the crew was reportedly doing, is unlikely to have degraded the barrel to the point where it ruptured. HE rounds are fired at a lower muzzle velocity and lower chamber pressure than armour piercing rounds. Some guns are able to fire many hundreds of HE rounds before they need to be replaced for safety reasons. The VT4 was new, it should have been fine. Anecdotal reports from Nigeria, another VT4 operator, indicate that Thailand is not an isolated example, with reliability issues affecting the rate of fire of the tanks.

China’s defence exports: A worrying trend

So what, you might think. Tanks are difficult to maintain and can be easy to break. But the fact is that many users of Chinese equipment are left unsatisfied and potentially weaker as a result. This is not just a trend isolated to armoured vehicles, but one that can be seen throughout the country’s exports, from missiles, to ships, and fighter jets. Frequently, the customer’s concerns are left unanswered. 

Let’s start with air platforms. China produces a range of fixed wing combat aircraft that are offered at disruptive prices, competing effectively with other export platforms like the F-16 from the US or Su-30 from Russia. The most successful is the JF-17, which was jointly designed with Pakistan. In late 2022, reports emerged that the Myanmar Air Force had been forced to ground most of its newly acquired JF-17 “Thunder” fighter jets. The aircraft suffered from severe structural cracks in the airframes and malfunctions in the Chinese-made KLJ-7 Al-1 radars, the Economic Times of India reported, citing unnamed sources. The Irrawaddy, a news outlet founded by exiled Myanmar journalists, also reported that the aircraft’s computer was unable to conduct beyond-visual-range (BVR) targeting. 

The JF-17 has continued to secure export success, despite these reports. However, it is not alone in having a mixed reputation for reliability. The FT-7 family of training aircraft and related platforms were involved in at least five crashes in Bangladesh between 1994 and 2006. An FT-7 was also the jet that crashed into a Bangladeshi school in 2020, tragically killing 28 children. The crash was initially attributed to a technical fault, but a later investigation said it was pilot error. Shortly after receiving a batch of K-8W light trainer aircraft in 2020, the Bangladesh Air Force reported significant problems with the onboard weapons systems. The aircraft reportedly struggled to fire ammunition properly, and technical defects were found in the avionics suites, leading to formal complaints from Dhaka regarding the quality of the spare parts and initial assembly. Myanmar complained of similar challenges with its FT-7s, which were delivered from 1991, leading to an upgrade by and Israeli company, according to Jane’s.

The case could be made that some of these incidents are the result of user error or poor maintenance. However, Venezuela received F-16s from the US in 1983, and despite sanctions and declining relations, has managed to keep some of the fleet operational. A reflection of the importance of after sales support and manufacturing quality, especially for aircraft. But these incidents are not isolated to crewed aircraft: Jordan received six of the CH-4B Rainbow UAV in 2016, which has become another poster child of China’s defence exports. Then, in 2018, the Jordanian armed forces told a trade media outlet that it was not happy with the CH-4B. The fleet was put up for sale in 2019, alongside a range of very old helicopters and jets. Iraq also ordered the CH-4, with eight of the 20 UAVs crashing within the first few years of their use, and the remainder being held in reserve because of a lack of spare parts, a recurring theme of China’s defence exports. 

At sea, the F-22P frigates sold to Pakistan have been a consistent source of frustration for the country’s Navy, according to GeoPolitica, an Italian outlet focusing on geopolitics. That article claimed that the FM-90(N) missile systems suffered from faulty image processing units, making it impossible for the missiles to lock onto targets. Furthermore, radars carried by the ships were frequently non-functional, and the engines are reported to have frequently malfunctioned. Bangladesh also found that some spare parts supplied for its Chinese naval vessels were faulty, the Economic Times reported in June 2024. 

• Omen UAV unveiled by EDGE and Anduril – Calibre Defence 
• China’s counter-drone tactics – Calibre Defence 
• Epirus zaps fibre-optic FPV with Leonidas microwave weapon – Calibre Defence 

Saudi Arabia’s relationship with Chinese directed-energy weapons (DEW) is a tale of two halves. On one hand, the Silent Hunter (a truck-mounted 30kW-100kW laser) was reported to have been involved in downing 13 Houthi drones in a single engagement shortly after it was delivered in 2022. However, more recent reports from late 2025 suggest the system has struggled with the harsh environment of the Arabian Peninsula. Saudi military sources have noted that sand and dust frequently abrade the delicate optical lenses, scattering the laser beam and reducing its effective range. In some desert tests, the system reportedly required up to 15 minutes of continuous illumination to destroy a single target—far too slow for modern drone swarms—because atmospheric heat and particulate matter interfered with the beam’s energy density. Other articles note that the Chinese jamming system procured by the Kingdom accounted for most of the drones. 

It is also worth contrasting this with Boeing’s Compact Laser Weapon, which was integrated into a US air defence network in Saudi Arabia, a key requirement for defence against multiple different threats, and brought down a group of 600 kg UAVs. 

Calibre comment: What seems to be the issue?

Defence equipment is often complex, and expensive. It is normal to see snags through the initial development process and unfortunately common for planes to crash. However, with issues reported across China’s defence exports, it is reasonable to conclude that there are some quality control challenges. This could be addressed if after sales support provided spare parts and further development to get products working as promised. However, it seems that this support is rarely provided to an adequate level, leaving forces without UAVs, fighter aircraft, tanks, and ships. For some of China’s partners, Thailand, Iraq, Myanmar, this has happened during a conflict. It is one thing for a system to fail during an exercise, but another thing altogether if it starts impacting a force’s ability to fight during a threat to the state. Time will tell if these issues are resolved, but right now, there is cause for caution around procuring Chinese kit. 

The lead image shows a VT4 in service with the Royal Thai Army. Credit: Oppufc – Own work, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=170783734