At the 2023 Dubai Airshow, the Y-20BE was officially unveiled, marking the beginning of the export market of this domestically produced strategic transport aircraft equipped with the domestically produced turbofan-20. While China was surprised by the rapid maturity of the Y-20BE, it also began to study who might become a potential user of this 200-ton big guy. The classification of modern transport aircraft is not very strict, especially since the American C-17A was defined as a "strategic transport aircraft", and the originally clear division between the C-141 and C-5 has gradually become blurred.
Although the Chinese government refers to the Y-20 as a strategic transport aircraft, which is largely influenced by the C-17A and is also in line with the trend of increasing tonnage of modern transport aircraft, in terms of performance, the Y-20 is actually in the same class as the Russian-made Il-76. As the most important air transport platform in the Soviet era, the production of the Il-76 was close to 1,000 in the early 90s, and in addition to meeting the needs of the Soviet Union itself, hundreds of aircraft were exported, covering all continents of the world. Some countries, such as Libya, Algeria and Syria, were the first overseas users of the IL-76.
Therefore, despite the fact that the Y-20 looks extraordinary and expensive, the lack of high-end international users in China's aviation industry has led to difficulties in large-scale exports. However, based on the performance of the Il-76, it is expected to receive some orders even if it is only in the Asian and African markets. Although Pakistan currently uses mainly American C-130 transport aircraft, which does not seem to be able to support large strategic transport aircraft, it is interesting to note that when Pakistan delivered Thunder fighters to Nigeria a few years ago, it used the Il-76 for transport.
It is reported that the Pakistan Air Force "R09-001" aircraft transporting the "Thunder" fighter is actually an Il-78 tanker aircraft. Back in 2006, after India received 6 IL-78Ms, Pakistan acquired 3 IL-78s from Ukraine at ultra-low prices, numbering from "R09-001" to "R11-003". To sum up, the official debut of the Y-20BE marks an important step for China's strategic transport aircraft to the export market.
Despite the competition and challenges in the international market, the possibility of the Y-20BE getting orders in the Asian and African markets cannot be ignored based on the overseas performance of the IL-76. The Il-78 tanker has attracted much attention in Pakistan, and although it is cheap, the model is not in good condition. Pakistan has tried to maintain these aircraft, but there have been many restrictions. India's IL-78M is relatively mature, but Pakistan's IL-78 does not have a high sortie rate. Pakistan had planned to upgrade the three Il-78s, but they were shelved due to high costs. However, the demand for air tankers and large transport aircraft in Pakistan remains.
At the same time, China's Y-20 tanker may become a future alternative, offering greater combat effectiveness. But will Pakistan be able to feed more large transport planes?In contrast, Algeria is perhaps a more potential prospect. Algeria's main air transport aircraft, the Il-76 78, has been in service for more than 30 years and is in urgent need of an update. Although the performance of the new Il-76MD-90A launched by Russia has been greatly improved, it is expensive and not suitable for export sales. The domestically produced Y-20B is a good choice, not only all domestically produced, but also relatively reasonable.
It is acceptable for Algeria. At the same time, the Middle East countries that have begun to purchase AVIC products in recent years are also potential users of the Y-20BE. After all, there are not many countries that can provide large strategic transport aircraft, among which the American C-17A has been discontinued, the Russian Il-76MD-90A is not of great use, the European A-400M is simply a turbo transport aircraft, and the Y-20, which once caused a sensation in Europe because of its transcontinental flight, has quite obvious advantages.