February 5, 2021: There has been more evidence that the Chinese military is rapidly adopting its new Z-20 helicopter, which is based on the American UH-60, as a replacement for the Russian Mi-8s and Mi-17s. The evidence of this change is seen in the growing number of media and cellphone photos showing Chinese troops and sailors training with new versions of the Z-20. The Chinese navy has been using the Z-20F, which is similar to the U.S. Navy SH-60 and there is some indication that an MH-60 version, for special operations troops, is under development. The latest Chinese UH-60 variant is of the American AH-60 BattleHawk gunship variant. This is used mainly by export customers. BattleHawk is basically a more advanced version of earlier efforts to add more and more weapons to UH-60s. That led to developing a stub wing kit and fire control system. With this a UH-60 could use rockets, guided missiles and autocannon pods. The U.S. Army also has UH-60 variants for EW (electronic warfare) and ELINT (Electronics Intelligence) and medevac (medical evacuation). The Chinese army is now expected to sample all of those variants and adopt some of them.

The U.S. Navy first adopted the two stub wings for its SH-60 Seahawk, which has become the standard ship-based helicopter and exists in several variants for ASW (anti-submarine warfare), search and rescue and special operations. The SH-60 is actually a separate model of the original civilian S-70 developed for maritime use with additional features, like resistance to salt-water corrosion. The Chinese navy Z-20F is also trying out all the SH-60 variants used by the U.S. Navy.

The UH-60 BlackHawk and SH-60 Seahawk have been the standard American transport and utility helicopter since the 1980s. Chinese media described the Z20 as a helicopter with the same features and performance as the UH-60. How did this come about? Basically, it was Chinese dissatisfaction with Russian Mi-8/17 transports and earlier Chinese designs like the Z-8, based on the older French SA-321 helicopters. Chinese manufacturers are relatively free to try anything and ignore foreign patents and copyrights, especially if they create something very useful. The Z20 was useful and China officially defends it as a unique Chinese development.

The Z20 was described as ready for service in 2018 and “entering service” in 2019. But it was not until 2020 that Z20s were seen in use by Chinese troops of the 161st Air-Assault Brigade in a regular training exercise. By the end of 2020 the Z20s were seen in several new variants that copied existing American variants. While the Z20 is said to be in mass production it will be years before it replaces the unpopular Z8, much less the more popular, and familiar, Mi-8/17. Meanwhile the manufacturer of the Z8 is revising that helicopter to make it more competitive with the Z20. That has already produced a much-improved Z8. The Z20 still has a competitive edge because of successfully copying the UH/SH-60, which is seen as the gold standard for combat proven tactical helicopters.

All this interest in tactical transport helicopters is quite recent. It was only in 2017 that the first two Air-Assault Brigades were created by converting Light Helicopter Brigades to a western style air assault brigade equipped with transport and gunship helicopters. The army also has eleven aviation brigades that provide helicopter support to any units in one of the thirteen Group Armies the brigade is assigned to. The aviation brigade is a new concept for the Chinese army, which began organizing them in 2009. These were based on the organization and equipment of the current American Army Aviation Brigades. The U.S. Army developed helicopter-heavy aviation brigades during the 1960s and the first one was organized in Vietnam. Since then, the aviation brigades have been a standard feature of the U.S. Army.

China likes to adopt combat proven weapons, equipment and concepts, and have carefully studied American operations since the 1990 Iraq War, and published much of the official analysis in unclassified military media (magazines, newspapers and TV shows). That gives this analysis the widest possible circulation within the military. This is to generate a lot of comment from officers, troops and civilian analysts. This makes it easier to translate these foreign concepts into ones adapted to Chinese culture and current capabilities. This has worked. For example, over the last decade international competition events between special operations troops from many nations has often seen the Chinese teams finishing high in the final rankings.

It’s one thing to copy tactics, organization and training routines. Copying equipment often involves outright theft of IP (intellectual property). That’s how China ended up with a clone of the UH-60. The Z20 project came out of Chinese Army dissatisfaction with their Z-8A transport helicopters and demanding something more effective. This led to the Z-20 design, which was actually familiar to most Chinese because S-70s (the civilian version of the UH.60) had been appearing in the news for decades and most Chinese thought it was a Chinese developed helicopters.

While S-70/UH-60 type helicopters had a positive image, army dissatisfaction with the Z-8A was intense after six years of use the army issued an official “dissatisfaction notice” and news of this became public. The army was not happy with the Z-8A, a local design, and cited some serious problems, including poor performance, heavy maintenance needs and its tendency to stall in flight. While these problems were not featured in military media or the state-controlled media in general, there was still the Internet. Even though the Chinese Internet is heavily censored by Western standards, Chinese users have learned out to get around the censors without incurring a visit from the secret police. The government tolerates a certain amount of this as a public service, as it provides a way to determine how widespread problems are and whether they are worth paying attention to. The Z8 problems were deemed widespread and dangerous. The troops were saying so on the Internet and providing personal experiences.

When photos of the Z20 first appeared in 2013, Western observers nicknamed it the CopyHawk. The photos from China showed what appeared to be an American UH-60 helicopter landing at a Chinese military base. This mystery helicopter was promptly dubbed “CopyHawk” partly in recognition of Chinese eagerness to copy foreign military gear, often quite literally. While China has never had any BlackHawks, they did manage to buy 24 S-70s, the civilian version of the UH-60, back in the 1980s, before the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre and subsequent arms embargo. The embargo meant a halt to American technical assistance maintaining the S-70s. Forced to take over those duties China did so successfully and that gave them the confidence to attempt to clone the S-70. Many of these S-70s were still flying in 2013 and some are still operational in 2021. That is a mark of a quality design to the Chinese. The 2013 CopyHawk, on closer examination, was definitely an S-70 variant. There were several minor but obvious differences, mainly in fuselage shape and rotor configuration. Parts of the CopyHawk looked like the new Chinese Z-10 helicopter gunship. In 2013 nothing was known of what engines and electronics were used in the CopyHawk or whether it was just an experimental design or a prototype for a new medium helicopter transport based on the S-70. The 2013 CopyHawks were developmental aircraft, and a 2016 prototype was a bit different, but shortly thereafter the production model called the Z-20 appeared. China added UH-60 features the S-70 lacked and found it all worked. The production model Z20 also used Chinese engines. China is still trying to develop military grade jet engines so they don’t have to import these from Russia.

China did indeed reverse engineer the S-70 and apparently used some parts taken from the S-70s withdrawn from service to build prototypes of the Z-20 helicopter. China needed a new ten-ton class military transport and the CopyHawk would be consistent with other new Chinese aircraft and ship designs since the 1990s, which included complex modern Russian aircraft like the Su-30 and, of course, decades of work using the French SA321 Super Frelon. Since the 1990s China has been creating new vehicle, ship and aircraft designs that take more from the West than long-time source Russia.

In the meantime, you will find some Chinese who will complain to you, quite sincerely, that the Americans based their Blackhawk on a Chinese design. That’s because those S-70s have been featured in Chinese media coverage of the armed forces since the 1990s. This often occurs when the military is called out to help with disaster relief (floods and earthquakes). Those S-70s always show up on the TV news, delivering emergency supplies and evacuating casualties. The crews were Chinese, the paint job and markings were Chinese Air Force and as far as most Chinese are concerned the helicopter was another product of the booming Chinese aviation industry.

The Sikorsky S-70 was a 1970s design that won the competition to replace the older UH-1 "Huey". The U.S. Army currently has about 2,000 UH-60s and is upgrading the force with the new "M" model. So far, over 4,000 UH-60/SH60s (and variants) have been built. The UH-60 was introduced in 1979. The 11 ton UH-60M can carry 14 troops, or 1.1 tons of cargo internally, or four tons slung underneath. Cruise speed is 278 kilometers an hour. Max endurance is two hours, although most sorties last 90 minutes or less. Max altitude is 5,790 meters (19,000 feet).

The Z-20 is the same weight, size and shape as the UH-60 and S-70. The Z-20 also has two engines and can carry up to fifteen troops or max payload of five tons of cargo. The Z-20 can also carry up to four tons via a sling underneath. The Z-20 has different electronics and different engines. Helicopter engines, like high-performance jet engines, have long been a weak link for China, which has yet to produce models that are comparable with Western designs. For helicopters, China has obtained European models and has been able to build some of those under license. The Z-20 is also using one of the latest Chinese helicopter engine designs, the WZ-10 and there are plans to install more powerful Chinese helicopter engines in the Z20 as those engines become available. Ultimately the Chinese want to create a copy of the UH-60 that is more advanced than the original.