PLA Air Force news, pics and videos

siegecrossbow said:

New PLAAF propaganda video featuring J-20, Su-35, H-6K, and more.

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Jura said:

cool (sorry if discussed elsewhere though):

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PLA空軍のSu-35が左右両側の方向舵を逆方向に回転し、スピードブレーキとして使っている

Translated from Japanese by

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PLA Air Force Su-35 is rotated in the opposite direction rudder of both sides of the left and right, using as a speed brake

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siegecrossbow said:

New PLAAF propaganda video featuring J-20, Su-35, H-6K, and more.

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is expanding an airbase on the

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coast, adding facilities that potentially allow it to permanently base combat aircraft closer to Taiwan and islands of which both China and Japan claim ownership.

Satellite photos taken in April show that the construction of new 24 aircraft shelters, taxiways and additional buildings are on the verge of being completed at the airbase near the town of Xiapu, in China’s coastal Fujian Province.

The new aircraft shelters are built in a semi-dispersed state in six clusters of four, with two clusters built near the end of the single 1.7-mile-long runway and the rest located in one of two aircraft dispersal area which already has 15 of the 20 hardened and camouflaged aircraft shelters at the base. Each of the new shelters measures approximately 100 feet long and 60 feet wide, which is more than enough to accommodate China’s Sukhoi Su-30/35 and Shenyang

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Several military buildings have also been built as part of the upgrading project, which also includes five new barracks blocks along with what retired Col. Vinayak Bhat, who previously served as a satellite imagery analyst with the Indian Army, told Defense News appear to be parking garages and testing and inspection facilities for vehicles. Land clearing is also taking place at the north eastern corner of the base complex, suggesting more facilities could yet be added.

The semi-dispersed nature of the new aircraft shelters is a departure from the normal practice at Chinese bases, whose shelters are normally built in straight lines with the housed aircraft parked side by side, and is likely to reflect the frontline nature of the airbase.

The base is located just 160 miles from Taiwan’s capital Taipei and 225 miles from the Japanese-administered Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, making it closer to the islands than the nearest Japanese combat aircraft which are based 260 miles away at Naha in Okinawa. China is also claiming ownership of the islands, which it calls the Diaoyu Islands.

The construction of the new aircraft shelters at the airbase could point to China upgrading it to a fully-fledged operational airbase with its own permanently assigned combat aircraft regiment or brigade. It had previously been used only as a deployment base since completion in 2012, hosting ongoing rotating detachments of approximately 12 People’s Liberation Army Air Force or PLAAF fighter jets.

These rotations, which satellite photos show almost always include the Sukhoi Su-30 multirole fighter or Chinese-built Shenyang J-11 interceptors, are believed to be increasingly utilised to accompany PLAAF bomber and intelligence-gathering aircraft flying out to the Western Pacific via international airspace over the Miyako Straits, with data released by the Japanese Ministry of Defense showing the fighters heading to and from the direction of Xiapu.

The fighters usually follow the

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well past the Miyako Straits before turning back, which equates to a round trip of more than 1,000 miles from Xiapu.

PLAAF bombers have also been increasingly carrying out flights circumnavigating the island of Taiwan, which China views as a rogue province and has said it will take back by force if necessary. The latest reported mission on the 11th of May saw two groups of Xian H-6K bombers circumnavigate Taiwan simultaneously from both north and south of the island, with one group flying clockwise and the other going counter-clockwise.

According to the announcement by China’s Ministry of National Defense, Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jets flew over the Bashi Channel south of Taiwan, which would make the first time the former has been known to be used on such missions. The flights prompted scrambles by both the Japan Air Self-Defense Force and Taiwan’s Republic of China Air Force to intercept and observe the PLAAF bombers and intelligence gathering aircraft, which according to the Japanese MoD included a Tupolev Tu-154 and Shaanxi Y-8.

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A satellite photo of Xiapu airbase dated September 2017 showing the aircraft shelters being built. More recent satellite photos show these are close to completion.

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China has landed strategic bombers on an airfield in the

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for the first time, in what its defense ministry says will enable its bomber crew to gain experience in operating from airfields built on islands and reefs.


In a media release, the Chinese Ministry of National Defense said several bombers of various types, including the improved Xian H-6K, carried out landing and take offs at an island airfield following simulated strikes on targets at sea.

Video released by the ministry showed the bombers from the 36th Bomber Division of the People’s Liberation Army Air Force or PLAAF carrying out touch and go landings as well as missed approaches on the airfield. Based on the runway orientation and other infrastructure seen in the video, Defense News has verified that airfield is at Woody Island in the Paracels chain, and not the airfields China has built on the reclaimed islands in the disputed Spratly Islands further south.

The 36th Bomber Division is assigned to the Northern Theater Command and is based at airfields in northern Shaanxi Province although the ministry said that the aircraft operated out of an airfield in southern China for this exercise. The division’s home bases are approximately 1,200 miles from Woody Island, within the reported 2,200-mile combat radius of the H-6K.


The H-6K is an upgraded variant of the H-6, which is itself originally a Chinese-built version of the 1950s-era Soviet Tupolev Tu-16 Badger. The H-6K has been re-engined with Chinese-built versions of the Russian D-30KP low-bypass turbofans and improved avionics that include a new indigenously-developed radar and is used primarily as a cruise missile carrier in PLAAF service, utilizing the KD-20 or KD-63 cruise missiles on six wing hardpoints.

The PLAAF currently has three divisions flying the H-6K, with China’s Northern, Eastern, and Southern Theater Commands each assigned a division of bombers.

China is also said to be developing a nuclear-capable air-launched ballistic missile for the H-6K, with sources close to the U.S. intelligence community saying that flight tests have been carried out for the unnamed new missile, which has been dubbed as the CH-AS-X-13 by U.S. intelligence. The missile is a two-stage, solid-fuel ballistic missile with a 1,900-mile range, according to

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earlier this year and will be carried by a new variant of the H-6 that is being developed for the PLAAF.

The new variant, known as the H-6N, will be an improved H-6K fitted with air-to-air refuelling capability. Flight tests of the H-6N are currently said to be in progress, with unverified photos posted on the Chinese internet showing prototype aircraft in flight. Taken together, an air-refuellable bomber and a nuclear capable air-launched ballistic missile will significantly improve China’s modest nuclear capability, which is built around a retaliatory doctrine backed by a longstanding pledge of no-first-use.

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Jura said:

now noticed the tweet

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L'armée de l'air chinoise a envoyé très tôt ce matin deux de ses bombardiers H-6K voler autour de l'île de Taïwan. Les appareils sont sortis de la première chaîne d'îles par le détroit de Bashi, au sud, puis rentrer en Chine via le détroit de Miyako dans le nord.

Translated from French by

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The Chinese air Force sent early this morning two of its H-6k bombers flying around the island of Taiwan. The aircraft came out of the first chain of islands through the Bashi Strait in the south and then returned to China via the Miyako Strait in the north.

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antiterror13 said:

F16A? ... must be very very old fighter

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