It looks like "Combat Aircraft" has done a nice job with their latest feature article on the PLAAF:
It's about time that the PLAAF was treated in a serious manner by the western aviation press.
To repeat some of the key elements from the article:
I would have liked to have seen a few more (and larger) photographs. However, given the general lack of articles on this subject in the western press, this one is definitely worth having. Perhaps one of our members has access to a scanner . . .
The article appears to be the first part in a two-part series on the PLAAF. The second part is expected to focus on current developments, including the fielding of the J-10 fighter.
It's about time that the PLAAF was treated in a serious manner by the western aviation press.
To repeat some of the key elements from the article:
- Historically the PLAAF was not awarded equal respect within the Chinese leadership, alongside the other branches of the PLA.
"Organizationally, the PLAAF is strictly subordinate to the Chinese ground forces in ways that no western air arm has ever had to contend with. Far from being on equal footing in the competition for resources or for strategic planning authority, the PLAAF has been obliged to play whatever secondary role that the Chinese armed forces see fit to relegate it under. Up until 1985, the chief air force officer wasn’t even an aviator: he was an army officer appointed to manage air force operations."
- This changed during the early 1990s, following the collapse of the Soviet Union (which provided the PLA with new sources of arms technology), and following the 1991 Gulf War, which altered Chinese military thinking with regard to the role of air power:
"The stunning display of US and allied air power during the 1991 Gulf War had come as a thunderous wake-up call to the Chinese armed forces. Here was an example of what a modern, integrated air force, equally capable of performing in the air-to-air and air-to-ground roles, was capable of doing to a less sophisticated opponent. . . . The myth of the massive ground army, capable of overcoming its opponents by sheer weight of numbers alone, had been shattered."
- The article also traces the evolution of the China's indigenous aircraft development capabilities, from the development of the Q-5, to the development of the J-8 and J-8 II, to the concept aircraft of the 1970s that paved the way for the eventual development of the J-10.
"But there was also an apparent gap in this initial round of Chinese procurement. Whereas the PLAAF was quick to purchase the massive, long-range Su-27 and Su-30 fighters, no attempts were made to purchase the smaller, less expensive MiG-29 aircraft, as part of a high-low fighter mix. . . . It would be some number of years, however, before it became apparent that the PLAAF had its own, alternative aircraft in mind as a complement to its Su-27 interceptors."
I would have liked to have seen a few more (and larger) photographs. However, given the general lack of articles on this subject in the western press, this one is definitely worth having. Perhaps one of our members has access to a scanner . . .
The article appears to be the first part in a two-part series on the PLAAF. The second part is expected to focus on current developments, including the fielding of the J-10 fighter.
