PLAAF's current strength
- Thread starter ravenshield936
- Start date
Roger604
Senior Member
Wrong... it's all about technology and industrial power. The technology level on the J-10 and J-11B is superior to anything the Russians deploy. The aircraft entering service soon like the J-10B is technologically equivalent to the Eurofighter and Rafale. Chinese aircraft in prototype stage like the J-20 is superior to the F-22, and in fact would likely be the most advanced fighter in the world when it enters service.
What's even more overwhelming is China's industrial power. China can order mass production of J-10B and J-11B quicker and cheaper than the Russians, Europeans or Americans. The bottleneck was the modern turbofan engine, that China finally resolve in 2009.
To get a sense of where PLAAF is going, just look at the Second Artillery. China's missile technology is ahead of Russians, ahead of Europeans and very close to that of the US. This is why only the US and China have conducted exoatmospheric ballistic missile defense tests.
The future of China is not to sit in second place behind anybody. A momentous shift in attitude is taking place among the Chinese leadership regarding its place in the world, and this shift is having a huge effect on the rest of the world.
What's even more overwhelming is China's industrial power. China can order mass production of J-10B and J-11B quicker and cheaper than the Russians, Europeans or Americans. The bottleneck was the modern turbofan engine, that China finally resolve in 2009.
To get a sense of where PLAAF is going, just look at the Second Artillery. China's missile technology is ahead of Russians, ahead of Europeans and very close to that of the US. This is why only the US and China have conducted exoatmospheric ballistic missile defense tests.
The future of China is not to sit in second place behind anybody. A momentous shift in attitude is taking place among the Chinese leadership regarding its place in the world, and this shift is having a huge effect on the rest of the world.
antiterror13
Brigadier
I admire you subtlety.hmmmm ... I think you are a little bit too optimistic about PLAAF
I thought that the last paragraph was quite enlightening:
An attempt by the right-wing to justify higher military spendings?
First off I'd like to say that such rankings are very rough 'guesstimates' on actual capability in realistic settings... but they are fun to come up with!
I would say that on a scale of 1(worst, no capability) to 10(best, USAF), the PLAAF scores as follows for different missions:
Air-to-air combat 7
Tactical strike 5
Strategic bombing 2
I would say that on a scale of 1(worst, no capability) to 10(best, USAF), the PLAAF scores as follows for different missions:
Air-to-air combat 7
Tactical strike 5
Strategic bombing 2
A thought just occured to me.
Looking at, for example, US active fighter wings or RAF active fighter wings, there is quite a discrepancy between the number of planes in them and total number of planes in the inventory of respective air forces. Say, USAF has around 215 active f15 in use, but at the same time uses only 6 dedicated combat squadrons of 24 each. That amounts to some 150 planes. Rest are in various training and testing squadrons and probably some under long planned maintenance rotating around and so on. Same goes for raf's eurofighters and so on. I would think other air forces have a similar deal.
So that would then mean that if chinese have, say, 7 active combat squadrons of 28 j10s each, total available j10 count within plaaf and planaf is like 30% higher - not 196 but actually around 250 units. Same could be applied to any plane - jh7, j7s, j8s etc.
On the other hand - we know for a fact there's been only 76 su30 sold to plaaf. And there have been 3 squadrons seen operating them. Does that mean there's 24 of them in a squadron and surplus is only 4 planes, or does it mean each squadron is closer to 18 or so planes so the surplus is a more regular 30 or so percent?
How's my logic here?
Looking at, for example, US active fighter wings or RAF active fighter wings, there is quite a discrepancy between the number of planes in them and total number of planes in the inventory of respective air forces. Say, USAF has around 215 active f15 in use, but at the same time uses only 6 dedicated combat squadrons of 24 each. That amounts to some 150 planes. Rest are in various training and testing squadrons and probably some under long planned maintenance rotating around and so on. Same goes for raf's eurofighters and so on. I would think other air forces have a similar deal.
So that would then mean that if chinese have, say, 7 active combat squadrons of 28 j10s each, total available j10 count within plaaf and planaf is like 30% higher - not 196 but actually around 250 units. Same could be applied to any plane - jh7, j7s, j8s etc.
On the other hand - we know for a fact there's been only 76 su30 sold to plaaf. And there have been 3 squadrons seen operating them. Does that mean there's 24 of them in a squadron and surplus is only 4 planes, or does it mean each squadron is closer to 18 or so planes so the surplus is a more regular 30 or so percent?
How's my logic here?
cn_habs
Junior Member
In the sequel of that video, the funniest thing that I found is when the pilot talked about the inability of the Russian-made datalinks that the Indians use to identify friends from foe during the exercise.
Which brings me to the question, The PLAF has its own right?
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EDIATH
Junior Member
Interesting theory. As I understand PLAAF adopts the soviet-style division-regiment-squadron formation, e.g. there are 28 planes in a J10 regiment, perhaps 14 in a squadron. What if the 7 units of J10 being identified so far are a mixture of both regiment-size and squadron-size units? This possibility does not
refute your theory but may bring down the total number of J10, I suppose nobody can be sure of the answer unless the last plane of each unit was identified. As for now, 200 is as good a guess as any elaborate assumptions.
Also 4 units of Su-30MKK have been spotted so far in PLAAF, including a training unit. So we have got 19 planes per unit in this case.
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