PLAAF's current strength

I have a question. Ok with the J-10,J-10B,J-11,Su-30 in the PLAAF's air fleet, how strong is the PLAAF in comparison with the international community?

This being in terms of readiness against aerial elements of the NATO, IAF, JSDF, USAF, and other first-world nations.

And by what I mean, will be engagements with fleets of fighters starting from F-15 and after.

How well will China's modern fleet (excluding <Su-27) do in response to modern air force of 4th generation and after. (We can exclude the F-22)

If there can be a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being US, where will China be placed in?

When do you guys speculate the PLAAF will phase out everything less than the 4th? Or when PLAAF will completely replace its entire fleet with 4th generation and beyond?

Also how are the Chinese AEW, EW, strategic bombing capabilities currently?

Lastly I've heard a lot about J-11, J-11B, etc. Some people compared it to the Su-33, Su-30, or even the Su-35, and I don't know much about it. What is it that makes the J-11s very special? and which aircraft will the J-11(B) be comparable with in aerial performance? To me the J-11 still resembles the Su-27 family, so in fact I'm very curious what/where makes the J-11 different

Hope someone can answer all my enquiries, thank you

Shouldn't this be in the Air Force forum?

it prolly makes more sense to compare them within a certain strategic context, like say Taiwan Strait. (not to say that they are actually gonna do it)
dont know if this might be an overstatement but the way i see it, the PLAAF should be good enough to accomplish the task of taking Taiwan by 2015. by then the PLAAF should already be quite familiar with a lot of the new toys they have just recently received, such as KJ-2000 and KJ-200 or J-11B.
though the PLAAF's modern fleet is still relatively small in quantity, but considering the fact that the USAF wouldnt be throwing everything they've got in Asia Pacific, the Chinese should be capable of handling potential NATO adversaries.
the only thing i am unsure of is training. it used to be pretty bad, but from what i am reading, in recent years the training standards of PLAAF pilots and ground crew, at least for the frontline units, are not far behind their NATO counterparts.
as for 4th gen fighters, i think its too early to talk about that, there isnt even a complete theory on operating a 4th gen fleet, so not even the USAF is gonna convert all of their aircrafts into 4th gen. its a waste of time and money.

Its one thing to just compare the fleets of planes on paper, and its another thing in actual combat. I was watching the youtube videos (posted before) regarding the performance of Su-30MKIs vs F15s at Red Flag in US, and it is clear that fighting strength is so much more than the weapons you have.

the China air force is placed in a scale of 5 or 6

the J-11b is a Su-27 produced by the china and used china patrs

asd65672 said:

the J-11b is a Su-27 produced by the china and used china patrs

Click to expand...

I think you mean, the J-11 is a Chinese license built Su-27. The J-11B is based on the J-11, modified and upgraded.

If you will, I would recommend you to read the posts in the Flankers Thread, more experience posters have posted there and it is a good read.

asd65672 said:

the China air force is placed in a scale of 5 or 6

Click to expand...

Could you elaborate more. What do you mean by scale of 5 or 6, what is that scale based on?

He sounds as if he wants to know how we rank the PLAAF in relation to other leading countries and perhaps a rank out of 10 in effectiveness/capability

In this manner I would put it about fourth = with Japan but with a ?. So it would be USA EUROPE/under Nato,: Russia: China/Japan? perhaps being untested I would give it a 7+

bladerunner said:

He sounds as if he wants to know how we rank the PLAAF in relation to other leading countries and perhaps a rank out of 10 in effectiveness/capability

In this manner I would put it about fourth = with Japan but with a ?. So it would be USA EUROPE/under Nato,: Russia: China/Japan? perhaps being untested I would give it a 7+

Click to expand...

I agree USA and EUROPE is definitely more advanced than the Chinese. Russia is still far ahead of CHina in term of aero technology but however I am very confident to say that although Russia have a lot of greater fight jets but their own airforce dont got any money to order them.. go check the current fighters being depolyed in Russia... very outddated.