Today's LA Times Article on the PLA

silverpike

New Member
lookandsay said:
what is the mean of "PAP''? "wu jing" or not?
silverpike........

Yea, People's Armed Police, 'wu jing'---but they have noting in common with the police, PAP service is exactly like the army.
 

PiSigma

"the engineer"
silverpike.. you are obviously forgetting a lot of people. not everyone in the air force flies a plane. for every plane, there's maybe 1 or 2 people as pilot and flies it, but there are also 5 technicians, then there's the base staff, R&D, military academies.. etc. for the navy, they also have naval aviation, land-sea defence. just to let you know USAF have 7000 aircrafts and 358000 men, that's 51 men per plane. USN have 281 ships and 4000 aircrafts, and over half a million men, then with your 200 men per ship and if 50 men per plane, the numbers still don't add up. and USN would have too many personel in your opinion. but they obviously dont.

also in china, it would cost less to have military technicians than to hire civilians, and the security of information is also easier to ensure with military.

btw, i'm not wrong about the PAP, if the demobilize PLA soldiers go to PAP, they can get some rank, like corporal or serg. since PAP have a military structure. those are the lucky ones. some just serve as regular privates.
 

FreeAsia2000

Junior Member
silverpike said:
50,000 air force personnel and 100,000 navy personnel(still don't understand why PLA needs so many people in the air force and navy?!:confused: )

50,000 air force and 100,000 navy personnel is probably low for a country the size of china.

It will undoubtably have to increase once the era of gunboat diplomacy begins again
 

JonMan

New Member
Registered Member
If PLAN and PLAAF want to expand, they are gonig to need better training along with more people. PLAF has good aircraft, but I hear the pilots are not top quality. But PLAAF does not need to expand personnel much, because the site does not say 50,000, it says 330,000.

The PLAN has a bigger problem with quantity. In the recent times, Japan was builing faster than China, but PLAN may be building at a faster rate now. They have probably closer to 270,000, but I don't know how many ships.
 

RedMercury

Junior Member
You're completely forgetting that PLAAF operates the Chinese air defense network. That's a lot of soldiers to operate the SAM and AAA sites/forces, and troops to defend those forces. And 5 non-flyers per plane is probably a low estimate, if you count all the people involved in logistics.
 
Top