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August 31, 2006 at 6:10 pm

Good Survey on China's Air Force

A nice air force profile was recently published for the PLAAF in the bi-monthly journal, “Combat Aircraft”:
“China’s Hidden Power” – published in Vol 7 No 8
http://www.ianallanpublishing.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=49503

Considering how rapidly the Chinese armed forces have seen their budget expand over the past decade, I’m surprised that more articles like this haven’t already been published.

The featured review is well written, and accompanied by a number of excellent photographs. To repeat some of the key elements from the article:

Historically the PLAAF was not awarded equal respect by the Chinese leadership, alongside the other branches of the PLA.

[INDENT]”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.”[/INDENT]

This lack of status was only magnified during the Cultural Revolution, which effectively gutted much of the PLAAF’s technical expertise:

[INDENT]”Maintenance standards in the Chinese air force plummeted during this period, while the number of annual flight hours per pilot dropped from 122 in 1964, to fewer than 24 in 1968.”[/INDENT]

This trend did not change until the early 1990s, following the collapse of the Soviet Union (which provided the PLA with new resources in terms of arms technology), and following the 1991 Gulf War, which finally altered Chinese military thinking with regard to the role of air power:

[INDENT]”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. . . . For the first time, China’s Central Military Commission began to see the acquisition of a more versatile, multirole fighter force as a true necessity for the modern battlefield.”[/INDENT]

This 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.

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