Air Division, Regiments, ... Bases, Brigades, etc

@Deino, 67320 has been identified in 61st Brigade meaning J-10Bs now occupy no. 1-30, and J-10S occupy no. 56-60. This means there's a minimum of 35 aircraft in a brigade, probably 36 if we assume there's a no. 55 J-10S which hasn't been photographed. Huitong has the latest photos available on his blog.

I'm not sure how the 大队/中队 are organised yet.

As it seems, another J-8 unit lost its old fighters!

Maybe this is one of the "missing" new PLAAF units aka an answer, where all these J-10C were going to we've seen since late 2019. Taken on 29. Dec. 2020 at Xiangyun there are clearly several J-10C (?) & J-10AS visible. This AB is home of the 132nd Air Brigade within the STC and was so far flying J-7Es.

(Images via GE)

Deino, perhaps a personal question: do you have a dynamically updated ORBAT for PLAAF/PLANAF with every new image, or are you doing research in cycles - like accumulating images and info throughout a year and then once a year try to make a detailed ORBAT for that year?

Totoro said:

Deino, perhaps a personal question: do you have a dynamically updated ORBAT for PLAAF/PLANAF with every new image, or are you doing research in cycles - like accumulating images and info throughout a year and then once a year try to make a detailed ORBAT for that year?

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Good question ... usually I have a quite old-fashioned Orbat list as a Word-doc at hand and whenever I find something new I add a note in different colours depending the state of confirmation. And from time to time I safe this as a new doc ...

This is the current iteration:

Thanks! So, basically, you do it as you go. This probably isn't even the final info that will be published in the next edition of your PLAAF book.

Totoro said:

Thanks! So, basically, you do it as you go. This probably isn't even the final info that will be published in the next edition of your PLAAF book.

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Yes, I was once considering to do this in a huge Excel-file but this needs to be established first and then updated and what I lack the most - esp. at the moment - is TIME!

And also surely this is not the final info to be published .. even more at the moment I have no idea - and see no sense at all - to update it once again. The one which probably needs an update first is the Naval Aviation booklet, but again I have no time at the moment.

Deino said:

As it seems, another J-8 unit lost its old fighters!

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1311912897417707526

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Sad to see the j-8 go, they were nice looking airplanes. But it's a change for better equipment at least !

Deino said:

As it seems, another J-8 unit lost its old fighters!

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1311912897417707526

Click to expand...

Ah, completely missed this post. Anyway, we don't really know if those J8F were retired or simply handed over to another unit. We had similar examples before, where a J16 would go to a J10A unit, and then those J10As would go to some J7II unit which would then retire its J7s.

J8Fs are probably 15 years old on the average. If PLAAF is expanding its numbers those may be retained for some more years.

I am more interested in those J-8B, allegedly in 12th division, 35th regiment. Are those STILL in active service after all these years? IF yes, would not those be the prime candidate J8 to be retired or replaced? Certainly a better fit than J8F.