SinoSoldier
Colonel
A J-11BS and J-10S during night combat operations training:
China Flanker Thread II
- Thread starter sumdud
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Blackstone
Brigadier
Regular nighttime and bad weather training operations? What's the PLA trying to do, be a fully modern military or something?
Pretty sure that kind of training isn't new for Chinese military aviation.
Blackstone
Brigadier
Maybe not, but I'll wager frequency and quality of training have improved.
SinoSoldier
Colonel
Well, any force on the modernization curve will experience similar advances in training/doctrine as it does in technology.
SinoSoldier
Colonel
According to Henri K, the J-16 & J-10B are OPFOR.
I guess the PLAAF trains their Flanker/J-10A pilots to learn how to deal with a technologically-superior enemy.
Well, the Army has used old ZTZ-59s to simulate M1A2s and have put some of their forces against overwhelming simulated odds in the Stride exercises, but the opfor in those exercises use relatively old hardware, only electronically simulated to be much more capable.
Also, the Air Force has used older aircraft... so I think "always" isn't necessarily true. For instance, I think the FTTC still operated a J-7E regiment in the aggressor role, and have recently taken on JL-9 trainers (which, while new, are not exactly advanced).
It actually makes sense to have less advanced aircraft play the opfor in some cases, because in some exercises the opfor doesn't need to have advanced avionics but rather they need to simulate aircraft with different kinematic capabilities, which is why the US military had retained A-4s, T-45s, F-5s/T-38s as aggressors as well against much more advanced teen series aircraft and even F-22s, despite also having F-15s and F-16s as dedicated aggressors.
And as I mentioned on the last page, in this case we don't know if the J-16s (and J-10Bs) at Dingxin were even acting in the opfor role permanently (like in the USAF's 65th and 64th aggressor squadrons).
To be honest, I think it would make more sense if the J-16s and J-10Bs were not part of any dedicated "aggressor" force as of yet, as it seems a little early to use the newest and most advanced aircraft for a dedicated aggressor role when it is probably far more important to get a few units operational with these new capabilities first.
IMO it is more likely that the J-16s and J-10Bs (as well as J-11BS and J-10AS) at Dingxin were there for advanced tactical and weapons training to work them up to higher states of operational readiness and capability (part of the responsibilities of that base), and the training there included dissimilar air combat training as standard, which likely pitched the J-16s and J-10Bs as blue force for one round of exercises, and I wouldn't be surprised if a later successive exercise reversed the roles with J-11BS and J-10AS as blue force.
Given how commonplace DACT/free confrontation training have been reported over the last few years, it would make sense that these sort of DACT exercises would also be conducted between various units and aircraft even if they weren't part of dedicated aggressor units.
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