So, 7 regiments times 24 planes in a regiment - that's some 168 planes, no? Too few if all the ubk models are included in the regiments, but if they're not, (though it's been said they are) then it shows j11 production has went along nicely past the reported 100-105 units.
That still includes 76 Su-27SKs and UBKs plus the J-11s. At least when these regs are formed, the older planes are still there (minus a few attritions of course).
Though I have to say, that some of the regs there appear to have as much as 32 aircraft. For example, when the regiment on the 33rd Div got their Su-27UBKs, they got all 28 of them, numbered from 49 to 76. Then they got four J-11s on top of that, all serialed to 80. Now some of the UBKs may have been parceled to other regiments, but in their place, they got more J-11s are replacements.
The 1st Regiment and the 19th Regiment both have UBKs that are numbered 32. One cannot say that the original is UBK no. 32 originally from the 6th Regiment 2nd Division, as two planes with the same unit no. to appear in both squads. For that matter, both units have UBKs that are numbered 28 to 32, and therefore cannot be originals from the 2nd Divison, since some of these UBKs are the new types that were parceled out from the 33rd. So the 32 is the regiment unit no. not the no. the Sukhoi factory gave in the early batches. That aligns to about 32 aircraft on these regiments.
In addition, the sighting of J-11 no. 30 with the 55th Regiment, 19th Division, also suggests the unit has 30+ aircraft.
So if you think about it, if all 7 regiments actually has 32 aircraft, that amounts to 224 planes, and that means at least 148 J-11s were made minus the original SK/UBKs.
Realistically, let's say 5 of the regiments have 32 aircraft, these ones from the 1st, 2nd, 7th, 19th and 33rd. Pls 2 regiments with 24 aircraft, you get 208. Less 76 you still get 132 J-11s. Eventually though, the other two regiments should be filling up also.
All this points out is that after that after the 105 kits, China continues to build J-11s that were kitless, though the components are now obtained seperately and not packaged with the kit. This is consistent with the report that China ordered engines seperately for J-11 construction, when previously, the engines should be packaged with the kits. I call the kitless J-11s the J-11As, and I believe they have a darker paint job like J-11 30 of the 19the 19th Division.
In a sense, I think the J-11As were testing the completely Chinese made airframes, as opposed to the airframes that were supplied from the Russian kits. I have a theory that these aircraft will also be upgraded to J-11B standards avionically minus engine, their replaced components be used as spares.
