wanderingmind
New Member
Re: China's transport plane capacities
All the hue and cry in this thread seems to be how China needs IL-76 and IL-78 aircraft and their Y-9s for tactical transport. Here, again, everyone's overlooking the little guys on the ground. Big lifters are great, as long as you've got big runways to put them on.
But how about footslogger Chen Wu's platoon way out in the boondocks? Where's China's equivalent of the C-27? Where's their equivalent of the U-8 Beaver? When young Chen gets hungry, does he have to wait for his bowl of rice to be trucked 200 miles from the big runway, then another 50 miles by helicopter, then another 10 miles by jeep? And vice-versa if he gets hurt?
If the PLA is smart, the PLAAF will do some expenditures on "ground interface support." Little birds aren't flashy big-ticket items, but they're the heart and soul of support operations. It's like the USA: the flyboys forget where they came from...
All the hue and cry in this thread seems to be how China needs IL-76 and IL-78 aircraft and their Y-9s for tactical transport. Here, again, everyone's overlooking the little guys on the ground. Big lifters are great, as long as you've got big runways to put them on.
But how about footslogger Chen Wu's platoon way out in the boondocks? Where's China's equivalent of the C-27? Where's their equivalent of the U-8 Beaver? When young Chen gets hungry, does he have to wait for his bowl of rice to be trucked 200 miles from the big runway, then another 50 miles by helicopter, then another 10 miles by jeep? And vice-versa if he gets hurt?
If the PLA is smart, the PLAAF will do some expenditures on "ground interface support." Little birds aren't flashy big-ticket items, but they're the heart and soul of support operations. It's like the USA: the flyboys forget where they came from...