Chinese UCAV/CCA/Loyal Wingman (sensor, A2A and A2G) thread

[lcloo]

I do agree with your line of thinking and I've made similar arguments in the past, but some others on the board don't seem to think finding enough pilots is gonna be an issue. I don't really know what it takes to train a pilot so I can't say for sure, but the way things are developing with the J-36 almost like an AWACS with a crew of 2, I'd think that becoming a pilot will become increasingly more difficult and more of a bottleneck than aircraft production.

The question of pilot availability all comes down to the long term planning. It takes a very long time to train a good pilot, if I may guess, at least a minimum of say, around 500 to 800 hours on operational flights, which could meant the pilots should have at least 5 years experience as combat pilot before he can go on to pilot a new advance combat jet.

Long term planning should cover 5 to 10 years consideration of pilot availability and aircraft production. If they cannot to match availability of qualified pilots vs the production rates of new aircraft, then that is a very critical big failure.

Annual cadet pilot intake and fresh qualified pilots is a variable figure. They can expand, maintain existing figures or reduce it according to ther long term planning. There is no lack of training facilities nor pool of potential pilots.

BUt then we know Chinese always planned long term, they planned anything from 10 years to 50 years into the future unlike the short term planning of the West, freuently disrupted by policies of a new president every 4 or 5 years.

 

[by78]

A rare video of WZ-9 Divine Eagle in flight with sound.