How many fighters does China have?

We need Crobato


The 'official' Sinodefence air force intro states:

"The current inventory is composed primarily of third- and fourth-generation fighters and fighter-bombers, including 800~1,000 J-7 (MiG-21 Fishbed) and J-8II fighters, 76 Russian-built Su-27 fighters, 95~116 Chinese-assembled J-11 fighters, 76 Russian Su-30MKK multirole fighters, and some 60~80 Chinese indigenous J-10 multirole fighters."

On the first two deliveries of Su-27s from Russia, planes #1 to 4 were UBKs, followed by 25 and 26, then 27 to 32 are all UBKs. That's like 12 from the first two batches. Then the third batch is 28 planes all UBKs. That's like 40 UBKs.

First batch of Su-27s were 24, plus 2 UBKs that were given. (#1 to #24, plus #25 and #26) went to the 3rd Division. Second batch was #27 to #48 which went to the 2nd Division.

3rd batch is 28 UBKs that went to the 33rd Division. This makes a total of 76 planes made by the Russians.

The so called 96 J-11s is based on a calculation of four observed J-11 regiments (from the 1st, 6th, 7th and 14th Division). However, the number of kits delivered was actually 105. It has to be assumed that a number of J-11s were made to fill the gaps of attrition, (crashes in training) on the earlier Su-27s which were subject to complaints about reliability.

There is also a problem in trying to verify the total number of planes per regiment with the last four regiments. Tail numbers in the 1st Division, 1st Regiment as was high as the number 32. If there are 32 planes per J-11 division, that means there would be 28 single seaters, as each regiment should have 4 twin seaters. The 4 twin seaters have to be transferred from the 33rd, but single seater J-11s have to take their place. It is likely that the regiment sized with the PLAAF increased from 24 to 28 with fighter regiments, and 20 to 24 with attack regiments.

The initial deployments of Su-27s had regiments of up to 24, but the third batch was deployed into a regiment of 28. J-10 regiments number in 28. If we have to assume that the number change, then the J-11 regiments should have a total of 28 aircraft rather than 24. 96 would not be enough then.

The total regiments would be

1st Division 1st Regiment (up to 32?)
2nd Division 6th Regiment
6th Division one regiment
7th Division one regiment
19th Division one regiment (formerly 3rd Division planes, which converted to Su-30MKK)
33rd Division, one regiment (28 aircraft)

1st Division 1st Regiment is the one that converted to J-11B. Their J-11A planes must have moved to the 19th, which used to have the 3rd Division planes. These latter planes are the oldest Su-27s from the first batch and appears to be in the process of being retired.

With the Su-30MKK, they were deployed into four regiments of 19 aircraft each. But the last regiment of Su-30MK2, it was one regiment with 24 aircraft. This shows an increase in size.

3rd Division 1 regiment
FTTC 1 regiment
18th Division 1 regiment
29th Division 1 regiment

1 regiment 4th Division PLANAF for Su-30MK2, 24 aircraft

The JH-7 regiments also started iwth 20, but now appear to be at least 24.

On the JH-7 and JH-7A, there appears to be

2 regiments with the 6th Division PLANAF (both upgraded JH-7)
1 regiment with the 9th Division PLANAF (combined JH-7 and JH-7A)
1 regiment with the 5th Division PLANAF
1 regiment with the 28th Division PLAAF (showcase JH-7A regiment)
1 regiment with the 5th Division PLAAF
1 regiment with the 11th Division PLAAF

Most of these regiments were converted from Q-5s, which are transferred to other regiments within the same division.

J-10 regiments 28 aircraft each, all converted from J-7B/E units.

1 regiment with the 44th Division (first to get the honors)
1 regiment with the 3rd Division (J-10 became official after this unit converted)
1 regiment with the 2nd Division
1 regiment with the 1st Division

1 trials regiment with the FTTC (not sure how many)

J-8F regiments not counting J-8D regiments. I would assume 28 aircraft as per later orbat.

1 regiment with the 1st Division PLAAF
1 regiment with the 5th Division PLANAF
1 regiment with the 9th Division PLANAF
1 regiment with the 37th Division PLAAF, sister regiment has J-7G

J-8H regiment, based on J-8D conversions

1 regiment with the 9th Division
1 or 2 regiments with the 21st Division

J-8I, first generation, still around

1 or 2 regiments with the 24th Division

J-7C/D, based on 3rd generation MiG-21MF

1 or 2 regiments with the 25th Division.

The 26th Division, which has three regiments consisting of J-8B and J-8D was completely retired and turned into a special mission division, such as flying KJ-2000s and Y-8GX aircraft.

Please note, there is considerable retirement of older aircraft.

With the first three PLAAF divisions, the 1st Division should go like this

1st Regiment - J-11B, formerly J-11A
2nd Regiment - J-10, formerly J-7E
3rd Regiment - J-8F, formerly J-8D

2nd Division

4th Regiment - J-7E
5th Regiment - J-10, formerly J-7E
6th Regiment - Su-27, J-11

3rd Division

7th Regiment - J-7E
8th Regiment - Su-30MKK, formerly Su-27
9th Regiment - J-10, formerly J-7E

Brilliant info but I got a bit lost cos I'm a thicko. Is this a correct interpretation?


Arrived at via:

The J-8B has been completely retired already? And have the J-8Ds ALL been converted to J-8Hs already because I don't think the J-8II? I find that hard to believe since there were hundreds of them. I mean at Zhuhai last year there were 2 J-8Ds doing an in flgiht refueling.

what about the 27s that just retired? you have to take those out of the total number.

Total Russian supplied Su-27SK and UBK is 76.

2nd Division 6th Regiment consists of both Su-27SKs, UBKs, and J-11s.

19th Division regiment also consists of both Su-27SKs, UBKs, and J-11s. These are the Su-27s that were transferred from the regiment in the 3rd Division, which in turn moved to Su-30MKKs. These Su-27s from the 3rd are the first batch of Su-27s that is now being retired.

26 Su-27s (20 Su-27SKs, 6 Su-27UBKs) -> 3rd Division -> 19th Division -> getting retired. However in my opinion its likely they will still keep the Su-27UBKs around and retire only the SKs. So the number of retirements might be around 20.

The Su-27 regiment in the 33rd started with all 28 Su-27UBKs. But the UBKs were gradually being parceled out to other regiments and in return, they got J-11s in exchange. I would say about 12 planes got parceled out from the 28 UBKs and in exchange, they picked up 12 J-11s.

As 1st Division upgrades to J-11B, their J-11As have to be moved somewhere and its good chance they're going to the 19th Division to replace the Su-27s being retired there.

For every regiment, there is generally 4 twin seater aircraft. So if you have 28 aircraft, 4 are trainers with 2 squadrons of single seaters with each squadron 12 aircraft. So if 28 aircraft, 24 are J-11A/B, 4 would be Su-27UBK or J-11BS. If J-10, 24 would be single seaters with 4 J-10S twin seaters.

J-8 regiments are notably 24 aircraft with 4 JJ-6 trainers.

Please note the basic aircraft organization.

The basic unit is a pair, pilot and his wingman.

2 pairs make up a flight = 4.

3 flights make up a squadron = 12 aircraft.

2 squadrons + 1 training flight = 1 regiment = 28 aircraft.

Cool so we're pretty close on the Flankers: about 332 allowing for about 20 retired Su-27SKs. Flanker numbers will overall grow as more J-11Bs come online, even if more/all of the Su-27s are retired.

J-8Ds all retired. I agree that's surprising.

Also what are the J-7 figures?


Adjusted J-8 estimate re 24 aircraft squadrons plus it's impact on the overall number:

planeman said:

J-8Ds all retired. I agree that's surprising.

Click to expand...

Wow that's amazing! I guess they've all been retired already or upgraded to J-8Hs! That was fast! I guess those J-8Ds at Zhuhai were the 'last wave goodbye' by the J-8D.

J-8Ds are still around. I have not figured out where they completely are. J-8Bs are also around. Many of both are still with the PLANAF. But its hard to account for the lack of enough pictures since they don't attract fanboy paparazzi photography like they do on the modern planes. Same with J-7s. For that matter, the CCTV rarely covers units with older planes for the same reason.

The J-8II numbers are in flux due to retirement and ongoing conversions to the J-8H. I can assume that all the J-8Ds will be converted to J-8H sooner or later, while the J-8Bs are going to be retired.

When the 26th Division got retired, the J-8Bs and J-8Ds---all used interchangeably in the same regiments---may either have been scrapped, transferred or converted to J-8H (J-8D only). Hard to say what the fractions of each was.

Su-27SK - 36
Su-27UBK -40
Su-30MKK -76
Su-30MK2 - 24
J-11/J-11A - 96 to 105 from kits; some numbers above these possibly from spares and using Chinese made airframes.

Units with the Su-27SK and UBK had their numbers raised by adding a few J-11s to them. Planes lost to attrition may also have been replaced with J-11s.

There are still incongruities I have not completely solved yet since its possible some regiments may have up to 32 aircraft but I don't know if this is a permanent move.

When one uses scramble's info and compares it with google earth imagery of chinese airbases a figure of some 700 j-7 aircraft is more likely. j-8 seems to around right - close to 300, and all the others, including strike airplanes are also in accordance to publicly known figures. Sean O'Connor did a GE map of chinese airbases abd published it on his blog... (numbers being similar to my own GE map which i did and published here some months ago)