How many fighters does China have?

HKSDU · Jun 17, 2011

airsuperiority said:
how many su-27, j-8, j-7 remains in active service? or what's the total number of active combat aircraft, and the % the post j-8 aircraft number dominates ?

Working progress, still busy with studying for my uni examination for next week. Please be patient, will finish the list off when I get some time.

Totoro said:
also, isnt there another jh7 regiment with planaf? there should be 5 planaf regiments all in all, and 3 plaaf jh7 regiments.

Sorry, its a working progress and still needs refinement.

Deino said:
Yepp ... but what's about the two regiments within the 6th and 29th Division ?? Are they still flying J-11 or have they upgraded to the B as sometimes reported (but I still don't have a photo)

Deino

Working progress, so contains errors here and there.
6th Division=16th regiment only one to have soley Su-27SK, 17th Regiment converted to J-11B
29th Division=86th regiment is from what I know is initial J-11 batch but updated, 85th regiment operates Su-30MKK

franco-russe said:
That looks about right. Two corrections and two additions, though:

The 37 Div J-11B regiment is almost certainly 111 (recovered serial is most likely 41285). Also, shelters are reported to have been built at Korla.

The naval J-11BH regiment is 22 Regt.

Two missing regiments:

57 Regt/19 Div with J-11B – see Flanker thread posts # 1370-1372 about serial 31002.

Naval 12 Regt/4 Div with J-10AH

The SU-27SK are mixed up in regiments with J-11(A), so they are covered by your list.

Cheers for the help. I can't seem to find 19th Division, 57th regiment J-11B. Are you sure its not the 19th division, 56th regiment?

HKSDU · Jun 17, 2011

Working progress, will finish it off when I'm done with my uni examination.

Total 4th Generation Fighter = 622
Total 4th Generation Fighter-Bomber = 194

Total 4th Generation (622+194) = 816

Enjoy fellas....

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franco-russe · Jun 17, 2011

You can never be very sure about anything in PLAAF, least of all regimental numbers. However, 19 Div is one of the few divisions with only two regiments, 55 that we agree on, and 57, which corresponds to serial 31002.

There is a total of five J-11B regiments, i.e. 1, 57, 89, 111 PLAAF Regts and 22 PLANAF regiment (which account for all 116 believed produced).

The report on J-11B in 6 Div was erroneous. It was apparently planned that the division should have it, but it seems that 37 Div, also Lanzhou MR, got them instead.

One reason why it was unlikely that the 37 Div J-11B’s would go to 109 Regt is that it now has J-8F, and they are not being retired yet. In fact, most SU-27/J-11 regiments are former J-7 regiments.

The naval 20 JH-7A Regt is actually subordinated to 5 Div, despite the number. The former 7 Div was reportedly transformed into the PLANAF training base.

Since you include non-combat types, you should have the August 1 aerobatic team under 24 Div. It has 9 J-10AY and 3 J-10SY.

And we should now be looking for a new J-10 regiment, the planes for which are apparently being readied at Chengdu.

Deino · Jun 17, 2011

franco-russe said:
...
And we should now be looking for a new J-10 regiment, the planes for which are apparently being readied at Chengdu.

That's for me the currently most interesting thing since they are from the Block 06 ... and finally if they really go to the 18. Division / 52. Regiment at Changsha.

Deino

tphuang · Jun 17, 2011

franco-russe said:
You can never be very sure about anything in PLAAF, least of all regimental numbers. However, 19 Div is one of the few divisions with only two regiments, 55 that we agree on, and 57, which corresponds to serial 31002.

There is a total of five J-11B regiments, i.e. 1, 57, 89, 111 PLAAF Regts and 22 PLANAF regiments (which account for all 116 believed produced).

The report on J-11B in 6 Div was erroneous. It was apparently planned that the division should have it, but it seems that 37 Div, also Lanzhou MR, got them instead.

One reason why it was unlikely that the 37 Div J-11B’s would go to 109 Regt is that it now has J-8F, and they are not being retired yet. In fact, most SU-27/J-11 regiments are formed J-7 regiments.

The naval 20 JH-7A Regt is actually subordinated to 5 Div, despite the number. The former 7 Div was reportedly transformed into the PLANAF training base.

Since you include non-combat types, you should have the August 1 aerobatic team under 24 Div. It has 9 J-10AY and 3 J-10SY.

And we should now be looking for a new J-10 regiment, the planes for which are apparently being readied at Chengdu.

btw, don't assume every regiment where you see J-11BS to be J-11B regiments. It's quite possible that they will mix and match J-11BS in J-11 regiments. Also, they could mix match J-11B into other J-11 regiments. I certainly don't think they've produced 116 J-11Bs. I don't know where you got that number from. No, I don't trust every so called "big shrimps" on CD. In fact, quite a few of them seem to be outright SAC cheerleaders.

Remember, they had trouble with that first regiment of J-11B to 1st division. It wasn't until 2010 when it really got accepted into service. But can they have 2 full regiments, 2 partial regiments and a few J-11BS deployed to other J-11 regiments to fill the trainer role? I think that's more likely.

Deino · Jun 18, 2011

tphuang said:
btw, don't assume every regiment where you see J-11BS to be J-11B regiments. It's quite possible that they will mix and match J-11BS in J-11 regiments. Also, they could mix match J-11B into other J-11 regiments. I certainly don't think they've produced 116 J-11Bs. I don't know where you got that number from. No, I don't trust every so called "big shrimps" on CD. In fact, quite a few of them seem to be outright SAC cheerleaders.

Remember, they had trouble with that first regiment of J-11B to 1st division. It wasn't until 2010 when it really got accepted into service. But can they have 2 full regiments, 2 partial regiments and a few J-11BS deployed to other J-11 regiments to fill the trainer role? I think that's more likely.

Yes and No ... I agree with You that it is unlikely that five complete regiments are flying with a full complement of J-11B ... but on the other side I can't think that they will mix the older AL-31F-powered older versions + different avionics with the newer TH-powered ones for long.
As such I think it's safe zu assume that they will end up as complete "B" units in the near future.

Deino

plawolf · Jun 18, 2011

Its always puzzled me why the PLA does not seem to have uniformed regiment sizes between types.

J10s seem to be deployed in 28 plane regiments, whereas the J11s 24, regardless of if its a PLAAF or PLANAF unit.

Any ideas why that is the case?

franco-russe · Jun 18, 2011

Deino said:
That's for me the currently most interesting thing since they are from the Block 06 ... and finally if they really go to the 18. Division / 52. Regiment at Changsha.

Deino

I am sure you have good reason to believe that the 8th J-10 regiment will be 52 Regt/18 Ftr Div.

18 Div is certainly compatible with serials 20xxx. If so, 52 Regt would be the famous third J-10 regiment in Guangzhou MR.

J-10 lot 06 must certainly be coming off the line now, since lot 05 was completed with the deliveries to the August 1 team and 12 PLANAF Regt.

The figure of 116 J-11B came from adding up lot 00 of 20 J-11B/AL-31F and lots 01-04 of 24 J-11B/BS each. J-11BS was not produced in time for 1 Regt/1 Div, which reportedly uses 4 SU-27UBJ instead.

It is in fact astounding that they seem to have been able to field so many J-11Bs, once the problems with WS-10A Taihang were solved. On the other hand, Shenyang has hardly been idle since completing the 105 J-11(A) in 2004.

Deino · Jun 18, 2011

franco-russe said:
I am sure you have good reason to believe that the 8th J-10 regiment will be 52 Regt/18 Ftr Div.

18 Div is certainly compatible with serials 20xxx. If so, 52 Regt would be the famous third J-10 regiment in Guangzhou MR.
....

Hmmm ... some kind of estimation, "feeling" and listening to several discussions with You at CDF

(THANKs). Additionally it would fit to the two J-10 we've seen a few days ago at CAC.

And after that the big question is: what unit will be the first to receive the J-10B !!?

franco-russe said:
...
It is in fact astounding that they seem to have been able to field so many J-11Bs, once the problems with WS-10A Taihang were solved. On the other hand, Shenyang has hardly been idle since completing the 105 J-11(A) in 2004.

This reminds a bit to the situation during the 1960s when SAC produced xxxx of J-6, which couldn't be delivered and were stored on the ramp until they were refurbished.

Deino

Jeff Head · Jun 18, 2011

tphuang said:
I certainly don't think they've produced 116 J-11Bs. I don't know where you got that number from. No, I don't trust every so called "big shrimps" on CD. In fact, quite a few of them seem to be outright SAC cheerleaders.

Remember, they had trouble with that first regiment of J-11B to 1st division. It wasn't until 2010 when it really got accepted into service. But can they have 2 full regiments, 2 partial regiments and a few J-11BS deployed to other J-11 regiments to fill the trainer role? I think that's more likely.

So, with all of this in mind...what is the answer to this question after all of the discussion. How many fighters does China have?

Remaining J-7s, J-8s, SU-27s, J-10s, J-11s, SU-30s?

While we're at it, what about the attack aircraft Q-5, JH-7?

...and Bombers, H-6s?

I agree that it would be nice to have a concise, easy to read table that included these numbers, that could be regularly and easilly updated as new aircraft came on board and as older aircraft werwe taken out of service. Thelink you provided is not showing up on image shack for me and perhaps that answers this...but I would love to see an updated spread sheet format in HTML format, with pics opf each aircraft that when clicked on took you to a specific page for that aircraft.

Something along the lines of a nice page with pics,. specs, and history., perhaps even the deployment.

Big job though.

Here's my page, for example, for the:

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and for the

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It would be great to have a web site with all of the PRC active/major cobatant aircraft arranged like I arrange my

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.

Oh well, it would be a big order.

Anyhow...as always, great work.

How many fighters does China have?

HKSDU

Junior Member

HKSDU

Junior Member

franco-russe

Senior Member

Deino

Lieutenant General

tphuang

Lieutenant General

Deino

Lieutenant General

plawolf

Lieutenant General

franco-russe

Senior Member

Deino

Lieutenant General

Jeff Head

General