How many fighters does China have?

8x Regiments of JH-7 = 194
7x Regiments of J-10 = 196 + (14)
13x Regiments of Su-27/J-11 = 312
4x Regiments of Su-30 = 81 + (19)
9x Regiments of J-8 = 216
22x Regiments of J-7 = 616
6x Regiments of Q-5 = 144

At the moment (90% finished) => Total: 1792 (816/1792 are 4th generation)

That corresponds closely to the regiments I know by number and base, but there may be four more (Q-5, J-7).

I only have 12 SU-27/J-11 regiments. Your thirteenth regiment is probably 17 Regt/6 Div which is still flying J-7E.

I have 10 J-8 regiments, including one JZ-8F regiment and two naval regiments (15 and 25).

franco-russe said:

That corresponds closely to the regiments I know by number and base, but there may four more (Q-5, J-7).

I only have 12 SU-27/J-11 regiments. Your thirteenth regiment is probably 17 Regt/6 Div which is still flying J-7E.

I have 10 J-8 regiments, including one JZ-8F regiment and two naval regiments (15 and 25).

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For your J-11/Su-27 regiment, did you include the regiment that was recently introduced into PLANAF? Also there seems to be a new batch of J-10 that just came out, but waiting for the serial numbers to determine where they will be stationed.

10% still to finish so that can add couple more regiments here and there for J-7, J-8, Q-5. Thanks for your heads up.

@ HKSDU & as usual franco-russe

Thanks for Yor work and esp. for that "aircraft-counting" ... besides that wouldn't it be easier or at least helpful if You add the individual units to that list instead of a simple list like in #71 ?!

Thanks in advance,
Deino

HKSDU said:

For your J-11/Su-27 regiment, did you include the regiment that was recently introduced into PLANAF? Also there seems to be a new batch of J-10 that just came out, but waiting for the serial numbers to determine where they will be stationed.

10% still to finish so that can add couple more regiments here and there for J-7, J-8, Q-5. Thanks for your heads up.

Click to expand...

that actually sounds like too many Su-27/J-11s. They originally imported 78 su-27s from Russia and they produced 95 to 105 locally as J-11/A, possibly more. Maybe a couple of them have crashed and they got a couple of replacements as gifts. That's about 173 to 183 su-27/J-11/A at mo. If we use the number of 312 as the total number of su-27/J-11s, then that means they would've produced 130 to 140 J-11Bs. I don't think they've produced that many at all.

If you look at scramble's orbat

It looks like there are 11 su-27/J-11 regiments in there. (1st division, 30th, 7th, 19th 55th regiment, 19th 56 regiment, 14th, 29th, 2nd, 33rd, 37th, 6th). There is obviously and additional J-11B regiment also in PLANAF. So, that would add up to a total of 12. At the same time, 3 of them have just started conversion into J-11B/S and I suspect not all of the regiments have 24 aircraft (based on su-30mkk size). So the actual number is probably smaller than 12 * 24 = 288 aircraft. I would put in at 250 to 270 right now. Although, this number will go up to the high 280s once those regiments finish conversion.

As for J-10, there are obviously the 7 regiments we know about and the last one (PLANAF one) looks like it's finished conversion. So, that's 28 *7 = 196. There is also the 12 for August 1st and 16 to 20 at FTTC. That would give a total of around 224 to 228 J-10s.

HKSDU said:

For your J-11/Su-27 regiment, did you include the regiment that was recently introduced into PLANAF? Also there seems to be a new batch of J-10 that just came out, but waiting for the serial numbers to determine where they will be stationed.

10% still to finish so that can add couple more regiments here and there for J-7, J-8, Q-5. Thanks for your heads up.

Click to expand...

Yes, the naval 22 Regt with J-11B is included in my count of 12 FLANKER regiments. And we are all waiting for news of the 8th J-10 regiment...

can i play devils advocate and ask how many cargo and special mission aircraft PLAAF and PLANAF has? for example KJ200, KJ2000, Y-8 and Helicopters or is it just too hard to keep track of low number of aircraft

franco-russe said:

Yes, the naval 22 Regt with J-11B is included in my count of 12 FLANKER regiments. And we are all waiting for news of the 8th J-10 regiment...

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I finally finish the awful long list, so I can show you all the bases and serials numbers to match. But the problem is that the drive that has the list has crashed, and died..... grr

asif iqbal said:

can i play devils advocate and ask how many cargo and special mission aircraft PLAAF and PLANAF has? for example KJ200, KJ2000, Y-8 and Helicopters or is it just too hard to keep track of low number of aircraft

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KJ-200, KJ-2000 are easy, Y-8 transports are pretty hard to keep numbers of. Helicopters are awful to keep track of, but knowing the number of mi-17 in PLA service is easy, you just have to check the orders the PLA put through to Mil, and the delivery. Z-9 are pretty annoying to keep track of, so I gave up. Last I time I bothered with Y-8 was around 110, Z-9 was around 220. But that was a while ago.

Y-8 are difficult, but one could do a complete count from GE images. 110 would seem a bit high, but then probably all versions are included. Specialised versions I have seen are:
Y-8E 5321, 5328, 5329
Y-8J 9281, 9301, 9311, 9321
Y-8X 9261, 9271, 9291
Y-8GX1 5121, 21011, 21012, 21013
Y-8GX2 9331, 9341, 9351, 9361
Y-8GX3 30271, 30272, 30273
Y-8GX4 5125, 5126, 5128, 21015, 21016, 21017
Y-8GX5 30171, 30173, 30174, 30175, 9371 plus one more naval (9381?)
Y-8GX7 21110, 21111

Helicopters are in fact easier than combat aircraft. As HKSDU mentions, orders for MI-17 are known, and now stand at 200. For KA-28/31, 20 in service and 6 KA-31 on order.

Z-8/SA321Ja are 24 in PLAAF, 38 in PLANAF and 14 in Army Aviation.

Z-9 are 21 in PLAAF, 22 in PLANAF and 233 in Army Aviation.

For HKSDU: I have now changed back the number of the 19 Div J-11B regiment to 56 vice 57.

U guys are awesome thankyou very much