Thanks.
Indeed.
That recent report/article by that Mitchell Institute researcher who was looking at commercial satellite imagery., was kind of amusing at the time.
Namely this part:
"
Beyond the raw numbers of aircraft, Dahm said the satellite imagery also suggested something about how the PLAAF was running the exercise. Pointing to one image that showed small detachments of J-10, J-16, and J-20 fighters gathered at one airfield, he speculated as to why the Chinese would be mixing and matching different types together.
“I’d say best case scenario, these aircraft might be conducting dissimilar air combat training: fighters fighting different types of fighters,” he suggested. “Worst case scenario, the PLA Air Force has moved on to fighter integration, developing tactics, techniques and procedures to combine the capabilities of fourth- and fifth-generation fighters.”"
Of course for us, we've known about their 5th/4.5th gen teaming for years now, so it was kinda odd that they made it seem like it would be a new idea for the PLA to combine those platforms together.
And now barely a month later CCTV straight up airs a segment confirming it in a very public way... which (as you correctly state) is just a recognition that this type of training/tactics development is old hat and that they're already moving onto better things.
