But how reliable is this? A naval J-20AH? … J-20B is presumably the WS-15-powered one?
Looks like a certain fan-boys wish-list?!
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But how reliable is this? A naval J-20AH? … J-20B is presumably the WS-15-powered one?
Looks like a certain fan-boys wish-list?!
1 Y-20U + 4 J-20
PLA fighter jets hold cross-regional drills over 5,000km, show capabilities
By Published: Mar 30, 2022 07:42 PM
The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force recently organized a cross-day-and-night, cross-regional maneuver exercise that saw multiple types of fighter jets flying across more than 5,000 kilometers in less than 20 hours, covering different terrains including plateaus and the sea, demonstrating not only the outstanding capabilities of the pilots and warplanes, but also the strong logistics support capabilities of all air bases involved, experts said on Wednesday.
Starting the drills, warplanes including the J-11B and the J-11BS attached to a brigade affiliated with the PLA Air Force took off from an air base in Central China and headed toward an unfamiliar region thousands of kilometers away, China Central Television (CCTV) reported on Tuesday.
During the maneuver, the aircraft formation penetrated mock hostile aerial defenses, flew from the plains to the sea, and arrived at the designated air base overcoming fatigue from the extended flight, CCTV reported.
As night fell, the warplanes took off again and started another long-endurance flight and maneuver to another air base, the report said, noting that the whole cross-regional maneuver exercise lasted nearly 20 hours.
"We carried out this long-range flight not only throughout the day and night, but also took off and landed at many unfamiliar air bases. We flew across a variety of terrains with a total range of more than 5,000 kilometers, as the pilots had to deal with not only weather changes as they flew across different regions, but also unexpected mock combat challenges along the way," Guo Enyun, the commander of the brigade, said on CCTV.
A distance of 5,000 kilometers means that, if flying in a straight line, a plane can travel across the entire country, observers said.
"The exercises lasted from the day to early morning as we went through terrains like plains, plateaus and the sea. This honed both our will and skill under realistic combat scenarios," Zhong Haifeng, a pilot at the brigade, was quoted in the report as saying.
The flight paths used in the drills were designed to be close to real combat, as different terrains were taken into consideration in defense penetration and air assault sessions, Gao Ruipeng, a staff officer at the brigade, said in the report.
The mock combat sessions were organized without the red and blue teams knowing each other's plans, and this exercised the pilots' air-to-ground combat and attack capabilities, Gao said.
China is a large country with all kinds of terrains, and fast-flying warplanes may travel across all those places in a short time, Fu Qianshao, a Chinese military aviation expert, told the Global Times on Wednesday.
The exercise has demonstrated the outstanding skills of the pilots, who can operate from air bases in different terrains, altitudes, temperatures and weather conditions, which have a huge impact on how aircraft perform, Fu said. It also showed the strong logistics support capabilities of all air bases, which would need to carry out maintenance, refuel and munitions reloading for the aircraft that are not based there.
Aircraft from other regions of China can support the region where reinforcements are needed, analysts said.
I'll bite - as a refresher. I spent too much time watching Ukraine and need a change of air
All listed bases are within the Eastern Theatre Command and the above proposition doesn't match (current equipment).
PLAAF
- Wuhu (Shanghai/Eastern) - 7th Bde. (J-16) -> J-20B, 9th Bde. (J-20A)
- Changxing (Shanghai/Eastern) - 8th Bde. (J-10A) -> J-20A
- Chongming (Shanghai/Eastern) - 78th Bde. (J-8DF) ->J-16
- Hangzhou (Shanghai/Eastern) - 83rd Bde. (JH-7A) ->J-16
- Rugao (Shanghai/Eastern) - 86th Bde. (J-7E) ->J-16
- Lianyungang (Shanghai/Eastern) - 95th Bde. (J-11B) -> J-20A
- Shantou/Waisha (Fuzhou/Eastern) - 25th Bde. (J-10C) -> J-10C
- Nanchang/Xiangtang (Fuzhou/Eastern) - 40th Bde. (J-16) -> J-20B
- Wuyishan (Fuzhou/Eastern) - 41st Bde. (J-11A) -> J-16
- Quzhou (Fuzhou/Eastern) - 85th Bde. (Su-30MKK) -> J-20A
- Huangyan/Luqiao (Taizhou) (Eastern) 4th Bde. / former 4th and 10th Rgt. (Su-30MK2, J-10AH) -> J-20AH
- Yiwu (Eastern) 18th Rgt. (JH-7) -> J-16H
Hangzhou - "March 2021 J-16s were noted at Hangzhou, suggesting that the 83rd Brigade had upgraded to this aircraft."
Rugao - "In 2019 the J-7s were wfu and the a major upgrade of the airbase was initiated."
Wuhu - "During the renovations of Wuhu during 2020 the 9th Brigade was operating from Quzhou."
Quzhou - "In 2020 J-20s were noted at Quzhou."
Missing in @A.Man 's list above are PLAAF's Jiaxing (Shanghai/Eastern) 84th Bde. (JH-7A) and PLANAF's Ningbo/Zhuangqiao (PLAN/Eastern) 16th Rgt. (JH-7). Both are still included in the orbat on scramble.nl but not on the list of units on zh.wikipedia
Here's the map I made last year using scramble.nl orbat from late 2020 - colors indicate aircraft classes and generations (legacy, single-engine multirole modern, twin-engine multirole modern, twin-engine bomber etc). I just noticed it is missing the 85th Bde in Quzhou.
![PLA aviation OrBat [1200 px].jpg](https://www.sinodefenceforum.com/data/attachments/79/79864-ca441cf53a6be4ea3dee973eaeebabe2.jpg "PLA aviation OrBat [1200 px].jpg")
Fleet consisting of exclusively J-20 and J-16 seems neither practical nor desirable from logistical standpoint even considering long term, circa 2030. During conflict aircraft will operate from any available infrastructure and as soon as aerial refueling is available in sufficient amounts they can perform longer flights like F-16's did during Desert Storm, flying from UAE, much further south-east than F-15C's. In such conditions J-10C's would be sufficient replacement for J-7E (86) or J-8DF (78). J-11A from 41Bde can also be replaced by J-10C and use current base for combat operations (see distances on map).
From the strategic viewpoint - once Taiwan completes the ongoing air force modernization around 2024-26 it will have approximately 210 F-16V's and less than 100 (70-80?) F-CK-1 C/D's and whatever number of Mirage 2000 will be serviceable.
Let's assume conservatively that Hangzhou uses J-16 and Rugao modernized infrastructure for J-10C. That would put ETC PLAAF forces at:
- 24 J-20A (Wuhu)
- 72 J-16 (Wuhu, Nanchang, Hangzhou)
- 24 J-11B (Lianyungang)
- 24 J-11A (Wuyishan)
- 24 Su-30MKK (Quzhou)
- 48 J-10C (Shantou, Rugao)
- 24 J-10A (Changxing)
- 24 J-8DF (Chongming)
As for PLANAF - again in my view - moving PLAAF's JH-7As after upgrades (AM? A2?) to replace JH-7s and Su-30MK2 is a better and cheaper solution. Moving J-16s there, if PLANAF indeed is planning on acquring them, seems like an illogical choice as they could be more useful in STC. Overall the priority for PLANAF should be J-XY and upgraded J-15 as all units should be preparing to move to shipborne aviation.
In short - to me the list doesn't seem credible because it breaks too many constraints, and even if some of it turns out to be true it's probably accidental.
One question (@Deino ?) - does anyone know how many spare fuel tanks can a J-11B or J-16 carry? I assumed that J-11A carries none like Su-27 and neither do the Su-30s. Additional fuel would greatly affect availability of J-Flankers without aerial refueling which probably is an ongoing consideration as sufficient numbers of Y-20U - 100-200 aircraft - won't be available for several years at least. So if J-16s carry 3 or more tanks they might be more useful, even if temporarily in ETC, because J-10C can be refueled and Northern/Central TC have shorter distances and greater density for more efficient refueling operations. It therefore makes sense logistically to move J-10Cs to NTC/CTC and support them with greater number of aerial refueling aircraft and move additional J-16s to ETC with fewer tankers supporting the command.
The swapping out of the JH-7As caught my eye, which seems a bit odd. Aren't they only a couple years old? Will other JH-7A units be augmented then, now that J-16s are taking over the 83rd?
Also quite a few rear echelon units still fly the J-7s. I'm assuming those would be getting the J-11A+Bs that are likewise getting swapped with J-16s and J-20s, or do those J-11s have somewhere else to go?
In fact none.
Tldr: nothing interesting was said.
Translation: PLA and PLAAF equipment modernisation has been going along nicely, but there is room for improvement. Americal has been frequently testing PLAAF response, been evocative blah blah blah just regular Chinese rhetorics.
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People have been taking the line where he says "it endangers the safety of ships and aircrafts as well as the safety of the crew" to mean USS Carl Vinson and F-35C specifically, implying that J-20 was involved in this incident. I think that's probably reading too much into it.