PLA Air Force news, pics and videos

Franklin said:

My question is what kind of planes do these British pilots have access to in China. I doubt they will be sitting in the cockpit of a J-20, J-16 or even a J-10C. Maybe a JL-10 or a J-10A. And which bases are they allow to visit.

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I suspect JL10s mostly, if not exclusively. I think their main role would be to operate as opfor for PLAAF pilots to train against to learn NATO air combat tactics.

The PLAAF pilots they are flying against would also be flying JL10s I would imagine.

The goal is to learn tactics rather than practice flying skills, so there won’t be much value in the PLAAF guys rocking up in J10s or J16s, because then all you will be doing is practicing how to stomp JL10s with frontline fighters.

Flying JL10s means minimal risk of the foreign pilots learning about sensitive capabilities of frontline Chinese fighters, and also has the benefit of tripling the training value of each flight for the PLAAF since they can have 3 pilots involved in each session as opposed to just one with single seaters.

China has (for its Mi-17/171 fleet) without sending them to Russia to perform the work. The overhaul was done under the supervision of Russian experts.

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More on the new 'Flying Tigers':

"Other pilots, speaking on condition of anonymity, have suggested the training of PLA pilots by British officers has been going on far longer, perhaps for as long as 20 years.

One said: ‘It would make your eyes water, it’s been happening for that long, clandestinely. At first I thought it was a two-way thing, with us getting as much information from the Chinese as we were passing to them. But I don’t think so any more. It is just about money and there is nothing in place to stop it.’"

Maikeru said:

More on the new 'Flying Tigers':

"Other pilots, speaking on condition of anonymity, have suggested the training of PLA pilots by British officers has been going on far longer, perhaps for as long as 20 years.

One said: ‘It would make your eyes water, it’s been happening for that long, clandestinely. At first I thought it was a two-way thing, with us getting as much information from the Chinese as we were passing to them. But I don’t think so any more. It is just about money and there is nothing in place to stop it.’"

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I guess the royals better cut back on frivolous spendings like Jubilees and such.

by78 said:

This is a pretty big deal. China has commissioned the world's first electromagnetic sled track, which replaces

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. The new EM sled track will be used for aerodynamic testing of missiles, bombs, etc. It's capable of accelerating an object weighing one ton or above to speeds up to 1030 km/hr.

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A high-resolution image of the world's first electromagnetic sled track, which is attached to an extensive complex of support and R&D facilities.

alfreddango said:

do these pilots go back to their countries after the end of their contract? I wonder what systems are in place to protect against counterintelligence

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Probably yes. From what I've seen it's a 10-month contract, a stint of work as an instruction in Chinese air bases for PLAAF pilots, packages can be around 300 thousand dollars, that's almost 4x higher than what a commercial pilot earns annually in the UK .

This instruction does not violate any international law, and I follow even more, it also does not violate the domestic laws of the vast majority of the world's air forces, any country allows retired military personnel to be contracted to other air forces, but only for instruction purposes.

The UK MoD's concern is that the number of contracted pilots is around 30 pilots and there are still sources commenting that they are approaching many others referring to a hundred UK pilots receiving instructional proposals.

Obviously under contract to the PLAAF, these instructors must respect the law of official secrets and are prohibited from passing on critical information, but with so many pilots in China, inadvertently some pilots may break the law by passing critical information to China, this cannot be fully managed by the UK government or even British intelligence. If true, they really are right to be concerned.

These individuals found themselves training Chinese pilots of some of the newest, most state-of-the-art fighter jets in the PLAAF’s fleet
A source described how the UK had "played China at its own game” - and won. “This was a rather unprecedented situation," he added, confirming that all assets had now left China and the operation was closed.

escobar said:

These individuals found themselves training Chinese pilots of some of the newest, most state-of-the-art fighter jets in the PLAAF’s fleet
A source described how the UK had "played China at its own game” - and won. “This was a rather unprecedented situation," he added, confirming that all assets had now left China and the operation was closed.

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Okay? Then why not let it continue if they got the upper hand in the war for info? Why blow the deal open and why make it known that foreign pilots were stealing info? It seems like an effort to sow distrust against foreign pilots still under PLAAF employ.