Total # of Modern PRC Fighter Aircraft

Interresting.

For the table of youngtomous the statistics seem good for Sukhoi but no for J-10, production in serie begin in 2002 ( first order 50 ) sure.
There " The initial batches of 50 (54 AL-31FNs were imported between 2002 and 2004 ) ... " and 32 J-10B ! only some prototypes being tested.

This table come where ? with symbols Germans and Soviets strange !

What has become of the earliest 20-30 su27 ?

It do count only aircraft operationnal for combat ofc.

20 years can be plenty if it is true they were flown at 180 hours per pilot. That would suggest that total flight time per plane was soemthing in the 230-300 hrs a year range, depending on the ratio of pilots to the number of planes. USAF is usually credited with flying 180-220 hours per pilot while their F15s are said to fly 275-300 hours a year.

So we might be looking at close to or over 5000 hours for those earliest birds. And su-27sk/ubk aren't made to last that long. Su-35 boasts a greatly increased lifespan of 6000 hours. Older soviet planes regularly had not much more over 3000 hour lifespans. It is quite plausible Su27s simply couldn't fly anymore once they reached 4000-4500 hours. One can always rework the airframe but with j11b in production, having a different and newer aiframe, maybe it was decided it just wan't worth the effort to do it.

Exact for duration life of Su-27.

For J-11A (J-11 No. 61) from which time the Chinese were making more elements it is better, at the structural level.

Russian engineers who helped the Chinese have said that they were better quality than the Russian Su-27 because the Chinese had bought Western machine tools high quality.

youngtomous said:

View attachment 7393View attachment 7394 just from froum .though not accurate, May be can help you to get final answer.

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i would definitely not use that as my official source. I think 12th division is definitely getting J-10 already, but not sure if the PLANAF 9th division got it yet.

Strange, the author must know a lot, but way too few J-11B, should be 100 (5x20).

Interesting, though, with 4 J-15 in 2011, 8 in 2012 and 8 in 2013. HJ-1 Dalian, HJ might be Hai Ji, from 海军飞行训练基地 Naval Aviation Training Base 1 Training Regiment, which should in fact be at Shanhaiguan/Suizhong/Huangdicun.

From what I've heard most if not all originally imported Su27SKs are out of front line active service, but not decommissioned, they were removed from active service when they still have a few hundred hours left on them and preserved in storage in case of war. Not sure about the UBKs but they were used even more extensively than the single seaters.

hmmwv said:

From what I've heard most if not all originally imported Su27SKs are out of front line active service, but not decommissioned, they were removed from active service when they still have a few hundred hours left on them and preserved in storage in case of war. Not sure about the UBKs but they were used even more extensively than the single seaters.

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How would that be possible, when PLAAF still flying J8s & J7s who are quite inferior to SU 27s.

j8s and j7s are supposedly flying a lot less than su27/j10 and the similar modern planes. 160 hours per year versus 240 hours per year can make quite a difference.

J8s serving in plaaf are fairly young, too, from 1990s and newer. Original Su27 were also from 1990s.

J7s are a bit of a mystery, though, as there are reportedly still a few hundred of those that are in use but were produced in first half of 1980s. That would mean they stretched their 3000 or so hour lifespans over some 25-30 years. But maybe they were made or later modified to last longer, perhaps up to 4000 hours, who knows. Of course, there are also a few hundred of newer j7s from 1990s and even some from 2000s.

timepass said:

How would that be possible, when PLAAF still flying J8s & J7s who are quite inferior to SU 27s.

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He said they might have been removed while still flyable to be used "in case of war", which means China views them as more important than the J-7's and J-8's thus the PLA are ensuring the ability to use them in a potential future conflict.

timepass said:

How would that be possible, when PLAAF still flying J8s & J7s who are quite inferior to SU 27s.

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Like others have mentioned, PLAAF don't fly J7s and J8s as intensely as the Flankers so they will naturally serve longer, also note many J7s and J8s are younger than those original Flankers.