China’s Air Force + Russian Jet Engines

choi

Ting Shi, More Air Confrontations Likely as China's Top Guns See Elevated Role. Stars and Stripes (from Bloomberg), Aug 1, 2014.
www.stripes.com/news/pacific/mor ... vated-role-1.296549

Quote:

(a) “With the ditching of 1950s-era fighters in favor of planes with 1980s-level technology, the air force's strengthened resources are being twinned with the elevation of its leadership within China's military — there are now two representatives of the service on the top, 11-man Central Military Commission. * * *

Phillip Saunders, director of the Center for the Study of Chinese Military Affairs at the US National Defense University in Washington said, “‘The PLAAF has transformed itself from the old PLAAF which flew obsolete fighters based on 1950s Soviet designs to one flying modern aircraft based on 1980s Russian and Western technology.’ * * *

“The Pentagon said in the report [Annual Report to Congress: Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China 2014] that of an estimated 1,900 Chinese combat aircraft 600 are ‘modern,’ with the proportion set to rise to a majority in coming years.

(b) “Founded in 1949 with only 10,000 troops [number for PLAAF only, excluding army and navy], the People's Liberation Army Air Force was used to support ground forces. When the PLA began reorganizing the army into military regions in the early 1980s, the PLAAF was still tasked with providing defense for land positions rather than acting as its own branch.

(c) “Among the gaps in the modernization that remain is the inability to produce indigenously built engines for China's jet fighters. After decades of attempts, China remains dependent on Russia imports, according to Andrew Scobell, senior political scientist at RAND Corporation in Arlington, Virginia. Scobell said the PLAAF also is struggling to overturn a mindset of being a ‘support arm for ground force operations and air defense.’

“China operates one transport helicopter for every seven the US has, and the American air force operates around 570 aerial refueling aircraft compared with 10 for the PLAAF, IHS Jane's Defence said in a report last December.

"’There is a big advance over where they were, but still not close to state-of-the-art,’ Saunders said.

My comment:
(a) Stars and Stripes republishes the Bloomberg report (written on China’s Army Day 建军节--but changes the title and omits the sectional headings. See next.
(b) Ting Shi, China’s Tom Cruise-Emulating Top Guns See Profile Rise. Bloomberg, Aug 1, 2014
www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-3 ... -rise-under-xi.html

You can choose to read either report (Stars and Stripes or Bloomberg).
(c) Ting Shi does not have a Chinese name, according to my research. But Shi is the surname; that is for sure.

choi

India Grows Desperate Over Unreliable Russian Engines. Strategy Page, July 30, 2014.
strategypage.com/htmw/htatrit/articles/20140730.aspx