Free Republic

My friend and noted aerospace industry expert Richard Aboulafia recently commented on the inability of the Chinese to sell their fighter jets overseas:“This feeble sales record has nothing to do with the aircraft themselves. China has made great strides in improving its state-owned aerospace technology base, particularly in the military realm. China makes quality products, or at least products that are on par with the planes that the old Soviet Union succeeded in exporting in great quantities to various countries.”Moreover, Chinese weapons are relatively cheap, reliable, and sold with few questions asked.The reason, rather, according to Aboulafia, is that China’s...

SAN FRANCISCO – Song Chen has been charged in a criminal complaint with visa fraud in connection with a scheme to lie about her status as an active member of the People’s Republic of China’s military forces while in the United States conducting research at Stanford University, announced United States Attorney David L. Anderson and Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent in Charge John L. Bennett.  Song made her initial federal court appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Sallie Kim this morning to face the charge. The allegations describing the crime appear in an affidavit supporting the complaint filed on July...

China made history as the only nation other than the U.S. to ever field a stealth fighter jet, and a new report on China’s military power from the Defense Intelligence Agency just revealed yet another batch of stealth combat aircraft projects. China "is developing new medium- and long-range stealth bombers to strike regional and global targets," the report reads. "Stealth technology continues to play a key role in the development of these new bombers, which probably will reach initial operational capability no sooner than 2025." (Please see link for full article)

China hopes to build a modern air force that is so powerful and advanced it can essentially “defeat” the U.S. Air Force “without actually fighting,” according to a new report. A study by the Project Air Force team at the Rand Corporation concludes that the objective of the Chinese air force is to become so powerful that it could crush U.S. air power if they ever had to fight. The study says that the Chinese could accomplish it by copying U.S. military capabilities and through self-innovation.

Less than a week after Chinese state media said the H-20 stealth bomber program was making “great progress,” there are now reports that the People’s Liberation Army Air Force, or PLAAF, might be planning to publicly reveal the plane during celebrations the mark the 70th anniversary of its founding in 2019. It has also emerged that the PLAAF showed off a logo featuring the silhouette of a flying wing-style aircraft at a recent official gala promoting plans to establish a “first-class strategic bomber division,” which may also be a nod to the up-coming H-20. Defence Blog was among the first...

China’s expanding line-up of multirole, all-weather J-16 fighter jets will help the air force to launch strikes deep into enemy territory and destroy key strategic assets like airfields and bridges, military analysts say. While it is not as advanced as the new J-20 – officially named Weilong, or powerful dragon – the Shenyang J-16 will become a key part of PLA Air Force operations and any strategy against Taiwan or to deter US military intervention, they said. China’s air force announced last week that a squadron of J-16s would soon be combat ready. Based on the Russian Sukhoi-30 fighter jet,...

China lands nuclear strike capable bombers on disputed South China Sea island The Chinese air force has for the first time landed several bombers on a South China Sea island. The move could fuel tension in the region amid concern that Beijing is expanding its military might to the disputed waters. The China Daily state newspaper reported Friday that several bombers, including the long-range, nuclear strike-capable H-6K, conducted take off and landing drills at an unidentified island airfield in the South China Sea. Read more: South China Sea - what you need to know A defense ministry statement said in...

China is testing an “invisibility cloak” on non-stealth military jets to help them evade radar detection, according to scientists involved in the project. If successful, the technology could quickly boost the combat strength of the jets, the researchers say. But others say the technology was difficult to mass produce, limited to a small range of radar bandwidths and would need to be combined with other devices to be truly effective. The technology involves the use of a “metamaterial”, a fabricated layer comprising microscopic structures similar to integrated circuits. The metamaterial can alter the way radio waves bounce off its surface...

File photo shows a J-10C fighter jet in a training. China's new multi-role fighter jet J-10C began combat duty Monday, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) air force announced. It is China's third-generation supersonic fighter and made its debut when the PLA marked its 90th anniversary in July 2017 at Zhurihe military training base in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Equipped with an advanced avionics system and various airborne weapons, the domestically-developed fighter has airstrike capabilities within medium and close range and is capable of precisely striking land and maritime targets. (Xinhua/Xi Bobo) BEIJING, April 16 (Xinhua) -- China's new multi-role fighter...

This is perhaps the most authoritative portrayal so far of Indian air power as a threat to ChinaWith China’s air force deploying its “latest stealth jet fighter” – the J-20 Chengdu – one of the provocations could be the Indian Air Force (IAF) deployment of its top-of-the-line Sukhoi-30MKI fighter in Assam, near the disputed Sino-India border. The English language website “China Military Online” – an official People’s Liberation Army (PLA) news outlet – quoted an expert to state on Monday that the J-20 has been urgently operationalised because of the threat posed by the US, Japan, South Korea and India....

Without saying how many were in operation, the People’s Liberation Army Air Force confirmed on Friday that the J-20, the country’s fifth-generation fighter, had entered combat service, meaning it was combat-ready. However, the aircraft was equipped with inferior engines designed for earlier warplanes when it first joined the air force in March last year because “critical problems” with its tailor-made WS-15 engine, exposed by an accident in 2015, had not been fixed, two independent military sources told the Post. “The WS-15 engine designed for the J-20 exploded during a ground running test in 2015,” one source said, adding that no...

China’s J-20 stealth fighter has entered combat service, the country’s armed forces confirmed on Friday, expanding the military’s air power options as it presses on with a massive modernisation programme. People’s Liberation Army Air Force spokesman Shen Jinke said the deployment of the J-20 to combat units would “help the air force better shoulder the sacred mission of safeguarding national sovereignty, security and territorial integrity”. Shen said the air force was moving towards a modernised military service that could operate in all fronts, and had become an effective force to control, contain and win a war. The fighter jet officially...

An H-6K with targeting pods, photographed by Japanese Air Self Defence Force. (Photo: Japan Ministry of Defence) Though it has not received media attention equal to its fighter counterparts, the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) bomber fleet is steadily being modernized, and plans call for a next generation stealthy, multi-role bomber. The Xian Aircraft Corporation (XAC) H-6K bomber proved its capabilities during the Aviadarts 2017 competition held earlier this month in China, edging out the Russian Tu-22M3/M3M Backfire in the bomber category. Chinese analysts credit the win to newer navigation systems and targeting radar, as well as rigorous aircrew...

Dear Hush-Kit, I am generally a happy man, but there is one thing in life that leaves me confused and angry: I can’t get my head around all the different Chinese Flankers (I refuse to put that word in inverted commas). Please please could you explain the differences without drowning me in details? Yours hopefully, Jeffrey Bainbridge, Luton OK Jeffrey, no problem. I will do my best. Where I fail, better informed readers will gently correct me in the comments section. So first of all we have the Shenyang J-11 The J-11 was just a Russian Su-27SK provided as a...

Capt. Yu Xu, one of China’s first female fighter pilots. Xinhua photo On the morning of Nov. 12, J-10 fighters from China’s prestigious Ba Yi Air Demonstration Team practiced maneuvers over Yutian county, northeast of the city of Tianjin. Sitting in the instructor’s seat of one of the delta-wing J-10s was Capt. Yu Xu, a flight leader and one of four women pilots trained to operate the domestically-designed multi-role fighter. The 30-year-old native of Chongzhou, Sichuan province, had earned the nickname “Golden Peacock” after a traditional dance she had performed while a cadet. Around 9:45 a.m., observers on the ground...

China has taken delivery of the first two Xian Y-20 strategic airlifters, according to photos published on social media. They show the aircraft in full People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) markings at an undisclosed airbase. However, the serial numbers on the aircraft (11051 and 11052) indicate that they are assigned to the PLAAF’s 4th Transport Division, 12th Air Regiment based at Qionglai in Sichuan Province. The division comprises of three regiments based in the PLA’s Western Theatre Command, operating the Shaanxi Y-7, Y-8 and Y-9 transports. The Y-20 is a high-wing, T-tail four-engine design capable of strategic airlift. It...

The PLA Air Force refuted the rumor that the J-20 fighter has been deployed to troops on May 31. Since May 30, some media has been reporting that "J-20s are in service in the Southern Theatre Command" and that "J-20s and J-10s are being used in military drills together". According to the official Weibo account of the PLA Air Force, those reports are not true. So far, J-20s have not been used to equipped the air force. A TV station mistakenly used the image of a J-20 when reporting an air unit of the Southern Theater Command on May 29....

NEW DELHI, OCT.29, 2015: The Indian Air Force (IAF) is staging its biggest exercise, codenamed 'Live Wire', to test its preparedness to fight a two-front war in case of a simultaneous armed conflict with China and Pakistan. This exercise, which begins on Oct 31, involves the simultaneous activation of all airbases across the country from Leh in Jammu and Kashmir to Car Nicobar in Andaman and Nicobar Islands for about 15 days. "The most important part of Exercise Live Wire is to rehearse quick movement of air assets from one theatre to another," a top IAF officer explained to Arming...

The strategic bombers of the People's Liberation Army Air Force can now launch all-weather, long-range, precision strikes, military observers said. "The fact that our H-6K bombers have performed several long-distance drills far into the Pacific Ocean indicates that the H-6K fleet has become capable of conducting various operations such as long-range precision strikes," Fu Qianshao, an aviation equipment expert with the PLA Air Force, told China Daily on Tuesday. "In the past, our bombers could only deliver airdropped bombs and so were unable to conduct precision attacks, but the H-6K, with the adoption of some of our most advanced aeronautic...

An article in Sina's Chinese-language military news web portal compared the abilities of India's HAL Tejas Light Combat Aircraft and the FC-1 Xiaolong/JF-17 Thunder developed jointly by China and Pakistan. Overview of the Aircraft The HAL Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) was named by former Indian prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The development plan was approved by the Indian government in 1983. The government's requirements for the Tejas were to develop an all-weather supersonic LCA which could replace the MiG-21. Its main mission is to fight for control of airspace and to offer short-range support. The development of the Tejas...