How Many Fighter Jets Does China Produce Annually? Concerns arise about China surpassing the US Air Force in fighter jet production

[Michael]

Dude, again, you can't study a program and become a military pilot.

It's about hands on experience, you first start with basic flight training, which you train with one of those propeller aircraft, you log a hundred hours on that thing and then you graduate to advance flight training either single jet or turbo prop trainer, and you get another 250 hours in that thing, and finally you get to train with dual seater fighter jet.

You don't get to start from early age and there are only limited flight hours you can get a year, because there is a limited trainer aircraft and instructor available. So that flight training alone is going to set you back 5 to 7 years.

What your son did in High School is nothing if that's only 6 months, that's not even able to finish ground school (International IATA standard - 10 months, China is included) and your son is not a pilot and cannot get on a J-10 and fly it, no matter how advance your technology is, otherwise as I said, if your son is allow to sit in a J-10 after college, then I can only say quality of PLAAF pilot is less than questionable.......

It seems to me you have absolutely no idea how aviation works, it does not work with civil aviation (again, universal standard) and it certainly wouldn't work in military aviation as that is multiple time specialise than civ-air.

And only half the job for Fighter Pilot is push the button, the other half is to build you up to withstand physics, so you don't get vertigo when you have no reference point and so you can pull +/-9 G turns, those training takes time and aircraft familiarisation takes time, and it's naive to assume you can just jump from one platform to another without re-training and re-certification, this is not how aviation works. Otherwise, everyone who plays Microsoft Flight Sim could be a pilot, you don't need to sit in a A320 to actually certify to fly it........

I'm not a pilot or even a soldier. I'm just a very ordinary military fan.

We know the process and cost of training a pilot in the past. From past experience, it does take a very long time to train a qualified pilot. But now, PLA does produce a large number of qualified pilots in only a very short time. This situation is confirmed by tons of videos.

We can understand the reason:
1. a large number of high quality soldiers and policy support. the PLA can select from a huge population of very good physically and mentally qualified soldiers to be trained. This is very different from other countries.
2. technological revolution. Advanced 4.5 and 5 generation fighters that drastically reduce the difficulty of pilot maneuvering.
3, Hard training. The PLA has been training very hard indeed in recent years.
4, Pilots have shifted from being able to operate multiple types of aircraft to being proficient in one type of aircraft.

As for the pilot training model in the US or Australia, we don't really know. What we know from the media is that the lack of fighter pilots in the US is more serious. Judging from the situation in the East/South China Sea, PLA pilots have not performed worse than pilots from other countries. Nor has there been a sudden and significant increase in PLA flying accidents in recent years. This shows that the current training model is working.

We also see that China has a lot of top fighter pilots (Golden Helmets) who are 30-35 years old, and even some who are less than 30 years old. They are proficient in flying at least 5 types of fighters.

==============================

I just checked the official news:

PLA Navy shipboard pilots.
13,000 people a year take the screenings. These people have fully passed the physical examination, political vetting, cultural exams, etc.
PLA Naval Aviation University specializes in training naval aircraft pilots. The graduation exam for students is to complete takeoff and landing operations of carrier-based aircraft on an aircraft carrier. After their successful graduation, they serve directly on aircraft carriers and are called full-fledged carrier pilots.
The average age of current PLA Navy carrier pilots is in their 20s.

 

[j_hungary]

I'm not a pilot or even a soldier. I'm just a very ordinary military fan.

We know the process and cost of training a pilot in the past. From past experience, it does take a very long time to train a qualified pilot. But now, PLA does produce a large number of qualified pilots in only a very short time. This situation is confirmed by tons of videos.

We can understand the reason:
1. a large number of high quality soldiers and policy support. the PLA can select from a huge population of very good physically and mentally qualified soldiers to be trained. This is very different from other countries.
2. technological revolution. Advanced 4.5 and 5 generation fighters that drastically reduce the difficulty of pilot maneuvering.
3, Hard training. The PLA has been training very hard indeed in recent years.
4, Pilots have shifted from being able to operate multiple types of aircraft to being proficient in one type of aircraft.

As for the pilot training model in the US or Australia, we don't really know. What we know from the media is that the lack of fighter pilots in the US is more serious. Judging from the situation in the East/South China Sea, PLA pilots have not performed worse than pilots from other countries. Nor has there been a sudden and significant increase in PLA flying accidents in recent years. This shows that the current training model is working.

We also see that China has a lot of top fighter pilots (Golden Helmets) who are 30-35 years old, and even some who are less than 30 years old. They are proficient in flying at least 5 types of fighters.

==============================

I just checked the official news:

PLA Navy shipboard pilots.
13,000 people a year take the screenings. These people have fully passed the physical examination, political vetting, cultural exams, etc.
PLA Naval Aviation University specializes in training naval aircraft pilots. The graduation exam for students is to complete takeoff and landing operations of carrier-based aircraft on an aircraft carrier. After their successful graduation, they serve directly on aircraft carriers and are called full-fledged carrier pilots.
The average age of current PLA Navy carrier pilots is in their 20s.

Again, 13000 screening does not mean you have 13000 pilot, not even 13000 potential pilot. That's depends on how many trainer you have to train those people and how much is the pass out rate. USAFA have an annual application rate of close to 10000, but only offer 2500 place for any fiscal year, and not all of them are pilots.

Another issue with you is you have no idea how aircraft works. As you mentioned yourself, you are not a pilot, you can't common train a pilot, because each aircraft is different, for example, do you know why you are weighed in before you board a flight? That's because they need to do weight management, and each aircraft have different design and thus different center of gravity, you need to balance the aircraft before it takes off, otherwise it's going to crash, it's the same in military aviation, each different type have different layout and different center of gravity, a J-10 would have different CoG than J-20 and the weight distribution would also be different between a J-10 and J-20 for example, and that would affect the Pitch and Yaw, so you have different response from the aircraft because the CoG of one aircraft is laying further down than the other (It pitches down if the CoG is further back) and those thing you can't be taught in school, you have to fly the aircraft to get use to it.

Another thing is, you can deal with most issue in civ-air with autopilot, I can be put on a Beechcraft Bonanza with minimal training if I usually fly a Cessna, because the general stuff is going to be the same (you know what a ASI or ADI looks like, you just have to find it) and the only thing you need to know is how to operate the autopilot, then you let it take over after you take off, but you don't use Autopilot in the military (not as often) so you would have to deal with every aspect with the aircraft yourself, that's the reason why pilot need years to transition from 1 airframe to another, it's not just some knob you need to learn how to turn, but you basically re-learn everything, from flight computer to how to use aileron and thrust

Again, the new pilot rate is about how many aircraft you can set aside for training. And again, for every student pilot, you will need 3 aircrafts, and you also need instructors, this is the reason why there are only maybe 200 or so military pilot trained every year. I mean you can put all them trainee on a Cessna or what not and get them to know how to fly in 10 months, they will be a "pilot", but those are pointless and useless for the Air Force unless your Airforce is solely flying Cessna.

 

[Michael]

Again, 13000 screening does not mean you have 13000 pilot, not even 13000 potential pilot. That's depends on how many trainer you have to train those people and how much is the pass out rate. USAFA have an annual application rate of close to 10000, but only offer 2500 place for any fiscal year, and not all of them are pilots.

Another issue with you is you have no idea how aircraft works. As you mentioned yourself, you are not a pilot, you can't common train a pilot, because each aircraft is different, for example, do you know why you are weighed in before you board a flight? That's because they need to do weight management, and each aircraft have different design and thus different center of gravity, you need to balance the aircraft before it takes off, otherwise it's going to crash, it's the same in military aviation, each different type have different layout and different center of gravity, a J-10 would have different CoG than J-20 and the weight distribution would also be different between a J-10 and J-20 for example, and that would affect the Pitch and Yaw, so you have different response from the aircraft because the CoG of one aircraft is laying further down than the other (It pitches down if the CoG is further back) and those thing you can't be taught in school, you have to fly the aircraft to get use to it.

Another thing is, you can deal with most issue in civ-air with autopilot, I can be put on a Beechcraft Bonanza with minimal training if I usually fly a Cessna, because the general stuff is going to be the same (you know what a ASI or ADI looks like, you just have to find it) and the only thing you need to know is how to operate the autopilot, then you let it take over after you take off, but you don't use Autopilot in the military (not as often) so you would have to deal with every aspect with the aircraft yourself, that's the reason why pilot need years to transition from 1 airframe to another, it's not just some knob you need to learn how to turn, but you basically re-learn everything, from flight computer to how to use aileron and thrust

Again, the new pilot rate is about how many aircraft you can set aside for training. And again, for every student pilot, you will need 3 aircrafts, and you also need instructors, this is the reason why there are only maybe 200 or so military pilot trained every year. I mean you can put all them trainee on a Cessna or what not and get them to know how to fly in 10 months, they will be a "pilot", but those are pointless and useless for the Air Force unless your Airforce is solely flying Cessna.

Obviously, it is difficult to reach a consensus on this issue based on different philosophies and systems.

Believe it or not, PLA did. We didn't come to believe this through PLA's written description. We saw the result through a lot of video interviews. Perhaps, you still can't believe it or find it hard to understand. This is normal.
There are many things that PLA has ever done that cannot be analyzed using western military logic. This has nothing to do with positive or negative, it is simply a description of events.

Chinese military fans often try to analyze PLA with western military logic, but the result is totally different from PLA's actual situation.PLA will seriously analyze and study western military technology development and military thinking logic, but they will not do things according to western military thinking, they have their own ideas and logic.

So, whether you believe it or not, this incident is indeed a fact. Since the PDF does not provide video upload function, you can only go to Youtube to search for related videos by yourself. That's it!

 

[Han Patriot]

Being a pilot means you have to be trained on a plane.

I am not disputing the fact that China have 1000 pilot, I am saying China can't train 1000 pilot EVERY 4 YEARS considering it take up to 7 (4 years for an aviation degree + 3 years flight school) to become a fighter pilot, which mean you need a bigger student pool with a lot more resource than just 1000 trainer to train 1000 pilot every 4 years.

You don't need 1000 planes to train 1000 pilots genius.

 

[j_hungary]

You don't need 1000 planes to train 1000 pilots genius.

The original post is 1000 pilot EACH CYCLE (One class from beginning to the end)............so did your pilot training take turns to train on the same aircraft? 45 pilots per class, 250 flight hours per airframe, 3 different airframe a pilot have to train with (Turbo Prop trainer, Jet Trainer, and dual seater), good luck training 1000 pilots and graduate by year 2300.

You do know aircraft need ground check EVERY landing cycle, right? It ranges from doing a walk around and make sure the tire pressure is alright and no puncture to hanger it and do the A, B,C, D check, you can't share the aircraft for training, genius.

Aircraft maintenance checks - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[j_hungary]

Obviously, it is difficult to reach a consensus on this issue based on different philosophies and systems.

Believe it or not, PLA did. We didn't come to believe this through PLA's written description. We saw the result through a lot of video interviews. Perhaps, you still can't believe it or find it hard to understand. This is normal.
There are many things that PLA has ever done that cannot be analyzed using western military logic. This has nothing to do with positive or negative, it is simply a description of events.

Chinese military fans often try to analyze PLA with western military logic, but the result is totally different from PLA's actual situation.PLA will seriously analyze and study western military technology development and military thinking logic, but they will not do things according to western military thinking, they have their own ideas and logic.

So, whether you believe it or not, this incident is indeed a fact. Since the PDF does not provide video upload function, you can only go to Youtube to search for related videos by yourself. That's it!

Dude, it's not whether I believe this is the case, it's no way what you said can happen. It's like saying we should give people pilot certificate to people who had finish Microsoft Flight Sim........

Flight training is not just classroom stuff nor can you switch around, you need heck a lot of resource to train to be a pilot.

What you are saying is not the same thing those YouTube video is showing..........All I can say is you need more knowledge at the topic at hand before you can make logical comment.......

 

[Michael]

Dude, it's not whether I believe this is the case, it's no way what you said can happen. It's like saying we should give people pilot certificate to people who had finish Microsoft Flight Sim........

Flight training is not just classroom stuff nor can you switch around, you need heck a lot of resource to train to be a pilot.

What you are saying is not the same thing those YouTube video is showing..........All I can say is you need more knowledge at the topic at hand before you can make logical comment.......

I don't know if you can access the Chinese site properly. This is the news and video released by the official organization.
China's new batch of carrier pilots are certified to fly on night carriers. Their average age is just over 20.
We all know that completing takeoff and landing operations on an aircraft carrier at night is a difficult subject.
This is just one of the many proofs that “Chinese pilots are very young”. There is too much official evidence like this in the Chinese media.
Believe it or not, this is the end of the story.

平均年龄20多岁！新一批舰载机飞行员获夜间航母资质认证

baijiahao.baidu.com

 

[j_hungary]

I don't know if you can access the Chinese site properly. This is the news and video released by the official organization.
China's new batch of carrier pilots are certified to fly on night carriers. Their average age is just over 20.
We all know that completing takeoff and landing operations on an aircraft carrier at night is a difficult subject.
This is just one of the many proofs that “Chinese pilots are very young”. There is too much official evidence like this in the Chinese media.
Believe it or not, this is the end of the story.

平均年龄20多岁！新一批舰载机飞行员获夜间航母资质认证

baijiahao.baidu.com

It said "20多" that's 20+ average, that's not "Very Young". My brother graduate from Naval academy at 23, squadron winged at 26 and you can't get into Aviation Program at all after 30 (You can't get in the Military after 34), as you need to be physically fit in the military.

The reason why the average age for Chinese Naval Pilot is 20+ is because Chinese Naval Aviation is still at a very early stage, you don't used to have CAG that served 20+ years in the Naval Aviation as you don't have a Carrier 20 years ago........

 

[lamdacore]

It said "20多" that's 20+ average, that's not "Very Young". My brother graduate from Naval academy at 23, squadron winged at 26 and you can't get into Aviation Program at all after 30 (You can't get in the Military after 34), as you need to be physically fit in the military.

The reason why the average age for Chinese Naval Pilot is 20+ is because Chinese Naval Aviation is still at a very early stage, you don't used to have CAG that served 20+ years in the Naval Aviation as you don't have a Carrier 20 years ago........

So, what if the Chinese state things that dont make sense. Is that not a good thing for Western military planners? If an adversary is committing a mistake, why let them know they are?

Lets wait till they clash in an air war. That will clearly show the weaknesses in each philosophy.

 

[Beijingwalker]

Some dumb idiot still believe China does not have money , equipments and planes to regularly train its pilots.

 

[Nuffle]

Modernization of Fighter Pilot Training in the PLA Air Force Proceeds Apace

In the past several months, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has reported and released information about new developments in its effort to modernize the PLA Air Force’s (PLAAF) training of

www.airuniversity.af.edu

Modernization of Fighter Pilot Training in the PLA Air Force Proceeds Apace​

In the past several months, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has reported and released information about new developments in its effort to modernize the PLA Air Force’s (PLAAF) training of prospective fighter pilots. One of the institutions that conduct that training, the Shijiazhuang Flight Academy, is poised to completely replace an older training program and the aircraft used in it, thereby shortening prospective pilots’ training there by a year. Meanwhile, the Xi’an and Harbin Flight Academies are establishing new units to train recent graduates to transition to fighter aircraft, shifting the burden of that training from combat units to the academies. Both these developments indicate that the PLAAF is steadily making progress in long-standing efforts to streamline and centralize its initial fighter pilot training program, efforts that should be complete by the beginning of the next decade.

PDF: https://www.airuniversity.af.edu/Po...oceeds Apace.pdf?ver=UohKp62x8xot-laygKRXCg==