Singha wrote:>> Around 40 aircraft every six months
if they are really inducting 80 J10 every 6 months, does it mean the PLAAF is increasing in size of these are replacements for the F7, JH7 and J8 squadrons?
how many of their vast holding of these 3 types is really battleworthy i wonder - wiki totals up some 800 of these types.
perhaps it too is a employment generation scheme of sorts?
https://www.scramble.nl/orbats/china/airforce
the long list of bases would rival the P2, but somehow their orbat looks forlorn to me ...
I should say it takes them six months to produce a batch of 40. It doesn't mean they are continously producing batches. This is the 3rd for the "C" variant.
Manufacture is rapid. But induction? Probably not. We have satellite pictures in this thread where they had 20 odd J-10s stacked up on manufacturer grounds. It looks like they are outstripping the PLAAF's ability to accept them in terms of trained ground crews and pilots. Cheen has the same issue with their navy but whereas a ship can sail with a smaller crew of greenhorns you can't really do that with planes.
I think the JH-7s are battleworthy for the most part because they are strike platforms on the coast facing the USN and Unkil allies. The J-7s and J-8s are probably derelict with ground crews being retrained for the modern types. There are many reports that Cheen is stretched for everything aviation because their civilian air industry is eating up pilots and maintenance crews at a furious pace.
In fact, this brings up an issue that affects the global air carriers industry. Chini airlines are a big problem poaching pilots (and maintenance personnel) not just from the PLAAF but from around the world.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-land ... 1459501736
“In China you can see planes grounded just because there aren’t enough captains to fill the cockpits,” said Mr. Lee, who left Korean Air three years ago to join the biggest Chinese airline by fleet size, China Southern Airlines Co. He said his team alone last year hired at least 40 pilots, mainly from European budget carriers.
Veteran pilots from South Korean airlines are among those most sought-after by Chinese carriers for their level of training and cultural proximity, experts say. But their departure is draining Korean carriers of experience and pressuring staff schedules, leading the pilots union to demand large wage increases and raise safety fears.
Indian pilots are in demand too as the Chini poaching creates a drain across East Asia:
https://wap.business-standard.com/artic ... 866_1.html
Rakesh Kapoor, a senior pilot with a leading domestic carrier, was pleasantly surprised when he got an offer in his mailbox, to fly a Boeing 737 in China. Leading Chinese carrier China Southern Airlines offered an attractive financial package, along with accommodation, domestic help and an interpreter for personal use.
“The offer was very lucrative, about $300,000 per annum and that is purely tax free. You can’t think of making that much money at my level in India,” said Kapoor, who has not made up his mind about the offer yet.
Everything is a jobs program in Cheen. They need to keep a billion people working for social stability. It is the commies' implicit contract with their people after the Tianenmen Square massacre.
Just as the carriers industry employs millions, the building of airplanes and ships also employs many more milions than the crews needed to maintain and drive them. Cheen seems far more focused on manufacture than service as a society.
