Showing posts with label Chinese PLAAF.. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Lockheed Martin Awarded Upgrade Contract For 145 F-16S Of The Republic Of China Air Force

Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] was awarded a contract valued up to $1.85 billion by the U.S. Government to initiate the upgrade of 145 Block 20 F-16A/B aircraft for the Republic of China (RoC). This retrofit program will include the addition of an Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar, embedded global positioning, as well as upgrades to the electronic warfare and other avionics systems of Taiwan’s F-16s.

Lockheed Martin has a proven track record of upgrading more than 1,000 existing F-16s for a combination of the U.S. Air Force and international customers. Most recently, Lockheed Martin was named the prime integrator to upgrade the USAF F-16 fleet. Both new upgrade programs will be based on the F-16V configuration announced by Lockheed Martin earlier this year.
“Lockheed Martin looks forward to a continued partnership with the Republic of China in upgrading their F-16s,” said Jeff Babione, vice president and general manager of the F-16/F-22 Integrated Fighter Group. “Based on elements of the F-16V configuration, Taiwan’s air force will receive the most advanced F-16 upgrades. This program reinforces the strong value proposition associated with commonality between the USAF F-16 program and the worldwide F-16 user community.”

Chinese F-60/J-21/J31 Fifth Generation Stealth Fighter Jet Unveiled

F-60/J-21/31 Fifth Generation Stealth Fighter Jet will be employed as a low cost solution compared to the J-20 by the PLAAF.

First clear images of the much rumored Chinese F-60/J-21/J31 Fifth Generation Stealth Fighter Jet
F-60/J-21/31 Fifth Generation Stealth Fighter Jet will be employed as a low cost solution compared to the J-20 by the PLAAF. F-60/J-21/J31 Fifth Generation Stealth Fighter Jet may also be offered for export to the Pakistan in future which serves as major testing ground for the new generation Chinese weapons.

PLA Air Force Civilian Jet For Join Air Projection

An air projection for plateau camping training conducted by the Air Force of theChinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) was unveiled at 05:00 on May 29, 2012 at anairport in the hinterland of central China. A total of 5 military and civil airplanes weremobilized for this air projection mission from the hinterland of central China to the snow-covered plateau.

The wheeled equipment including command vehicles, communication vehicles and fieldambulances were slowly moving into the cabin of a transport aircraft. At the same time, 10-odd aviation containers were pushed along a slide way into the cabin of anothertransport aircraft to be locked and fixed.

On the other side of the apron, the fully-armed airborne troops quickly boarded a civilpassenger plane in 3 echelons under the guidance of the local flight attendants.

At 07:00, the military and civil transport airplanes fully loaded with airborne troops andequipment took off in turn. On the plane, a person in charge of the LogisticsDepartment of the PLA Air Force said that the PLA started air transport of recruits tothe plateau with the help of civil aviation transport strength since 1987, greatlyupgrading PLA’s strategic projection capability. This plateau camping training willfurther temper the remote-mobile-combat capability of the airborne troops.

Saturday, March 10, 2012

New Pics of China’s Stealth Fighter

Sunday, February 26, 2012

chinese z-10 and z-19 attack helicopter

Monday, January 2, 2012

Qi lai!! Qi lai!! Qi lai!! Is China’s Air Force shrinking ? 850 aircraft of Nanchang Q-5 and Hong-5 type no longer in service ??

Nanchang Q-5

The first prototype was completed in 1960.A small team kept the program alive until it was re-opened in 1963, when production was shifted to Nanchang. The first flight finally occurred on 4 June 1965. Series production began in 1969, with squadron delivery starting in 1970.

About 1,000 aircraft were produced, 600 of them being the updated Q-5A. A small number, perhaps a few dozen, Q-5As were modified to carry nuclear weapons; these are believed to retain their internal weapons bay. A long-range Q-5I, introduced in 1983, added a fuel tank instead of the internal weapons bay, compensating for that with the provision of two additional under wing pylons.

Hong-5 light bomber

The H-5 (Hongzha-5, or Hong-5) is a Chinese copy of the Soviet Union/Russian IL-28 (NATO codename: Beagle) twin-engine jet bomber aircraft first introduced in the Soviet Air Force in the late 1940s. China obtained several hundred examples of the IL-28 in the 1950s during the honeymoon period of the Sino-Soviet ally. A licensed production of the aircraft in China was scheduled but the project could not be materialised due to the breaking up of the Sino-Soviet relation in 1960. As a result, Harbin Aircraft Factory (now Harbin Aircraft Manufacturing Company, HAMC) was ordered to produce a Chinese version of the IL-28 by reverse-engineering.

The aerial arsenal of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army shrank by nearly a quarter over the past year, from around 3,400 combat aircraft to just under 2,600. The best assessment of the secretive PLA, a database managed by Flight International magazine and updated annually, showed 800 fewer jet fighters in the PLA inventory compared to a year ago.

The reduction reflects "improved data," according to Flight's annual report, released late last month. The data allowed the report's authors to remove from the PLA's active rolls a "combined 850 obsolete Harbin H-5 and Nanchang Q-5 combat aircraft." The H-5 and Q-5 date from the mid-1960s. It's unclear exactly when the PLA retired the two models.

The PLA isn’t alone in shedding combat aircraft. Most of the world's major air arms are slowly shrinking, owing to decreasing military budgets and the tendency of planners to favor small numbers of high-tech new aircraft over larger numbers of less-sophisticated, older models. The U.S. Air Force is replacing more than 400 F-15s with just 187 newer F-22s, for instance. China built hundreds of H-5s and more than 1,500 Q-5s, but has built just 300 or so combined of more recent warplanes such as the J-10 and J-11.

The PLA’s warplane holdings have apparently contracted at an even faster rate than the Pentagon's, growing the gap between the two aerial powers and cementing the U.S. military's position as the dominant aerospace power. The U.S. Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, Army and Coast Guard together operate 13,000 manned aircraft. Number two Russia operates 3,600. China, in third place, possesses 2,600 warplanes. Of roughly 5,400 warplanes on firm order as of late 2011, the Americans accounted for 1,700. "This [U.S.] dominance shows no sign of being diminished for many years to come," Flight reports.

Sunday, July 24, 2011

J-10 Fighters deployed in Air Base Near Sino-India-Nepal Border at Shigatze Air Base

Besides of the J-11 fighter fleets, Chinese Air Force has begun to deploy its home-made J-10 fighters on the air bases, which locate on the high-land area. These images of J-10 fighters and Z-8 helicopter are perhaps pictured near an air field on Tibet plateau.