China’s PLAAF: On Multiple Tracks To Become A Modern Force | Aviation International News

China’s PLAAF: On Multiple Tracks To Become A Modern Force

Russian derivatives form the basis of China’s aspirations to join the world’s top producers of fighter aircraft.

A Sukhoi Su-35 appears at Air Show China, just prior to the official decision by the PLAAF to purchase the aircraft. The PLAAF acquired 24 of them, the first delivery coming in December 2016 and the last in 2018. (Photo: Reuben Johnson)

By Reuben F. Johnson

February 14, 2022

If one were to list the three factors responsible for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) emerging at the end of the last century as a modern military organization, the answers would come in descending order in terms of their impact: “Russia, Russia, and Russia.”

The PLAAF’s first purchase of 24 Sukhoi Su-27SK/UBK export models in the early 1990s represented the first step in its acquisition of real air power. The next major development came with the agreement in 1996 for the Komsomolsk-on-Amur aviation plant that produced the first off-the-shelf models to establish a production line at Shenyang Aircraft Corporation (SAC) in China’s Liaoning Province. The original contract called license assembly of 200 of the export model of the Su-27—designated J-11 by the PLAAF—at the facility.

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