The People's Liberation Army Air Force

• Source: Global Times
• [17:18 November 10 2009]
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The People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) is the aviation branch of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), the military of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The PLAAF was founded on November 11, 1949 and currently consists of approximately 400,000 personnel and about 2,000 combat aircraft.

China began assembling its own aircraft by 1956, but initially these were copies of Soviet types. The first of them was the J-2, a copy of the MiG-15. By 1958, increased cooperation with the Soviets allowed China to produce both the J-5 (MiG-17) and the J-6 (MiG-19) manufactured under license. The first indigenous Chinese design, the J-8 was produced in 1969 after breaking off relations with the Soviet Union in the 1960s.

The PLAAF began a program of modernization with the domestically-developed Su-27s from the early 1990s and the evolution of various fourth-generation aircraft, including the domestic J-10, and the JF-17 in collaboration with Pakistan. The PLAAF also strove to improve its pilot training and continued to retire obsolete aircraft. This resulted in a reduction of the overall number of aircraft in the PLAAF with a concurrent increase in the quality of its air fleet.

The air force headquarters consists of four departments: Command, Political, Logistics, and Equipment, which mirrors the four general departments of the PLA. The PLAAF has had 10 commanders and 11 political commissars since its inception, including three political commissars who later became commanders. General Xu Qiliang became the PLAAF commander in 2007.

The PLAAF typically uses the system of threes in its organization at division level and below; for example, three regiments per division, three squadrons per regiment, and so on. There are also independent regiments within the military region air forces, and two airborne corps under direct control of the PLAAF Headquarters. The Bayi Aerobatic Team is the only aerobatics team of the PLAAF that was formed in 1962.

The markings of the PLAAF are a red star in the center with a red band going across the middle. The red star contains the Chinese characters for bayi, representing August 1, 1927, the date of the formation of the PLA.