ANALYSIS – Even as Communist China strives to build a world-class military aviation force comparable to the U.S. and NATO, it still lacks combat experience and has suffered some significant losses.
However, China remains hell-bent on catching up to, or surpassing, the West in air power.
It jump-started its efforts over 30 years ago. Since the 1990s China has been recruiting Western-trained ex-fighter pilots to train their own military pilots.
As I have recently written, many of these Westerners have been recruited in the last couple of years from countries like the U.S., U.K., Canada and Australia. (RELATED: Is This Country the Key to Facing China?)
This has aided China tremendously and is finally being seen by the U.S. and its allies as a major security breach and threat.
However, despite this Western help, according to South China Morning Post (SCMP), the Chinese People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) lost more than 2,000 pilots in the last six decades, including 30 test pilots.
And this is just a part of their problem.
Alman Helvas, a Defense Market & Industry Consultant, told The EurAsian Times that: “we should be aware of Chinese propaganda about their pilot's proficiency. Look at what happened to Russia's pilot performance in Ukraine. Russian pilots are not proficient. I believe a similar case happened in China.”
He added: “To some extent, I believe China has exaggerated its pilot proficiency. Unlike Western pilots who have air combat experiences since the civil war in the former Yugoslavia to Iraq and Afghanistan, Chinese pilots have no experience at all in air combat in the last 20 years.”
“We don't know how proficient Chinese pilots are in air combat. That's why they are actively recruiting Western pilots to have the latest knowledge about current air combat development in the West,” he noted.
This is even more true of Chinese naval aviators.
The Eurasian Times notes:
China's three aircraft carriers, two of which have been commissioned and one launched in June, represent China's expanding naval might. However, it appears that the country will have difficulty using these carriers as it struggles to keep up with the rising need for skilled ship-based fighter jet pilots.
However, others say these concerns are overhyped – especially regarding China's relatively new naval aviation capabilities. (RELATED: Why Communist China is Freaking Out Over NASA's Artemis Moon Mission)
Brian Hart, a fellow with the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), said, “Training and retaining talented pilots is a challenge for any military. The PLA has challenges, especially given the demands of expanding naval aviation. But let's not overhype their challenges/weaknesses.”
Ashish Dangwal concludes:
There is no denying that the Chinese Navy has achieved significant strides in the naval sphere. Still, it will inevitably encounter difficulties that it must resolve swiftly if it hopes to rival the US Navy globally.
The bottom line appears to be that while China is suffering some serious air power growing pains, especially with its newer naval aviation, its air power is still very much growing.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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More GOP Bull Scat! The GOP is a completely impotent collection of eunuchs that couldn’t spit across a corn row! We gave you the House, the Senate, and the Oval Office in 2016 and you didn’t get a damn thing accomplished! But for President Trump, 2016-2020 would have been a Jimmy Carter replay! Biden and his cabinet of clowns have failed at virtually EVERYTHING and have completely abandoned U.S. taxpaying CITIZENS to promote a global reset, the climate change B.S. and a host of giveaways to southern border invaders, INVADERS! Yet he treats them far better than our homeless citizens and the Vets who have served our nation (something that Biden and Hunter would know nothing about)! 2022 should have been an absolute blowout for the GOP, but you’re as effective at selling a game plan, floor plan, vision of our future, as dopey Biden trying to define a woman or explain the foundations of a Republic! YOU PEOPLE ARE USELESS!
Apparently you are deaf, dumb, and blind, or, another possibility is that you are stupid. Finally you could be a paid shill. Honestly, Trump got a lot done in spite of having to deal with all the knives in his back from the Uni-party. You don’t know what the uni-party is??
So well I remember from my sainted Father, a decorated Korean War veteran, his estimation of life in the Far East: ‘In the East human life does not have the same value as it does in the (Judaeo-Christian) West,’ I suspect that this observation remains true (q.e.d.) in Red China.
While it should have been obvious that an air force without actual experience and plenty of flight time isn’t going to function very well in combat or even in all conditions non-combat flying, I have to wonder if the test pilots were good enough to help the engineers get all the problems worked out of the hardware and software? Oh wait, where did their engineers get their decades of experience to be designing and debugging the platforms??