China

Brief history
Excavations have shown that the Homo Erectus lived in China about one million years ago. Airplane relevant history however started at 12 March 1912 when the almost 400 years of Qing Dynasty came to an end and a provisional government of the Republic of China was established in Nanjing. Effectively the country became ever more in the hands of Warlords, which was countered by the establishment of a Soviet assisted Communist Party of China (CPC). From 1925 the Nationalist Party (Kuomintang, KMT) seized control from the warlords in the South and Central China and from 1927 also ousted the Communist Party from this region. From 1934 the CPC started the Long March soon under the command of Mao Zedong.

Although the two parties were at the same side fighting the Japanese invasion between 1931 and 1945, the CPC continued to force the Nationalists further south after the Sino-Japanese war had ended. In 1949 the remaining KMT forces under the command of Chiang Kai-Shek fled to Taiwan and the People's Republic of China was proclaimed on 1 October 1949 with Taiwan and some outlying islands of Fujian being regarded as rebellious provinces still to be conquered.

Flying in the newborn Peoples Republic received a kick-start in 1951 in the Korean War with the Soviet Union delivering fighter and bomber aircraft including over 1000 MiG-15. Continued deliveries stopped abruptly in 1960. In this period production of aircraft came into full swing with about 780 J-5s (MiG-17) and over 3000 J-6s (MiG-19 versions) to name a few. Mid 60s "indigenous" designed aircraft like the J-7 (MiG-21 version), J-8 and Q-5 (MiG-19 derivative) saw the first light of day.

One of the achievements of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1970) was that not only the armed forces lost all people with any education, but also that aircraft quality levels dropped to sub-zero standards and production of aircraft became out of the question. It lasted until the mid '80s until more advanced versions of existing aircraft types started to appear.

Photo: Scramble

The armed forces are in the midst of a massive modernization in which old airplanes are discarded in favour of modern ones on the basis of quality instead of quantity. In 1982 John Andrade in his book "Militair 1982" estimated the number of active aircraft at about 4750. Current estimates come close to 3200 that is also shown in the number of divisions that reduced from 50 in the heydays to about 32 nowadays. Major reductions were announced in 1982 and 1998 and also in 2004 further reductions were announced.

The turn of the century saw a major replacement program where obsolete front-line aircraft were replaced by new generation derivatives like new J-7, J-8 and Q-5 versions. Also some Su-27/Su-30 aircraft were introduced. Only a few years later, by 2010, nearly all old generation fighters have gone and many Air Force and Navy regiments now fly modern fighters like J-10, JH-7A and J-11 derivatives, with new versions to come. In a suppprise move early January a new 5th Generation Fighter J-20 made its first flight. The bomber force is a decade away from flying the H-5 and is now flying modern H-6 aircraft, although the airframe is stll based on the vintage Tu-16.

A Rapid Deployment Force is visible as many fighters now have in-flight tanking capability and starting 2014 the availability of Il-78 tanker aircraft complementing H-6 tanker versoins. Also, modern warfare practices were introduced relatively recently with the introduction of several special equipped Y8s for AEW&C, AWACS, ELINT missions to name a few and the Il-76 AWACS. Also, dedicated helicopters for the CSAR missions were not seen before.

The last element of the armed forces where old aircraft could be enjoyed is surrendering to modern times. Training has been modernized with the JJ-7/Q-5J replacing old JJ-6 aircraft with the operational regiments and the JL-8 having replaced the JJ-5 with the training regiments. Only initial training is still done by the very vintage CJ-6 aircraft, although at the 2010 show at Zhuhai the first CJ-7 replacement aircraft was first shown to the public with an expected order book of about 300 aircraft. The army has seen a massive expansion with Mi-17 and Z-9 helicopters and with earlier attack helicopters already replaced by dedicated WZ10 and Z-19 helicopters. To complete the modernization picture of course the air force is also introducing UAV flying. This is outside the scope of this website however.

Armed Forces Organization
The armed forces of the People's Republic of China (PRC) are composed of the People's Liberation Army, the Chinese People's Armed Police Force and the militia. The Central Military Commission (CMC) of the PRC directs and assumes unified command of the nation's armed forces. The active components of the PLA are the country's standing army, consisting of the Army, Navy, Air Force and the Second Artillery Force, whose main task is to conduct operations of defence, and assist in maintaining social order.

Through the General Staff Headquarters, the General Political Department, the General Logistics Department and the General Armaments Department, the CMC exercises operational command over the whole PLA and leadership for the development of the PLA. For day-to-day operation seven Military Regions, "da junqu" (Shenyang, Beijing, Lanzhou, Jinan, Nanjing, Guangzhou and Chengdu) exercise direct leadership over the Army units under their command. In time of war, or any large scale military exercise, all aspect of operation will be control by a CMC WarZone HQ. The WarZone HQ will command all assets, as it seems fit, including elements from a different MRs.

Photo: Scramble

In 1958 the number of Military Regions was at its maximum at 13, but forces-reductions enabled the reduction of command centres with seven Military Regions until February 2016, when the PLAAF underwent another major re-organization, with seven Military Regions transformed into five Theatre Commands.

Full details have yet to be clarified.

Source Scramble

Brief history
The Air Force of the PLA was established on November 11, 1949. Until February 2016 it consisted of air command in each of the seven Military Regions of Shenyang, Beijing, Lanzhou, Jinan, Nanjing, Guangzhou and Chengdu. February 2016 these were changed into five Theatre Commands, Northern, Western, Southern, Eastern and Central Command.

In the Theatre Commands the air force is controlled by separate Air Corps. This also includes the 15th Air Corps that also doubles as the new Rapid Deployment Force. Whether this Corps reports to a single Theatre Command is questionable however.

Photo: Scramble

Each Air Corps (or directly the Theatre Commands) directs Air Divisions.

Each Air division basically consists of three Flying Regiments (feixung tuan) starting at 1st, 2nd and 3rd Regiment with the 1st Air Division until 148th, 149th and 150th Regiment with the 50th Air Division. Many don't exist anymore however. Also a Division can also included additional independent Regiments.

In 2012 a major rorganization took place whre 4 Military Regions saw the appearance of 'Bases' where up to four Brigades reported two, all flying from different Air Bases. Also in 2012 dedicated Independent Regiments operating specialized roles were taken into the regular Divisions scheme. Flight training is done using CJ-6 and JL-8 aircraft in dedicated Flying Academies. High performance jet training was performed in dedicated Military Region Training Bases, but also these units were coverted to Regimnents and Brigades in 2012. Also each fighter unit has about four dual seaters.

The system above can be traced to the serial system used. Not included in the system is that each Regiment normally consists of three Flying Squadrons (feixing dadui) (or four within a Brigade), that consist of three Flights each (feixing zhongdui) and a Maritime squadron (jiwu Dadui). A bomber Flight usually consists of three aircraft, whereas a Fighter/Attack flight usually consists of four aircraft.

The PLA forces stationed in Hong Kong and Macao are under the direct leadership of the CMC. The PLA Hong Kong Garrison is mainly composed of ground, naval and air units. The PLA Macao Garrison is mainly composed of a ground force, with some naval and air force personnel on its staff.

Photo: Scramble

In 2017 the effects of the new reorganization that was initiated in 2016 with the introduction of Theatre Commands and developed with many Regiments turning into Brigades was in full swing, with only bits of information slowly becoming visible.

The shown OrBat therefore is a mix of known changes and old organization, although at the same time we try to present all information that is currently publicly available! Updates are welcome though!

Brief history
The PLA was established on August 1, 1927, and consisted of land forces only in its early days. In 1988 the Army Aviation Corps was established with the transfer of Air Force helicopters. With the ever increasing number of flying equipment in 2012 up to six out of the ten Aviation Regiments was converted into a Brigade. Also One Training Brigade is operational.

A Brigade nowadays consist of a mix of troop transport, ground attack and scout helicopters. Each role within the Brigade is performed by a dedicated Squadron, with up to six Squadrons within a Brigade. Army Aviation Brigades report to a Group Army.

Early 2017 major force reductions were announced that also included a reorganisation of the remaining Group Armies. Every Group Army without a Aviation Regiment or Brigade was eliminated and all others were renumbered.

Photo: Scramble

Brief history
The People's Liberation Army - Naval Aviation (PLANAF) was officially established on 6 September 1952 although initial activities started already on April 23, 1949. Up to mid January 2018 it was organized into three Fleets, called Beihai, Donghai and Nanhai Fleets which are better known in English documents as North Sea Fleet, East Sea Fleet and South Sea Fleet. With the major PLA reorganizations that had started in 2017, mid January this was changed into Northern Theater Command Navy Aviation (北部战区海军航空兵), Eastern Theater Command Navy Aviation (东部战区海军航空兵), Southern Theater Command Navy Aviation (南部战区海军航空兵).

Within these Theatre Commands the Naval Aviation elements are composed of a grand total of ten Air Divisions (1st up to 10th). Each Division consists of up to three Regiments with the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Regiment with the 1st Division up to the 28th, 29th and 30th Regiment with the 10th Division. Before 2012 the Independent Air Regiments operating special roles got subordinated to regular Divisions. The serials batches however were not changed.

As of 2017, in line with the reorganization of the Air Force and the Army, also the Navy units got transformed into Brigades. At the same time many aircraft exchanged their-five digit serial/code for an individual two-digit code.

By mid-2023, the PLA the majority of ground based PLAN fighter, bomber, radar, air defense, and airfield units were transferred to the PLA Air Force (PLAAF). In total, the PLA transferred at least three fighter brigades, two bomber regiments, three radar brigades, three air defense brigades, and numerous airfield stations.

23 September 2012 the Naval Aviation Force started a new chapter when Aircraft Carrier Liaoning/16 was introduced., followed by Shandong/17 with the third, enlarged, more powerful and catapult equipped Fujian/18 expected to be transferred in 2023.

Aircraft assigned to a carrier are operated within a Brigade, with 10th Brigade operating from the Liaoning carrier and 11th Brigade operating from the Shandong carrier.

Helicopters assigned to the Type 075 amphibious assault ship are allocated to dedicated Brigades, with 11th Brigade operating on the Hainan/31, 13th Brigade operating on Guangxi/32 and 15th Brigade operating from Anhui/33 ship by 2023. A fourth type 075 ship was under construction by 2023.

Photo: Scramble

Brief history
Since 1948 three aircraft designation systems have been used in China.

The first series was used until 1964 and included a code name that identified the manufacturer or design bureau, followed by a three digit number with the first digit indicating the main mission and the last two digits indicating the sequence number for new types and versions. In this period the Air Force used its own system with the final two digits of the year of authorization as type number, when necessary added by "A", "B" etcetera for additional types.

Photo: Scramble

In 1964 a new system was introduced using a sequence number added to the name indicating the role of the aircraft, which most often is abbreviated to single letters. Until 1987 new versions of the same aircraft type had "I", "II", "III" added to the aircraft name. After that year the western style was copied and letters "A", "B" and up were introduced. Aircraft types with different versions have an additional letter added after the initial letter.

In line with translated designations painted on many different aircraft, up to 2018 the Scramble Standard did not use a dash between the riole designation and the digit(s). In English text the Chinese prefer to call their aircraft the English way so "Chuji Jiaolianji (CJ)" becomes "Basic Trainer (BT)". As a result export aircraft are called by their English names and domestically used aircraft are called by their Chinese names. Sometimes private ventures of military aircraft that (initially) doesn't attract the interest of the Chinese military might obtain an English name like FC-1, FBC-1 and FTC-2000. Aircraft that are imported keep their original names. As a result confusion is rising with the Flanker of which the imported single-seaters are called Su-27SK while the license build copies are called J-11. From above it can be concluded that J-2 was never allocated to any MiG-15 version.

In the listing below an effort has been made to present all Chinese build military aircraft types since 1949 that are included in the above mentioned designation system including the civil derivative designations when known. The second column presents the designations in Chinese. When they don't show on the screen it is advised to install Chinese fonts in your browser. As first information on new types hardly originates from official sources, generally known version designations tend to change after a period of time!

Photo: Scramble

Brief history
The serial system is fairly straight forward and serials can be divided nowadays into the following categories:

Newly produced aircraft flying before delivery can be seen with a two-digit serial or even up to 5 digit. The system is consistent for each manufacturer and mostly indicate the production sequence number that might be added to the aircraft tye (like "20" for the J-20) or batch number (like "7" for batch 7 within the J-10 production. Aircraft of the Air Academies all have the aircraft specific number as a large two- or three digit number on the fuselage or tail. In order to obtain the full five digit serial (see below) the specific regiment digits are added.

The three-digit serials are reserved for aircraft on test. Aircraft used by the test center CFTE at Xi'an-Yanliang can be seen using this serial range, but also product development aircraft from factories like XAC and SAC use this range.

Starting the reorganizations of the Flying Academies in 2012 aircraft flying within the Academies use a four digit serial in the "axbx" pattern, where "a" indicates the Flying Academy (between "1" and "4") and "b" indicates the Regiment. Most Flying Academy aircraft are recognisable as the have their individual code "xx" in big numarals painted on the fuselage or tail. 6xbx series is used by the 15th Airborne Corps with "b" indicating the Regiment. Until 2017 als special other units like HQ Regiments used this serial series. The 9aax number is used by the Navy, see below.

Allocations after 2011
Starting April 2012 in four Military Regions many Regiments were transformed into Brigades that got subordinated to 'Bases' that consisted of Brigades. This compares to Divisions that have a maximum of three Regiments. As a consequence, two different systems are used by the Air Force: The Divisions use the axxax pattern in which the "aa" gives the Division number by subtracting 11, "xxx" is subdivided into three groups 001-050, 051-100 and 101-150, indicating the three Regiments within the Division. The serials of Brigade aircraft use an "aaxax"pattern, with "aaa" being the Brigade number plus 611. (so 70x1x being a 90th Brigade aircraft). Compared to pre 2012 serials the Military Region Training Bases have been incorporated in the regular Division and Brigade scheme.

In 2017 reorganization was completed when the Military Regions disappeared and all military got subordinated to five Theatre Commands. At the same time more Regiments were transferred to Brigades with the five digit serial based on division number +11 changing into a five digit serial based on the Brigade number + 611. In addition many Military Region HQ flights/Regiments were converted into Transport & SAR Brigades for each Theatre Command with a serial pattern 5bxcx with the "b" indicating the Theatre Command, the "c" indicating the aircraft type and "xx" the indiviual aircraft code.

Many transport aircraft have a civilian-looking registration in the B-4xxx range.

The 8xxxx series is used by the Navy and the Army, see below. The five digit 9xxxx series was used by th eArmy until it changed into a six digit system in 2017.

Allocations between 2005 and 2012
Up to 2012 the four digit serials were dedicated to special regiments. The "5xax" pattern was used by the Air Force for reconnaissance regiments, and the "6xax" pattern as used for the 15th Airborne Corps and MR HQ transport units, where "a" identified the regiment and xx is a unique number within the regiment. In earlier days (before 2005) "3aax" and "4aax" could be found for Air Force reconnaissance regiments. Up to 2012 the regular Regimens were subordinated to Divisions. The five-digit serials followed the "abxax" pattern in which the "a"s indicate thed Division number. Divisions that were identified by a number (transport, fighter and attack divisions) had a serial range with the first and fourth digit equal to the Division number plus eleven, thereby correcting some mismatches in the pre-2005 system. Up to 2005, when the fighters still had red and blue painted serials the second digit indicated the regiment within the Division, starting with a "0" for the first regiment, effectively reserving 100 srials for each regiment. With the change of colour to yellow, the maximum number of codes reduced to 50 for each regiment. The second, third and last digit are used together, with 001 up to 049 for the first regiment, 050 up to 099 for the second regiment and 100 up to 150 for the third regiment within the Division. Lead-in trainers within the fighter regiments usually take the first couple or last couple within the range. As an example JJ7A 50533 belonged to the second regiment (code 053) within the 53-11=42nd Division, being the 125th Regiment.

Also the Military Region Training Bases and some special Regiments used to be within this scheme using the 6xaxa range. Basic training was done in Divisions with serials in the 7xxxx range.

Below is a cross reference list of the serial ranges for 2005-2012. Division numbers that were not used are omitted.

The 8xxxx and 9xxxx series were used by the Navy and the Army, see below.

The old allocations (pre-2005)
In the early days a four digit serial system was used in the axax format with aa identifying the Division. This changed into a five -digit system that was unchanged until 2005. Before mid 2005 the serial allocation was as listed below.

Naval Air Force
In 2017 also the Navy reorganized and many Regiments were converted into Brigades. Unfortunately, like all naval forces around the world the China Navy likes tradition and as a result hardly any serial was changed to reflect the new command structure. As a result also in our overview the Regiment is mentioned often, as it directly relates to the serial.

The Naval serial system is an extension of the Air Force system where the five digit serial starts with a 8, which is used in a 8bxcx format, where the "b" indicated the regiment and the c the Division. Origionally the Navy also featured many Independent Regiments. These were recognizable for their four-digit serials with th eformat 9xxb, where "b" showed the Regiment number and "xx" the individual aircaft number. Although independent Regiments are gone, the serial system is still used.

With the arrival of aircraft carriers the Navy started to use a three digit serial for all flying assets on the Liaoning carrier, with the first digit indicating the aircraft/helicopter type and the final two the individual aircraft number. In 2019, just before the second carrier got operational J-15s were noted with also the first digit deleted, leaving a two-digit serial painted on the aircraft.

Army Aviation
Until 2017 the serial system was also based on a five-digit number, preceded by "LH" for LuJun HangKongBing (Army Aviation). The second digit indicated the Brigade or Regiment the helicopter was flying with.

Allocations until 2017
The serial versus brigade alocation until 2017 is presented in the table below:

Allocations after 2017
In 2017 the number of Brigades had expanded that much that the system was changed at th esame time the OrBat was reorganised. The result was a six-digit serial, with the second/third digit indicating the Brigade. Unfortunately the last two digits are nowadays allocated in a more-or-less random order.

The number versus Regiment alocation until 2017 is presented in the table:

The "c" digit is an indication for the helicopter or aircraft type.

Helicopter type code allocations