A brief but comprehensive analysis of the origins of China's People's Liberation Army Air Force.
From a world leading air power in the Korean War to a backward third world level force in the latter years of the Cold War, to its emergence as quite possibly the world’s most powerful Air Force in the early 21st century, an assessment of China’s aerial warfare capabilities has vital implications for the balance of power both in East Asia and globally in the coming decades.
Assessment of Chinese air power in the Cold War years - 1949-1989 - including among other events:
- Induction of China's first fighter jets into service - the MiG-9 and MiG-15.
- Successful intervention of the Air Force in the Korean War.
- Technology transfers from the Soviet Union.
- Performance in the 1958 Taiwan Straits Crisis.
- Difficulties with modernisation after the Sino-Soviet split.
- Emergence and widening of a technological gap with the Soviet Union and the United States.
- Attempts at indigenous fighter programs: J-7, J-8, J-8II, J-9, J-12, J-13, Q-5, Q-6, H-6. Reasons for success and failure.
- Development of a beyond visual range air to air capability. Introduction of the PL-5 missile and first third generation aircraft.
- Comparison of Soviet and American combat jets with the Chinese fleet at the end of the Cold War. A look at the composition of the Chinese Air Force at the end of the Cold War.
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