Dragon in the Air: Transformation of China’s Aviation Industry and Air Force is a comprehensive and multidimensional study of the air force and the emerging aviation industry in PRC. The author has made a bold effort to trace the changing character of Chinese Air Force from the time of nationalists and perspicuously hunted down the history by dividing PLAAF into three distinct periods. The first stage from 1949-1979 has been characterized by the early blues of PLAAF under Mao’s leadership. Deng then had an overbearing influence in the second stage from 1979-1993, also instrumental in initiating the process of transformation from an ancillary of PLA into an independent arm. The third stage was however the defining moment which witnessed the start of modernization of PLAAF under the leadership of Jiang Zemin. The author has very lucidly tried to explain the strong link between modernisation of PLAAF and the emergence of China’s aviation industry and therefore divided the book in two parts. While the first part of the book maintains focus on the air force and the process of modernisation; the second part dwells with the evolution of the aviation industry and the changes in the organisation structure. He has pointedly highlighted China’s increasing defence spending and growing military capabilities resulting in China developing new aerial platforms, ballistic missiles and modern firepower. As a result China is enhancing strategic power projection by building capabilities to carry out air strikes, reconnaissance and early warning and air and missile defence to put together a potent military force by the middle of this century.
The Dragon Takes Flight: China's Aviation Policy, Achievements, and International Implications analyzes China’s journey toward the development of its C-919 large passenger aircraft. Through the use of primary sources in English and Chinese, including interviews with important players in China’s aviation industry, Levine builds on Michael Porter’s Diamond Model to explore the underlying question of whether or not China will successfully develop a competitive large passenger aircraft. The model serves as a blueprint for determining what China is doing right and what areas need to improve. This study also looks at the potential implications the success of the C-919 may have on Boeing and Airbus and the ways in which both companies might prepare to meet the challenges they face.
The purpose of The Dragon in the Cockpit is to enhance the mutual understanding between Western aviation human-factors practitioners and the Chinese aviation community by describing some of the fundamental Chinese cultural characteristics pertinent to the field of flight safety. China’s demand for air transportation is widely expected to increase further, and the Chinese aviation community are now also designing their own commercial aircraft, the COMAC C-919. Consequently, the interactions in the air between the West and China are anticipated to become far more extensive and dynamic. However, due to the multi-faceted nature of Chinese culture, it is sometimes difficult for Westerners to understand Chinese thought and ways, sometimes to the detriment of aviation safety. This book provides crucial insights into Chinese culture and how it manifests itself during flight operations, as well as highlighting ways in which Western technology and Chinese culture clash within the cockpit. Science and technology studies (STS) have demonstrated that sophisticated technologies embed cultural assumptions, usually in subtle ways. These cultural assumptions 'bite back' when the technology is used in an unfamiliar cultural context. By creating the insider’s perspective on the cultural/technological assumptions of the world’s fastest growing industrial economy, this book seeks to minimize the accidents and damage resulting from technological/cultural misunderstandings and misperceptions.
China has emerged as a major regional power and has clear aspirations to be a global power in the not too distant future. Comprehensive military modernisation programs, sustained economic, scientific and technological developments have substantially elevated China’s international profile. For the past three decades, China has been modernising its strategic weaponry and enhancing the capabilities of its nuclear warheads. It has also been developing new and complex military platforms that would be of great value to joint operations warfare. The decade from 2011 through 2020 will prove critical to the PLA as it attempts to integrate many new and complex platforms, and to adopt modern operational concepts, including network-centric warfare. China’s air force is in the midst of a transformation. A decade ago, it was an antiquated service equipped almost exclusively with weapons based on 1950s-era Soviet designs and operated by personnel with questionable training according to outdated employment concepts. Today, the PLAAF appears to be on its way to becoming a modern, highly capable air force for the 21st century. The PLA Air Force has continued expanding its inventory of long-range, advanced SAM systems and now possesses one of the largest such forces in the world. The January 2011 flight test of China’s next generation fighter prototype, the J-20, highlights China’s ambition to produce a fighter aircraft that incorporates stealth attributes, advanced avionics, and super-cruise capable engines over the next several years. China is upgrading its B-6 bomber fleet with a new, longer-range variant that will be armed with a new long-range cruise missile. China’s aviation industry is developing several types of airborne early warning and control system (AWACS) aircraft. These include the KJ-200, based on the Y-8 airframe, for AWACS as well as intelligence collection and maritime surveillance, and the KJ-2000, based on a modified Russian IL-76 airframe. China can decisively defeat India in any nuclear confrontation, but is currently unable to match the IAF in any conventional conflict, specifically along the border region of the Himalayas. Also, the IAF has greater experience than PLAAF in actual combat operations with its many conflicts; India is gradually building powerful military capabilities in tune with its expanding geopolitical interests, even as the eastern and western fronts are being strengthened to deter the twin Pakistan-China threat. IAF is on the path to transform into a true aerospace power with the capability to rapidly deploy and operate at great distances. As for the two-front challenge, apart from progressively basing Sukhoi-30MKI fighters and missile squadrons in the two theatres, the plan also includes upgrading the airfields and advanced landing grounds in the sectors in order to give both defensive and offensive options. It is important for India to realise the relevance of Chinese achievements in space technologies and to critically view and analyse Chinese achievements in the area of manned space missions In order to achieve further success in the space arena, developments in cryogenic technology are important for India. These should be pursued in order to develop the capability of launching 4-5 ton satellites, which will help in achieving a greater commercial edge. Programmes like moon and mars missions, using robotic technologies, are also important in order to know more about the nature of resources, especially minerals, available on these bodies and undertaking their mining. It is also important to work towards launching satellites for India’s armed forces, which will help gain an advantage over adversaries. The book is an attempt to analyse the strategic importance of rising economic, political and military stature of China with a view to understand its regional and global implications in a new world order. As a rational actor in a chaotic world, China will defend its security interests at all costs. Besides undertaking a comprehensive modernisation of its armed forces, China is developing a series of offensive space capabilities while advocating the peaceful use of outer space. The book will be of immense value not only to the readers of the countries in the immediate neighbourhood of China, but to the strategic community across the globe since rise of China and other major Asian players including India will shape the strategic international environment in the decades to come during this century. It is hoped that the book will contribute to the understanding of the growing importance of integration of air and space and the fact that aerospace has truly become the new theatre of war and thereby establishing a new milestone in mankind’s history of warfare. The unifying space dimension will remain the single most important source for information and communication which can be used in multiple forms. Hence, China’s aerospace strategy and its implications for India assume greater military importance.
The international community's focus is usually set on the current situation of the People's Liberation Army Air Force, its structure, order of battle and the latest types in service. Consequently - and in order to commemorate the service's 70th anniversary on 11 November 2019 - this book re-focuses on its history since the establishment of the Peop
The authors maintain that the constrained strategic thinking in China about the role of airpower and force modernization will affect the ability of The Chinese People's Liberation Army Air Force to become a credible offensive threat against the U.S. or its Asian allies.
Presents revised and edited papers from a October 2010 conference held in Taipei on the Chinese Air Force. The conference was jointly organized by Taiwan?s Council for Advanced Policy Studies, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the U.S. National Defense University, and the RAND Corporation. This books offers a complete picture of where the Chinese air force is today, where it has come from, and most importantly, where it is headed.
There is no question which country has made the greatest strides in developing its airpower capability. Over the last two decades, China's air force, the People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF), has transformed itself from a large, poorly-trained force operating aircraft based on 1950s Soviet designs to a leaner and meaner force flying advanced Russian and indigenously produced fourth-generation fighters. This remarkable transformation is still a work in progress, but China has made up a lot of ground in a short time. The ever-accelerating transformation of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in the years since the era of Mao Zedong, particularly in its economic and military growth, has been nothing short of remarkable. Developments over the last quarter-century-effectively since the tragedy of Tiananmen Square and the collapse of the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact alliance-have been more so still. The relationship of this increasingly robust and growing power to the established global community is a complex one, and no thornier aspect of that relationship can be found than the uneasy interplay among the PRC, Taiwan, and the countries that deal with both. In late October 2010, a distinguished international group of experts on airpower, military affairs, and the PRC-Taiwan relationship gathered in Taipei to examine the present state and future prospects of the People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF). The conference was the latest in a series of international conferences on the affairs of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) cosponsored by the Chinese Council of Advanced Policy Studies (CAPS), the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP), the U.S. National Defense University (NDU), and the RAND Corporation. Over 3 days, speakers presented 14 papers on aspects of airpower, the PLAAF, and the implications for Taiwan, and panels discussed and debated the presentations, taking questions and comments from an audience of 115 registered attendees, with many others dropping by. This book is a compilation of the edited papers, reflecting comments and additions stimulated by the dialogue and discussion at the conference to examine present state and future prospects of the People's Liberation Air Force (PLAAF).
En omfattende gennemgang og beskrivelse af flyindustriens og luftfartens udvikling i Den kinesiske Folkerepublik såvel inden for den civile som militære flyvning.
