3. The construction of the Air Force has always faced challenges head-on

The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) has a long history since its establishment on 1 August 1927, and in the past, regardless of the Red Army's Long March, the War of Resistance Against Japan, or the War of Liberation, this army was an armed force with the army as the core. We often talk about fighting a red new China and winning the revolutionary war, and this victory mainly depends on the army.

Of course, based on such limitations, during the years of the revolutionary war, we did not have the conditions to control the resources of the state. Cities can't be mastered, let alone airports, and all kinds of technological elements can't be mastered.

During the Anti-Japanese War, in order to resist Japan, the Soviet Air Force provided great support for China's territorial air defense, and the Chennault Flying Team of the U.S. Air Force also provided great support for China's air power. However, our own strength was very small, the air force of the Republic of China government at that time was weak, and the people's army led by the Communist Party at that time basically did not have its own air force, but during the Second Civil Revolutionary War, Chiang Kai-shek captured a plane - "Lenin" when he "encircled and suppressed" the Hubei-Henan-Anhui Soviet Region.

Our entire air force was established after the founding of New China, and the Northeast People's Liberation Army Air Force was established relatively early, and the Air Force Aviation School was established there. At that time, after our army arrived in Northeast China, it mainly took over the equipment of the Japanese, the airfields built by the Japanese, and some aircraft left by the Japanese, as well as the Japanese air crews and ground crews that we captured.

This was a condition for us to initially establish an air force in Tohoku, mainly using Japanese technology and equipment at that time.

We see that there was almost no air power in the previous battles, because at that time our army was all ground forces, there was no air force, and of course there was no navy. At that time, the Chinese People's Liberation Army was completely a single branch of the army. Moreover, the largest number of troops in the army are infantry, and other branches of the army such as artillery, armor, engineering, and signal troops are not very strong.

After the founding of New China, it was different, and the establishment of the air force was not built in a step-by-step and slow manner in a period of peace, but was built up rapidly. According to the commander of the US Air Force in the Far East, China turned into an air power almost overnight.

Why overnight? At the beginning of the founding of New China, when the flames of war burned to our borders, the Yalu River Bridge was bombed and Dandong was bombed, and it became inevitable that the Chinese People's Liberation Army would send troops.

When we sent troops to resist US aggression and aid Korea to defend our homeland and defend the country, there was a big premise, that is, China and the Soviet Union reached such an agreement at that time, and we sent ground troops and Soviet troops to provide air cover. Later, Stalin, for all reasons, after the dispatch of our ground forces, his air cover came relatively late.

Although the Soviets also provided air cover, the range was relatively small. In the area from the Yalu River to the Cheongcheon River, the so-called "MiG corridor" has been established to maintain the security of the rear of our troops entering the DPRK within a very limited scope. However, when our troops entering the DPRK continued to fight forward, a large amount of space was exposed to the bombing and strafing range of the US Air Force south of the Qingchuan River and all the way to the real front line of the Volunteer Army.

In the Korean theater, the Volunteer Army was in dire need of air cover, and in this strong demand, the Chinese Air Force was established.

We do not deny today that the Soviet Union gave us great support at that time. It is conceivable that a country that originally had no air power at all could suddenly become an air power almost overnight, as the US Far East Commander said, and objectively speaking, we would not have been able to do this without the support of the Soviet Union.

Of course, as we mentioned earlier, when the old aviation school was established in Northeast China, some Japanese instructors like Yaichiro Hayashi provided assistance in the construction of the Chinese Air Force in terms of air force technology and aviation technology. During the Northeast Aviation School, the Soviet Union provided us with the world's most advanced MiG-15 fighter jets at that time for free - of course, we also purchased some of them, and provided a full set of training aids, including air crew, ground crew, and factory stations.

At that time, many of the pilots of the Air Force were combat heroes and backbones of the army, and after physical examinations, they underwent air training and learned to fly under the leadership of the Soviet big brother. After that, there was such a miracle: the flight time was less than 100 hours, and the American ace pilot was shot down.

Most of the ace pilots of the United States participated in "World War II" and achieved brilliant results in "World War II," flying for 7,800 hours, or more than 2,000 hours, before being defeated by our young Air Force.

Such a young air force, flying for more than 100 hours, dared to compete with the world's first-class air forces in the air and shoot down the other side, of course, our losses were also very large.

A large number of combat heroes appeared, such as Li Han, Wang Hai, Zhang Jihui and other famous air force combat heroes. They dared to compete with the enemy in the air and fight bayonets in the air.

Later, when they came back to form the air force, they formed the first air force of New China with these flying units, pilots, and backbone pilots who had been engaged in actual combat and achieved combat results in the Korean battlefield.

Therefore, our air force is fought in battle, and it is not built in a peaceful environment, because the requirements of combat missions are very urgent. The Chinese People's Liberation Army Air Force, created in such an environment, is very young, but it has a brilliant record.

The People's Air Force created a glorious history and accumulated a valuable fortune in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea.

The Air Force had a slogan at that time called 201 shells, what did it mean? At that time, the aircraft were MiG-15 and MiG-17, and its air ammunition was about 200 rounds, and 201 shells meant that if the shells were exhausted, they would hit them. This spirit has become the spiritual backbone of our efforts to build a young Air Force.

It is not enough for any army to have material and spirit. Where are the spiritual pillars? 201 shells are a very typical spiritual pillar of our Air Force.

Of course, from another point of view, the situation in air operations today has undergone very big changes, and the possibility of using machine guns at close range to complete an attack on the opponent, shoot down the opponent, or even complete one's own combat mission in the form of a collision is becoming less and less likely. In fact, from the Gulf War in 1991 to the Kosovo War in 1999, and further on, the planes shot down by the enemy's machine guns in actual air combat were basically gone, and all of them were shot down by air-to-air missiles.

Short-range missiles and medium-range missiles basically shoot down each other without meeting. In the past, the form of air combat, chasing, jumping, climbing, diving, getting rid of the opponent, attacking the opponent, this form is very rare in the future.

Today's combat situation has undergone very big changes, and so has the equipment, and today's over-the-horizon attack means that you can't see me, I can't see you, and the missile will knock you down as soon as it is launched. Even if over-the-horizon attacks become the main form of air warfare in the future, the fighting spirit of any army building cannot be lost, and this fighting spirit permeates all aspects of army building.

In the future, the construction of the Air Force will encounter many troublesome problems, including equipment construction, data link construction, training of the quality of Air Force pilots, man-machine integration, and organic integration of man and equipment. To meet these challenges, spiritual needs are very important.

At the 2009 National Day military parade in the capital, a number of new equipment of the Air Force, including early warning aircraft and J-10 aircraft, were brilliantly unveiled, demonstrating the demeanor of the People's Air Force. Some people commented that there are two key words for the air force equipment that appeared on the eleventh: one is both offensive and defensive, and the other is made in China.

Air Force technology involves very complex technical reserves, such as engine technology, material technology, and electronic technology. As far as engine technology is concerned, the engine of the Air Force is completely different from the ground engine, for example, it is completely different from the engine of a tank, the engine of a car, and even the engine of a naval warship.

What are the requirements for naval ship engines? Large volume, heavy weight, large horsepower, and not in the air, the air should be as light as possible, the weight must be light, and the space should be compressed as much as possible.

Also, what is the difference between an aero engine and a car engine? For example, if the engine of a car fails, no problem, we just stop and fix it. And what to do in the air? An aircraft that loses power is dangerous and will crash.

Aerial engines require small size, high safety and stability.

In addition, the working environment of the aircraft is harsh, and the temperature difference is limited no matter how hot it is in summer and how cold it is in winter. We look at the civil aviation aircraft that usually sit on business trips, the flight altitude is 9,000 meters to 10,000 meters, and the temperature in the air from 9,000 meters to 10,000 meters is about minus 50 degrees Celsius.

At the same time, working in the air, the jet engine works in a very stressful environment with temperatures of thousands of degrees Celsius. In this case, the requirements for engine materials are very high.

Therefore, a country's aviation technology is actually the crystallization of the country's high-tech technology. This set of electronic equipment of modern aircraft, such as electromagnetic equipment, fire control radar, search radar, various sensing equipment, etc., is also quite complex.

A modern aircraft, especially a military aircraft, especially a fighter jet, is the crystallization of all the high-tech technologies of this country. For us, although it has been 60 years since the founding of the People's Republic of China, our technical background is not very thick, so the results we have achieved are generally highly evaluated overseas.

However, we still have to maintain a relatively calm attitude, and there is still a relatively big gap between us and foreign countries. There are gaps in materials, engines, radios, instruments, and even air-to-air missiles, air-to-ground missiles, and other equipment carried by aircraft.

Of course, we're trying to do these things with all our might. For example, our first AWACS aircraft, the Air Police-2000, has reached a very high technical level.

The radar used on the Air Police-2000 is a phased array radar. Even the aircraft radar used by US early warning planes is basically an analog signal, and there is no digital signal. It is the radar used by its AWACS aircraft, not yet a phased array radar. Of course, the Americans have this technology, but its large amount of old equipment cannot be easily eliminated.

This radar is that there is a plate as big as a mushroom on the plane, it is rotating, and the rotating radar depends on mechanical scanning, and we have completely completed the electronic scanning, and the technology has made a great leap. This is where the Air Police-2000 phased array radar is more advanced than the radar in service in the United States.

But we also have problems, for example, the carrier aircraft of our Air Police-2000, which is the Russian Il-76, is not designed and produced by ourselves, and we have great defects in large aircraft. Of course, our big aircraft project has already been launched.

However, it can be seen from this point that there is still a certain gap between us and foreign countries, and it does not mean that we have everything today, which is not objective, and we still have a lot to work on.

As far as demand is concerned, if we look at the territorial air defense demanded in the fifties and sixties of the 20 th century, we have filled all the gaps in territorial air defense, and now there is no gap.

However, the gap is dynamic, and different requirements are put forward according to the development and change of national interests, and of course national interests are also dynamic. The dynamic nature of national interests involves national forces. National strength itself is dynamic, so national interests are also dynamic.

From a very good point of view, today's rapid development of the country has increasingly a strong material foundation. With the development, we are forming many new levels of interests, and we must not only maintain the security of our airspace, but also pay attention to the security of outer space, and create a security environment for China on a larger scale.

We need to maintain our security on a larger scale. For example, our air force has never had such a capability to patrol in Nansha before, but now it can, and our air force can go to Nansha, the motherland, including the area of Zengmu's dark sands, to complete air patrols, and this is a brand-new requirement put forward by national strategic interests in the new era. Another example is that in the past, when we talked about the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, our planes basically flew along the coastline, but now we can completely cover both sides of the Taiwan Strait. Of course, we didn't do that, but our air power now has the ability to do so.

The construction of the Air Force requires considerable financial support. In the past, our national economy was sluggish, military spending was very limited, and building a powerful air force was a dream. Today is different, the state can provide sufficient material resources, although we have a technological gap today, but there is no doubt that with the great enrichment of the country's material wealth and the development and change of national interests, the tasks of the air force are developing and changing.

In accordance with our brand-new requirement of integrating air and space and having both offensive and defensive capabilities, what the Air Force needs to achieve now is not only the issue of maintaining the security of the airspace, but also the issue of outer space security.

At present, 7,000 to 9,000 satellites of various kinds pass over China every day, and a large number of spy satellites are taking pictures and reconnoitring the movements of our ground targets. How to maintain China's outer space security in the new era is also an issue.

We will have to consider all of these in the future, including the collision of a failed Russian satellite in the air, the fact that a failed American satellite fell to the ground and was destroyed by a US missile, and so on. In the event of such an outer space disaster, how can we effectively maintain air safety? This is the reason why today's "integration of air and space" is proposed.

In the past, our air force was all defensive, that is, it prepared for the enemy to come in, and then we carried out territorial air defense and fought in our airspace. So we put forward some brand-new requirements today, that is, as China has to fulfill its international obligations and trans-regional activities, such as the Sino-Russian joint military exercises, especially the 2007 military exercises in the Chelyabinsk region of Russia, requiring our air force J-7 and helicopters to carry out such cross-border operations, across nearly 8,000 kilometers of roads and long-distance raids, the challenge is very great.

Building an information-led, air-space, offensive and defensive air force capable of operating on a larger scale has become a powerful target traction for us.

The demand has been raised, and there is a certain gap in our "air-space integration", and we must have both offense and defense, but we have been defensive for a long time, and it is difficult to achieve the offensive type. For example, our fighter aircraft are the enemy's arrival, and complete the interception mission at high altitude, and our J-6, J-7, including J-8 aircraft are all such performance. Its characteristics are that its range is relatively short, its fuel load is relatively small, and the distance of fire control radar and strafing radar is relatively limited, because it is a defensive type, and the defensive type is completely guided by the ground to complete air operations. That's the gap.

In order to complete both offensive and defensive capabilities, it is necessary to have a sufficient combat radius, at least 1,000 kilometers or more, and of course a farther combat radius of more than 1,500 kilometers is ideal. Without relying on ground guidance, the Air Force satellites combined with the data link system to complete independent air operations, and at the same time required early warning aircraft to be able to command bombers, attack planes, and fighter planes in a larger range.

According to the standards of the past, it seems that our equipment and training are all right now, but according to today's standards and future standards, there is still a big gap between us, and we still have to work hard.