Red Sword/ Blue Sword
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Red Sword/ Blue Sword
Wired: China’s Increasingly Good Mock Air Battles Prep Pilots for Real War
For 11 days in November, the sky over the northwestern Chinese province of Gansu witnessed some of the most intensive dogfighting to ever take place in China. Jet fighters screamed overhead, twisting and turning in complex aerial maneuvers. Heavily laden bombers lumbered through the tangle of fighters, dodging enemy defenses as they lined up for bombing runs.
The warplanes and their crews were the real deal. It featured the best of the best of the Chinese military, which with 2,700 aircraft possesses the world’s third largest aerial arsenal, after the U.S. and Russia. But the combat over the sprawling Dingxin Air Force Test and Training Base was simulated. Despite the ferocity of the maneuvers, no live weapons were fired. The mock battles of the annual “Red Sword/Blue Sword” exercise are meant to prepare the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) for the possibility of actual high-tech combat...............
At first, Beijing was unable to copy the Americans’ training innovations. The Chinese air force was wedded to highly restrictive Soviet-style tactics emphasizing direct control of warplanes by ground-based commanders, as opposed to the greater freedom of action and potential for learning afforded U.S. aviators. Moreover, the Cultural Revolution in China in the 1960s had wreaked havoc on the scientific-minded training establishment. “The ideological types in [the People's Republic of China] leadership thought it was capitalistic to train,” wrote one U.S.-based Chinese analyst who goes by “Feng.” The ideologues had even destroyed flight manuals.
It took decades of painful political reform to clear the way for Beijing’s own version of Red Flag. Today the bureaucratic obstacles are fast falling away, and a rapidly modernizing Chinese air force, flush with cash and new equipment, is working hard to catch-up to the Americans. The introduction of the Russian-made Su-30 fighter in the 1990s finally gave the PLAAF a modern warplane it could match with more intensive training techniques. Beijing massively expanded the Dingxin airbase and its adjacent flight range. The Chinese began deploying small numbers of pilots and planes to Kazakhstan for exercises, laying the foundation for far bigger war games back home.
Beijing also formed several aggressor units flying specially painted fighters meant to replicate the planes of China’s rivals.
Incrementally, and without much notice outside of China, the PLAAF transformed routine flight training into the regular Red Sword/Blue Sword mock air battles, modeled on Red Flag. By 2005 Beijing’s war games were well underway. And a few years after that, the frontline improvements began to show. As late as 2008 Chinese fighters couldn’t make it even halfway across the Taiwan Strait before being chased off by Taiwanese fighters and ground-based defenses. Today the situation is reversed, and Taiwanese jets find themselves quickly intercepted. “It shows improved reaction time and professionalism in the PLAAF,” Feng wrote.
For November’s Red Sword/Blue Sword exercises, 108 pilots from 14 fighter regiments flocked to Dingxin alongside detachments from bomber and support units. They brought along a dizzying array of jets, including aging J-7s (based on the Soviet-era MiG-21) plus the latest J-10s and J-11s built in China and Su-30s acquired directly from Russia. H-6 bombers and Airborne Early Warning planes with giant radar dishes on top rounded out the aerial armada.
After a work-up period, the main mock fighting went on for 10 days. Some pilots racked up scores of missions and an equal number of simulated kills. The 11 best pilots were awarded the prestigious Golden Helmet award and lavished with praise in state-run media. “Some people are born for flight,” crowed one official news report.
The latest war game contained important lessons for the PLAAF. The twin-engine J-11, a rough analog of America’s F-15, reportedly cleaned up against the smaller single-engine J-10s, which are similar in layout to U.S. F-16s. Besides improving pilot skill, the exercise results could shape Beijing’s warplane production plans.
In any event, China probably still has a way to go before it can match the U.S. plane-for-plane in the air. But the contest has officially begun, and with every simulated dogfight over the plains surrounding Dingxin, the Chinese inch closer to achieving the kind of realistic training that transformed the U.S. military into the world’s leading air power...........
For 11 days in November, the sky over the northwestern Chinese province of Gansu witnessed some of the most intensive dogfighting to ever take place in China. Jet fighters screamed overhead, twisting and turning in complex aerial maneuvers. Heavily laden bombers lumbered through the tangle of fighters, dodging enemy defenses as they lined up for bombing runs.
The warplanes and their crews were the real deal. It featured the best of the best of the Chinese military, which with 2,700 aircraft possesses the world’s third largest aerial arsenal, after the U.S. and Russia. But the combat over the sprawling Dingxin Air Force Test and Training Base was simulated. Despite the ferocity of the maneuvers, no live weapons were fired. The mock battles of the annual “Red Sword/Blue Sword” exercise are meant to prepare the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) for the possibility of actual high-tech combat...............
At first, Beijing was unable to copy the Americans’ training innovations. The Chinese air force was wedded to highly restrictive Soviet-style tactics emphasizing direct control of warplanes by ground-based commanders, as opposed to the greater freedom of action and potential for learning afforded U.S. aviators. Moreover, the Cultural Revolution in China in the 1960s had wreaked havoc on the scientific-minded training establishment. “The ideological types in [the People's Republic of China] leadership thought it was capitalistic to train,” wrote one U.S.-based Chinese analyst who goes by “Feng.” The ideologues had even destroyed flight manuals.
It took decades of painful political reform to clear the way for Beijing’s own version of Red Flag. Today the bureaucratic obstacles are fast falling away, and a rapidly modernizing Chinese air force, flush with cash and new equipment, is working hard to catch-up to the Americans. The introduction of the Russian-made Su-30 fighter in the 1990s finally gave the PLAAF a modern warplane it could match with more intensive training techniques. Beijing massively expanded the Dingxin airbase and its adjacent flight range. The Chinese began deploying small numbers of pilots and planes to Kazakhstan for exercises, laying the foundation for far bigger war games back home.
Beijing also formed several aggressor units flying specially painted fighters meant to replicate the planes of China’s rivals.
Incrementally, and without much notice outside of China, the PLAAF transformed routine flight training into the regular Red Sword/Blue Sword mock air battles, modeled on Red Flag. By 2005 Beijing’s war games were well underway. And a few years after that, the frontline improvements began to show. As late as 2008 Chinese fighters couldn’t make it even halfway across the Taiwan Strait before being chased off by Taiwanese fighters and ground-based defenses. Today the situation is reversed, and Taiwanese jets find themselves quickly intercepted. “It shows improved reaction time and professionalism in the PLAAF,” Feng wrote.
For November’s Red Sword/Blue Sword exercises, 108 pilots from 14 fighter regiments flocked to Dingxin alongside detachments from bomber and support units. They brought along a dizzying array of jets, including aging J-7s (based on the Soviet-era MiG-21) plus the latest J-10s and J-11s built in China and Su-30s acquired directly from Russia. H-6 bombers and Airborne Early Warning planes with giant radar dishes on top rounded out the aerial armada.
After a work-up period, the main mock fighting went on for 10 days. Some pilots racked up scores of missions and an equal number of simulated kills. The 11 best pilots were awarded the prestigious Golden Helmet award and lavished with praise in state-run media. “Some people are born for flight,” crowed one official news report.
The latest war game contained important lessons for the PLAAF. The twin-engine J-11, a rough analog of America’s F-15, reportedly cleaned up against the smaller single-engine J-10s, which are similar in layout to U.S. F-16s. Besides improving pilot skill, the exercise results could shape Beijing’s warplane production plans.
In any event, China probably still has a way to go before it can match the U.S. plane-for-plane in the air. But the contest has officially begun, and with every simulated dogfight over the plains surrounding Dingxin, the Chinese inch closer to achieving the kind of realistic training that transformed the U.S. military into the world’s leading air power...........
Last edited by ORAC; 8th Feb 2013 at 09:53.
Good post, Orac. Thanks.
I'd be getting worried about them if their guns tracking wasn't so awful.
Seriously, though, Red Flag writ large. They've certainly come a long way since the end of the Cold War.
I'd be getting worried about them if their guns tracking wasn't so awful.
Seriously, though, Red Flag writ large. They've certainly come a long way since the end of the Cold War.
