Paired with ground-based missile forces, naval aviation, and electronic warfare units, the PLAAF fields a dense web of capabilities designed to complicate US intervention in the Indo-Pacific.
China’s revisionist ambitions, paired with increasingly dominant economic capabilities, have manifested in a military that is rapidly improving in both qualitative and quantitative terms. The People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) is no exception—having transformed in the past two decades from a defensive, territorial force into one of the world’s most modern and capable air arms.
Through the Cold War, China, still a middling power, was deeply reliant on outdated Soviet aircraft, forcing a strategic focus limited to the defense of Chinese airspace. Since the beginning of the 21st century, however, China has enacted widespread reform and modernization, catalyzing a strategic shift towards power projection.
China Now Makes Its Own Aircraft
Enabling the PLAAF’s newer strategy of power projection is an increasingly modern and diverse fleet of domestically-produced combat aircraft. No longer so reliant on Soviet models, the PLAAF has benefited from platforms like the Chengdu J-10 multirole fighter and the Chengdu J-20 stealth fighter, which demonstrate China’s ability to produce advanced platforms at scale. The J-20 in particular shows that China is capable of developing a fifth-generation fighter—which puts China in exclusive company, along with only the United States and Russia. Aside from demonstrating technological prowess, the J-20 is significant for its strategic implications; the plane can potentially counter US fifth-generation fighters like the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor and the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II, but also impose a cost on US and allied forces operating in the Indo-Pacific—a new capability. Supplementing its indigenous platforms, China still fields upgraded versions of Russian-origin aircraft like the Sukhoi Su-30 and Sukhoi Su-35, creating a force structure much like America’s—blending cutting-edge 4.5- and fifth-generation fighters with legacy workhorses.
China’s Aerial Infrastructure Is Second to None
The PLAAF’s modernization efforts are not strictly about fighter improvements. In addition, the PLAAF has invested heavily in force multipliers. KJ-series airborne early warning and control aircraft, for example, enhance PLAAF situational awareness and command-and-control capabilities across the vast maritime spaces of the Indo-Pacific. Strategic airlift capabilities, once a PLAAF deficiency, have been expanded with platforms like the Y-20 transport, which permits China’s movement throughout their region—and to far-off places like Africa and the Middle East, helping to transform it into a global presence.
Deeply consequential, the PLAAF has further integrated with China’s broader anti-access/area-denial (A2/AD) architecture. For example, the Xi’an H-6 bomber has been equipped with air-launched cruise missiles, which serve to extend China’s strike reach for hundreds of miles into the Pacific. Paired with ground-based missile forces, naval aviation, and electronic warfare units, the PLAAF is a major contributor in a dense web of capabilities designed to complicate US intervention in the region.
The aggregate effect of increasingly sophisticated and diverse aircraft, paired with integration into an increasingly robust A2/AD scheme, allows the PLAAF to deter foreign intervention. The United States’ military presence in the Indo-Pacific is unquestionably viewed by Beijing as a threat to its core strategic interests like Taiwan, the South China Sea, and overseas economic development. The theory holds that should that cost rise too steeply, American intervention will become less appealing, perhaps untenable. Simultaneously, the PLAAF’s growing global footprint serves to advance China’s status as a prospective regional hegemon—and an undeniable global power.
About the Author: Harrison Kass
Harrison Kass is a senior defense and national security writer at The National Interest. Kass is an attorney and former political candidate who joined the US Air Force as a pilot trainee before being medically discharged. He focuses on military strategy, aerospace, and global security affairs. He holds a JD from the University of Oregon and a master’s in Global Journalism and International Relations from NYU.
Image: Shutterstock / plavi011.
