Chinese Military Pilot Training Woes - US Pilots Opinion

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China is having some pilot training issues. What do you think? Is training military pilots a complicated and long process? Will China, unlike the US, figure this out quickly? Has China's tactic of copying the US military gone too far? Leave your comments below!!!

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[amunra]

Born in the west grew up there so pretty much a western breed sheep. But I took the chance and visited China the first time July 2023. After that I visited 2 more times April and August 2024. What i have learned is that China is conservative, slow into new arenas.. Not because they are inefficient but they are perfectionists and will get it right- even if it takes years to complete. Once they get it they get it and they go full speed There is a reason why this civilization has been around 4000 thousand years. .

[postman]

PLAAF's traditional pilot training process is based on military university/college level education system, graduates are reciveing their BAs at the end, so 3-4year college course(within which a lot of military college stuff being taught) and a 2-2.5 year real piloting course make sense(students didn't make the cut can went to serve in different roles in the PLAAF). Worked decent enough in the past(due to relatively low new pilot required in the past) but have been found wanting facing the future because the quite huge number of new airframe being produced each year, and the reason why this is now a pressing matter is that prior to recent years, a lot of new airframe produced went to replace the legacy fleet that didn't require huge number of new pilots rather than forming new units which needs new pilots. Of course in recent decades rise of service member pay and career prospects helps to reduce the number of trained pilots to swith to civil career also helps to lessen the problem.

[alikhan-riye]

Watching from Pakistan.Sounds like China has more fighter planes, than pilots who can fly them.

[tanjim]

The article says 400 fighter pilots whereas for U.S. the 1300 is the overall number of pilots combining tankers, AWACs etc. USAF academies also train pilots for NATO countries.

[prastagus]

the front line number is quite important. It can roughly determine the quality of the 400 pilots.
An example, there is saying in China SOF: "If US choose 1 out of 1000 solider for its SOF, we have to choose 1 out of 10, 000 for our SOF then".

[moss]

I heard some of the inefficiency is to do with legacy planes. Basically the PLAAF still operate some 2nd gen and 3rd gen J7 and J8, and the program required for those are interfering with the 4th and 5th gen.

Also, perviously they only recruited 5th gen pilots from the elite 4th gen pilots, but they found 5th gen operate very differently to 4th, and it takes time to un-train some 4th gen habits out of the pilots before moving them to 5th gen. Now they are going directly from flight school to 5th gen

[rodneynoble]

Historically, longer training makes a better anything! The Tuskegee airmen are a great example.

[SoCalFreelance]

Former Western fighter pilots are making hundreds of thousands of dollars training the PLA US tactics

[Mb]

The training is very similar to what the Italian Air Force has for its academy pilots. Flight screening, 3 years of academy (which is more academics than actual training) then you go for the real intense pilot training in the US or Italy for 1/2 years…

[Rosawww]

from official documentaries in China. They got aviation high school now in China. You start at 16 finish at 18. By the time you are 18 you either taken in by the military or just get a License to fly a small plane like a Cessna. So if you are good enough at 18 you go to military and get into a JL- X and some now gets to fly a J10 after sometimes

[Tom-jcfq]

Guys. Keep in mind that china doesn't have over 750 military bases dotted around the world as the US does to maintain hegemony. So probably 400 is probably enough for them. Also longer programs might improve quality of graduated recruits.

[tafan]

I mean, I got out of the Air Force to get my pilot license and degree (and succeeded) but according to the military, I was "too old" at 26 to fly. So there's that.

[ytdlder]

I think what you shouldn't forget: a lot of countries don't have the military / cadet / flight "schools" as a teenager.
I can only say how it is in Austria, and here you do your mandatory military service, where beforehand you can be "tested" if you might be able to be a fighter pilot.
So you start your training as a 18-20yr old. With 0 knowledge in aviation or military.
So of course it might only seem long in comparison...

[worldwanderer]

China is hiring lots of NATO train pilots as instructors for their pilot training programs for a long time now. Plenty of Americans, Europeans, and Australians are training future Chinese pilots and aviators.

[icolky]

Could be worse. Apparently here in the UK we’re taking 6-7 years. That’s a broken flight training program!

[itsericzhou]

the main concern for the us even though they triple the amount of pilots, the percentage of pilots that will go against chinese pilots means that china has reached parity or exceeds the amount of pilots per year that get added to the mix

[DavidSeto-iq]

The flight training for the imperial Japanese navy was the most rigorous in the world prior to ww2. That us why their dive bombers had an 80 % hit rate dropping unguided bombs. But from their heavy losses, they eventually relaxed their flight standards but lost the air war anyway.

[BrookT]

I know of relatives in the Pakistan airforce who are on contracts to work at PLAAF flight schools.
Chinese are keen to recruit as Pak airforce has an overcapacity and also follows western training programmes.

[Schurkie]

The problem in England was that only woke people were allowed to join pilot training, white young Brits were not allowed and went doing other things after years of waiting

[jasonkeating]

This long training time line that the Chinese military has that you mentioned makes total sense to me now,
Sorry to mention another channel but it's totally relevant and ties this together,
Task and purpose done a episode about the Chinese military infantry crossbow department and in that episode he said that the training schedule for crossbow training was something around 3 years to get qualified and that's a dedicated training school so they are doing nothing else but training on crossbows for 3 years,
Now take that crossbow example and then the airforce training makes total sense that it's that long,
8f it takes 3 years to shoot a now then 5 to 7 years to fly a jet is totally reasonable.