People’s Liberation Army Air Force combat record

Každá válka, kterou bojovalo letectvo Lidové osvobozenecké armády

The air force has not fought since 1979. Chinese claims from Korea and the Taiwan Strait are given as claims, beside the figures of the other side: Beijing never accepted the ROC figures for 1958, and American analyses of Korea differ from the Chinese count. Where a consolidated sortie or loss figure exists in the official record it is given here; where accounts disagree, the range is shown and the disagreement named. Blank cells are blank because no figure could be verified, not because the fighting was small.

From the MiG-15 war over Korea in 1950 to the Sino-Vietnamese War of 1979, which it sat out.

Konflikt Roky Proti Hlavní letadlo Výpady Ztráta letadla
Korejská válkathe air war over MiG AlleyPLA Air Force (as the Chinese People’s Volunteers’ air force, in a joint command with North Korea) 1950–1953 Velitelství Spojených států a OSN MiG-15, La-11, Tu-2 231

Fought UN air forces with MiG-15s alongside the Soviet 64th Fighter Aviation Corps, mainly between the Yalu and the Chongchon.

China entered the war in October 1950, when its air force was barely a year old. The Soviet 64th Fighter Aviation Corps was attached to the Chinese from November 1950 and carried the brunt of the early fighting, while Chinese divisions trained and then rotated into combat. Wikipedia’s MiG-15 article dates the first large PLAAF engagement with Sabres to 25 September 1951. Units of the joint command claimed 211 F-86s, 72 F-84s and F-80s and 47 other aircraft — 330 in all — for the loss of 231 aircraft and 116 airmen. Chinese aces included Wang Hai of the 3rd Fighter Aviation Division, credited with shooting down or damaging nine aircraft and later PLAAF commander (1985–1992), and Zhao Baotong, the first Chinese ace. American claims for MiGs destroyed covered Soviet, Chinese and North Korean aircraft together, and a later RAND study put the Sabre’s real exchange ratio at about 1.8 to 1 overall.

Výsledek Armistice of 27 July 1953, no peace treaty. The war made the PLAAF a jet force and produced its first aces.

Both sides’ claims exceed the other side’s admitted losses. Chinese totals and US claims cannot be matched one to one, because Soviet pilots flew in Chinese markings and US claims do not separate nationalities.

Létání pro
PLA Air Force (as the Chinese People’s Volunteers’ air force, in a joint command with North Korea)
Kde
North-west Korea, from bases in Manchuria
Vedle
Soviet Union and North Korea
Proti
Velitelství Spojených států a OSN
Letadlo
MiG-15, La-11, Tu-2
Výpady
No reliable sortie total reached.
Ztráty
231 aircraft · 116 killedChinese figures as quoted in Wikipedia’s MiG-15 article (citing Zhang Xiaoming): 231 aircraft lost (224 MiG-15s, three La-11s, four Tu-2s) and 116 airmen killed.
Zdroje
Wikipedie · Wikipedie · Wikipedie · Wikipedie
První krize v tchajwanském průlivuYijiangshan and the Dachen IslandsLetectvo PLA 1954–1955 Republic of China MiG-15, Tu-2, Il-10

Air strikes and air cover for the capture of the Yijiangshan Islands; fighters in the air battles over the coast.

The PLA calls the Yijiangshan landing of 18 January 1955 its first joint operation: PLA aircraft attacked ROC artillery and communications on the islands from 08:00 to 13:00 and drove off ROC warships. Months earlier, on 23 July 1954, PLA fighters shot down a Cathay Pacific airliner off Hainan, and US Navy aircraft searching for survivors shot down two PLA fighters. The aircraft types listed are those generally attributed to the operation; the specific types were not confirmed from the sources reached for this page.

Výsledek The PLA took Yijiangshan on 18 January 1955; the ROC evacuated the Dachen Islands with US Navy help.

Aircraft types UNVERIFIED in the reachable sources; the PRC and ROC accounts of air losses differ and were not found.

Létání pro
Letectvo PLA
Kde
Zhejiang coast and islands held by the Republic of China
Vedle
Žádné spojenecké letectvo
Proti
Republic of China
Letadlo
MiG-15, Tu-2, Il-10
Výpady
The Wikipedia battle article gives 184 PRC aircraft for Yijiangshan but no sortie count.
Ztráty
Two PLA fighters were shot down by US carrier aircraft after the Cathay Pacific shoot-down of 23 July 1954; other losses not confirmed.
Zdroje
Wikipedie · Wikipedie
Bombardování v západním S'-čchuanu v roce 1956the Tibetan uprising in KhamLetectvo PLA 1956 Tibetan rebels Tu-4 0

Two Tu-4 bombers attacked monasteries held by Tibetan rebels.

According to Wikipedia’s Tu-4 article, which cites the aviation historian Yefim Gordon, two PLAAF Tu-4s bombed monasteries at Lithang, Chathreng and Bathang during the 1956 uprising, the Tu-4’s only combat mission in Chinese service. The Chinese government describes its operations in Tibet as the suppression of a rebellion; Tibetan exile accounts describe the same events as the repression of a national uprising. This page gives no casualty figure because none was found in a reachable, attributable source.

Výsledek The PLA suppressed the rising in Kham; the wider Tibetan uprising followed in 1959.

Single secondary source; Chinese official accounts of the air role were not reached.

Létání pro
Letectvo PLA
Kde
Lithang, Chathreng and Bathang, western Sichuan (Kham)
Vedle
Žádné spojenecké letectvo
Proti
Tibetan rebels
Letadlo
Tu-4
Ztráty
0 letadelNo PLAAF losses recorded. Casualties on the ground not confirmed from a reachable source.
Zdroje
Wikipedie
Druhá krize v tchajwanském průlivuthe Kinmen crisisLetectvo PLA 1958 Republic of China MiG-15, MiG-17

Fought the ROC Air Force over the strait during the shelling of Kinmen.

On 24 September 1958 ROC F-86s carrying the new AIM-9 Sidewinder, supplied under a secret US Navy programme, met PLAAF MiGs over the strait; the ROC and US account is that this was the first combat use of air-to-air missiles. One missile lodged unexploded in a MiG-17, was recovered by the Chinese and passed to the Soviet Union, which copied it as the K-13. The loss figures come from ROC and American sources; Beijing has not published a matching account, and the two numbers quoted on Wikipedia are not consistent with each other.

Výsledek The shelling ended in an alternate-day pattern; the islands stayed with the ROC.

Only one side’s figures, and they conflict.

Létání pro
Letectvo PLA
Kde
Fujian coast and the Taiwan Strait
Vedle
Žádné spojenecké letectvo
Proti
Republic of China
Letadlo
MiG-15, MiG-17
Ztráty
ROC and US-sourced tallies quoted by Wikipedia: 31 PRC MiGs shot down for two ROC F-86s by October 1958. The same article says 25 MiGs fell to Sidewinders on 24 September alone. No PRC figure was found.
Zdroje
Wikipedie
Protivzdušná obrana proti přeletůmthe RB-57D and U-2 shoot-downsPLA Air Force (surface-to-air missile units and fighters) 1959–1967 Republic of China and United States S-75 (SA-2), J-6

Shot down ROC reconnaissance aircraft flying for Taiwan and the United States with S-75 missiles.

On 7 October 1959 a Chinese-operated S-75 battery near Beijing hit an ROC RB-57D at about 20 km with a salvo of three missiles, the first aircraft ever destroyed by a surface-to-air missile; China credited the kill to fighters at the time to protect the secret. Between 9 September 1962 and 8 September 1967 PLAAF missile units shot down five U-2s of Taiwan’s Black Cat Squadron. Majors Chen Huai, Lee Nanpin and Captain Huang Jungpei were killed; Yeh Changti and Chang Liyi were captured and released in 1982. In 1965 a J-6 damaged a USAF F-104 near Hainan.

Výsledek Taiwan’s Black Cat Squadron flew about 220 missions, about half over the mainland, before the overflights ended.

Chinese figures for other claimed shoot-downs (drones and aircraft over southern China) were not found in a reachable source and are left out.

Létání pro
PLA Air Force (surface-to-air missile units and fighters)
Kde
Mainland China
Vedle
Žádné spojenecké letectvo
Proti
Republic of China and United States
Letadlo
S-75 (SA-2), J-6
Výpady
Není relevantní.
Ztráty
Shot down: one RB-57D (1959) and five U-2s (1962–1967); three U-2 pilots killed and two captured, released in 1982.
Zdroje
Wikipedie · Wikipedie · Wikipedie
Vietnamská válkaair defence of North Vietnam and southern ChinaPeople’s Liberation Army (anti-aircraft units) and PLA Air Force 1965–1969 Spojené státy J-6, J-5

Chinese anti-aircraft forces defended Hanoi and the transport lines at North Vietnam’s request; PLAAF fighters defended Chinese airspace near the border and Hainan.

Ho Chi Minh asked Mao for anti-aircraft artillery in May 1965, and PLA forces began entering North Vietnam in July 1965; more than 320,000 Chinese personnel served there between June 1965 and March 1968, 170,000 at the peak in 1967. How many of the anti-aircraft units belonged to the air force rather than the army is not stated in the sources reached. Over China itself, a J-6 damaged a USAF F-104 near Hainan in 1965.

Výsledek Chinese forces withdrew from North Vietnam by 1969–1970.

Air force share of the deployment and all claims UNVERIFIED; figures dropped.

Létání pro
People’s Liberation Army (anti-aircraft units) and PLA Air Force
Kde
North Vietnam and the Chinese border area
Vedle
Severní Vietnam
Proti
Spojené státy
Letadlo
J-6, J-5
Ztráty
Chinese claims of US aircraft shot down were not found in a reachable source.
Zdroje
Wikipedie · Wikipedie
The Sino-Vietnamese Warthe 1979 border warLetectvo PLA 1979 Vietnam J-6, Q-5

Limited support only: Deng Xiaoping ordered the navy and air force to stay out of the war.

The war ran from 17 February to 16 March 1979. Because Vietnam’s air defences were among the strongest in the world and Beijing wanted Moscow to see a limited war, Deng Xiaoping kept the air force almost entirely out; it flew only limited support on the Chinese side of the border. It remains the last war in which the PLAAF took part, and the air force’s absence was one reason later reformers pressed for modernisation.

Výsledek Chinese ground forces withdrew on 16 March 1979; the border clashes continued through the 1980s.

The aircraft listed are the types then in front-line service; which ones flew support is not confirmed.

Létání pro
Letectvo PLA
Kde
Guangxi and Yunnan border with Vietnam
Vedle
Žádné spojenecké letectvo
Proti
Vietnam
Letadlo
J-6, Q-5
Ztráty
No air combat recorded in the sources reached.
Zdroje
Wikipedie · Wikipedie

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