By Li Jianwen
BEIJING, Nov. 11 -- President Xi Jinping stressed "fully building the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force into a world-class air force" when attending an event celebrating the 70th founding anniversary of the PLA Air Force(PLAAF) on November 8 last year. According to the magnificent blueprint, the PLAAF is striding forward to the goal of fully building a world-class air force.
In recent years, the PLAAF has focused on strategic transformation and vigorously strengthened the capacity construction in strategic early warning, air strikes, air defense and anti-missile, airborne operations, information confrontation and strategic power projection.
The equipment development has laid a solid foundation for the strategic transformation of the PLAAF in the new era. PLAAF released a new annual flight training video on March 10 this year, which vividly demonstrated the training scenes of the combat aircraft of the J-20, H-6K and other fighters. Behind this, it is the new changes brought by the vigorous promotion of weaponry upgrades.
In this August, the airborne troops went to Russia to participate in the Airborne Platoon contest of the International Army Games 2020. Even though they used Russian infantry fighting vehicles for the first time, the PLAAF participating troops ranked among the best in various events.
Over the past year, while overcoming the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and continuously improving its combat effectiveness, the PLAAF has actively carried out foreign exchanges and joint training exercises. In the global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, the PLAAF has sent multiple transport aircraft to deliver the pandemic prevention materials to multiple countries, demonstrating the due reponsibility of a major country’s air force.
At the same time, the PLAAF has compiled a five-year plan to support its strategic transformation and capacity building under the strategic arrangements for the modernization of national defense and the armed forces in the country’s 14th Five-Year Plan. Standing at a higher starting point, the PLAAF has started a new journey to build a world-class air force in an all-round way.
