Curiously, despite a fly-by of a large Chengdu J-20 stealth fighter during a training sequence, it is not actually employed when the Chinese planners look for a way to elude terrorist-operated SA-6 ‘Kub’ surface-to-air missile batteries. Wu Di pilots a new J-10C Vigorous Dragon, an agile, single-engine multi-role fighter similar in concept to the light-weight F-16. Significant portions of the PLA continue to operate outdated systems like the 1950’s-era Type 59 tanks and J-7 jetfighters, but the growing proportions of modernized units give the PLA options suitable for expeditionary missions. For example, China has only a few dozen aerial refueling tankers compared to the U.S.’s five hundred. These are platforms and capabilities the PLAAF mostly lacked twenty years ago-though in some cases, the relevant assets remain few in number today. Along the way, the film showcases the PLA’s new technical and organizational capabilities ranging from helicopter Combat Search & Rescue units, satellite reconnaissance and navigation, in-flight refueling (via a converted H-6U bomber), KJ-500 radar planes, and elite special forces operators parachuting from a brand-new Y-20 ‘Chubby Girl’ cargo jet. Of course, Li is intent on answering that question with a hail of laser-guided bombs and 23-millimeter cannon shells. He does, however, question whether the PLA, which has “fought no wars in decades” has the stuff to defeat his thuggish forces. The hostage-taker’s bearded leader, Colonel Rahman (Tomer Oz) actually tells Liu he admires the ‘compassionate and peaceful’ People’s Republic of China, but has it in for his own government. Ironically, it seems both China and America fear exactly such a scenario taking place in Pakistan! Wu and Zhao go on to join an elite Chinese military unit, while Liu becomes a flight instructor in the neighboring country of ‘Maobhu’-a thinly veiled amalgam of Kazakhstan (in terms of ethnicity and Soviet-style uniforms) and Pakistan (in terms of its military alliance with China and political instability.) Inevitably, an extremist religious cult-a thinly veiled allusion to Islamist insurgents-seizes the airbase he’s is working at, taking Liu and other Chinese nationals hostage, as well as capturing a nuclear ballistic missile silo. Since then, China’s growing contingent of female combat aviators has been prominently featured in the press. ![]() Air Force, but kept them confined to a transport unit until around the year 2000. The PLAAF inducted its first female pilots in the 1950s, decades before the U.S. Recommended: Would China Really Invade Taiwan?Īfterwards, at a graduation ceremony, Wu and Liu reunite with elite helicopter pilot Zhao Yali (Fan Bing Bing, debatably the most famous contemporary Chinese actress). Recommended: Russia's Next Big Military Sale - To Mexico? Air Force That Never Built the B-52 Bomber Recommended: What Will the Sixth-Generation Jet Fighter Look Like? The Shenyang J-11 fighters in this scene are indeed magnificently maneuverable aircraft reverse-engineered from Russian Su-27 Flankers. ![]() Though rival air forcse are occasionally known to do this in peacetime, close-range dogfighting may likely be supplanted in a real conflict by beyond-visual range engagements where stealth, sensors and long-range missiles dominate. Wu and Liu then mock dogfight a pair of Super Hornets in a scene that liberally quotes the opening of Top Gun, sometimes shot-for-shot. Washington defies these claims by flying maritime patrol planes in these sectors, so the PLA ritually dispatches fighters to intercept them and sternly advise they bug out.Īs occurs in the film, the Chinese fighters sometimes buzz dangerously close to the lumbering American spy planes-a practice which resulted in a collision between a Chinese jet and American spy plane in 2001. Beijing, however, insists its dominion extends to waters hundreds of miles southeast of the mainland (map here). Most of the planet defines territorial waters and airspace as extending no further than 12 nautical miles from a country’s shores. ![]() Navy P-3 Orion maritime patrol plane over the South China Sea. Sky Hunter opens with a fairly routine international incident: the film’s two protagonists, hotshot Wu Di (Li Chen) and sidekick Liu Haochen (Jiahang Li) fly a pair of J-11B twin-engine fighters to intercept a U.S. So in this spoiler-ridden review of the film, we’ll go spotting for aircraft-and political subtexts. As it happens, subtitled copies of Sky Hunter are not difficult to find on Youtube.
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