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  • Third Combat Brigade of PLA Air Force Likely Receives Stealth Fighters

    On 9 December the Dutch Aviation Society’s website Scramble reported that a J-20 bearing the serial number 61162 had been spotted the day before. The J-20 is the first and only fifth-generation fighter that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force operates. Judging from this serial

  • CMSI report on Chinese Special Operations in a Large-Scale Island Landing

    This is a report from our "Big Brothers" at the China Maritime Studies Institute (CMSI) focused on PLA SOF.      PLA special operations forces (SOF) would likely play important supporting roles in an amphibious assault on Taiwan. Their capabilities and training are geared towards several missions

  • CASI Webinar on China and Cyber

    CASI hosted a webinar focused on Cyber issues related to the PRC.  We were joined by: Naomi Wilson, Vice president of policy for Asia at the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI) Prof SHEN Yi, Associate Professor of the Department of International Politics, School of International

  • In Their Own Words: 2020 Science of Military Strategy

          The “In Their Own Words” series is dedicated to translations of Chinese documents in order to help non-Mandarin speaking audiences access and understand Chinese thinking. In the “In Their Own Words” series, CASI aims to provide Chinese texts that illustrate thoughtful, clearly articulated,

  • Competition With China: China's Military Strategy

    Part of CASI's "Competition With China" video series which helps Airmen better understand the strategic competition with China broadly, and takes a deep look at many of the military and security aspects of that competition. CASI uses source documents to research and report on China’s aerospace

  • .....Don't Think Like a Westerner

    This article is the second in a series of essays, workshops, and events seeking to better understand the nature of deterrence, particularly from the viewpoint of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) People’s Liberation Army (PLA).  This series is a joint project between the Australian Strategic

  • Sino-Russian Defense Cooperation’s Impact on Chinese Aerospace RD&A

    We should not forget that in the “Era of Great Power Competition,” the United States has two peer “Strategic Competitors” and several others with whom we compete. When our two largest competitors, namely the People’s Republic of China and the Russian Federation, cooperate toward their common

  • Commentary on ADIZ issues and the PRC

    Dr. Mulvaney discusses increased flight activity by the PLA in the Taiwan ADIZ and in the South China Sea at the Habibie Center's Talking ASEAN Webinar on "Air Force Intrusions in the Indo-Pacific Airspace: Impacts on Regional Peace and Stability from ASEAN Perspective"A big thank you to Ken Allen

  • PLA Rocket Force Organization- Executive Summary

    While recent scholarship has gone a long way toward demystifying China’s missile force, it remains in many ways a poorly understood phenomenon, with an unusually high degree of censorship even by the already strict standards of the PLA. The following is a brief executive summary of a much longer

  • Competition with China: PLA Command and Control

    Part of CASI's "Competition With China" video series which helps Airmen better understand the strategic competition with China broadly, and takes a deep look at many of the military and security aspects of that competition. CASI uses source documents to research and report on China’s aerospace

  • Females in the PLA Air Force

    This report discusses the past and present role of females in the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force (PLAAF) to include officers, enlisted personnel, civilian cadre, and civilian personnel. Historically, females in the PLAAF served in two primary roles:

  • PLA Media’s First Reporting on Rapid Dragon

    On 2 November 2021 the media of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) published its first report concerning Rapid Dragon, the U.S. Air Force’s program to develop palletized munitions that can be airdropped from transport aircraft. The report likely indicates that the PLA negatively assesses the

  • Competition With China: PLA Overall Organization and Personnel

    This is the second in CASI's "Competition With China" video series.  This new video series helps Airmen better understand the strategic competition with China broadly, and takes a deep look at many of the military and security aspects of that competition. CASI uses source documents to research and

  • PLA Air Force Shifts Transition Training to the Schoolhouse

    On October 4 and 5, 2021, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) reported that the PLA Air Force (PLAAF) has begun experimenting with training a brigade of new pilots to fly the J-10, a fourth-generation fighter, at the Shijiazhuang Flight Academy, one of its three flight academies. In the

  • In Their Own Words- Services and Arms Application in Joint Operations

    Service and Arms Application in Joint Operations is one of the special series of reference texts written under the PLA Joint Operations Command Talent Cultivation Project of the former Shenyang Military Area Command. It discusses the roles and methods of all Services in integrated joint operations

  • 2021 CASI CHINA Town Hall with former DASD Chad Sbragia

    The China Aerospace Studies Institute (CASI) joined NCUSCR's Nationwide Live Event on China on Tues 19 October with its local portion via webinar with former DASD Sbragia.     LtCol (Ret) Chad Sbragia served as the inaugural Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for China until 2021. In this

  • ITOW: Xi calls for breaking new ground in weaponry, equipment development

    The CCP are good communists, which means they are good planners.  They have a plan, they propagate the plan, and they execute against that plan.  We just need to listen to what they are saying.  Here is an excerpt from Xinhua where General Secretary Xi Jinping lays out part of that planXi Jinping,