Assessment of the underground bases of the Chinese Air Force (Part 3)

3
Part 1
Part 2

Design strategy, design and capacity of PLA underground air bases
A study of more military, civilian and dual-use 200 Chinese airfields shows a disciplined and highly standardized approach to the construction of airfields. For one category of aerodromes, the runways, taxiways and aircraft parking areas are often identical.

In general, all observed projects revolve around three main configurations, one for fighter bases, another for bombers, and one for transport aviation with some reservations. For example, some bomber bases began to exist as fighter bases, and many transport aviation, bomber and fighter bases over the past decade have been rebuilt into civilian airports, which often retained dual-use capabilities.

The Chinese were the last to start building military airfields and used the extensive experience of similar work abroad. Thus, the majority of military airfields are based on standard samples of very reliable fighter aviation airfields of the Warsaw Pact countries of the 1950-s period. There can be no doubt that the engineers of the Warsaw Pact countries, and especially the Soviet engineers, played a key role in the PLA airfield construction program during the 1950-s.

Very illustrative are the examples of the construction of former Soviet front-line airfields in East Germany, such as Grossenhein, Templin-Gross, Altenburg-Nobitz, Tutow-Demin, Brand, Welzow, Damgarten, Wittstock, Eberswalde-Finow, Zerbst, Hinsterwalde, Juterbog, Merseburg-Finow, Juterbog, Merseburg-Finow, Zerbst, Hinsterwalde, Juterbog, Merseburg-Finow, Zürbst, Merseburg-Finow, Zerbst, Hinsterwalde, Juterbog, Merseburg-Finow and Sperenberg.

Assessment of the underground bases of the Chinese Air Force (Part 3)

PLA Air Force Base in Quzhou in Nanjing MR. Quzhou is not typical, since the concrete platform in front of the hangar is connected to the taxiways in full arc, requiring several visits during the bombardment to destroy the taxiways. The parking places of typical PLAA airfields are from 23 to 30 meters in diameter and can accommodate up to three Farmer, Fantan, Fishbed or one or two Flanker fighters. Concrete pads in front of the hangar are usually 14 meters wide. At least one Badger base is large enough to accommodate one aircraft, but no caponiers were installed on it. The PLA’s approach to the construction of semi-fortified and fortified parking areas is fully consistent with the Soviet model of the Cold War era.

Thanks to a highly standardized approach to aerodrome planning, PLA Air Force airfields usually have one main runway with parallel taxiways, which are often used as a backup runway. The main difference between the PLA fighter bases, as a rule, is the organization of the area of ​​dispersal and the presence of underground hangars. In general, fighter air bases with underground hangars do not use a network of taxiways and an acceleration area, although double taxiways are present on these bases.

The “classic” style of air bases conforms to the standards of well-fortified air bases that preceded the era of guided cruise missiles. As a rule, they appear in the shape of a horseshoe with the use of earthen caponiers around individual parking areas, which makes these targets more protected from being hit by a rocket-bomb attack on low-level flight. Such dispersal is observed at fighter air bases, H-5 Beagle and H-6 Badger bases.

The presence of a large number of high-precision long-range cruise missiles largely neutralizes the advantages of the dispersal scheme of the past era, since individual parking places can be hit with a high degree of probability, and the linear or location of the horseshoe-shaped parking places can be easily cut off from the runway by a small number of missiles . While the latter problem can be easily corrected by adding additional taxiways, the use of additional parking spaces can only reduce the number of lost aircraft from explosions and burning nearby aircraft.


TAB-V high-security aircraft shelters at the Kadena airbase in Okinawa do not withstand the impact of anti-bunker penetrating ammunition. Most PLA Air Force shelters are similar to TAB-V shelters.


Highly protected aircraft shelters at Suixi and Xiangshui Hsu air bases.


Some of these "classic" bases have recently been further strengthened by the addition of protected air shelters that look a lot like NATO / US TAB-V (Theater Air Base Vulnerability). Almost a constant attribute of TAB-V covers are camouflage coloring of taxiways and parking areas, and covering canopies with soil over parking areas to enhance their protection. However, there is no evidence of the ability of high-strength reinforced concrete shelters to resist the damage of a particular penetrating weaponssuch as BLU-109 / B, BLU-116 / B, BLU-118 / B and GBU-39 / B.

PLA Air Force bases with underground hangars were built where local relief allowed, and the presence of air bases without underground hangars can only be explained by the geographical absence of a suitable mountain, hill or mound in the construction sites of the air bases.

A remarkable geographical feature of most of the eastern coast of mainland China is very flat land with often falling hills, mountains or short ridges of mountains. It is in such places that the PLA has built most of the underground hangars in Shenyang, Beijing, Jinan, Nanjing and Guangzhou.

The location of underground hangars on airfields varies widely and, obviously, the engineers who designed these objects sought to use local geography as far as possible. One of the factors that clearly influenced the placement of the runways in relation to the hill was the terrain plane in the immediate vicinity of the hill. As a result, while at many such bases the runways are located hundreds of meters from the hill, in some cases this distance is kilometers, which is the main obstacle in the implementation of quick departures.

Some air bases have a very useful feature, which consists in the presence of auxiliary runways in place of one of the specially designated taxiways or an additional runway. These additional runways are usually adjacent at one end directly to one of the entrances of underground hangars, which has a concrete pad in front of the entrance to the hangar, or a few hundred meters to allow the plane to taxi out, level out and immediately take off. Upon return, the plane lands on the main runway, and then taxi or towed along the runway or auxiliary taxiways back to the underground hangar. Usually paved or concreted areas are also located in the middle of the auxiliary runways to allow aircraft to take off while others return to the hangar. On such airfields, the auxiliary runway is much wider and straighter than the standard taxiway. Currently, at some aerodromes, the auxiliary runway is in poor condition, and in one place it is clearly overgrown with vegetation.

The auxiliary runway is set up at Chifeng, Zunhua, Jinzhou Xiaolingzi, Yinchuan / Xincheng, Lihue, Anqing, Changzing, Daishan Island, Feidong, Guiyang, Taihe, Yiwu, Foluo Northeast, Jiyuan, Chang Shui Chi, Yaotian, Yiwu, Foluo Northeast, Jiyuan, Chang Shui Chi, Yaotian, Yiwu, Foluo Northeast, Jiyuan, Shui Chi, Yaotian, Yiwu, Foluo Northeast, Air Force bases which make up about 50 percent of known bases with underground hangars. It is likely that the bases that do not have such runways and significant taxiways simply do not have terrain that allows the construction of a second runway.

The taxiways to the entrances to the underground hangars reveal the location of the entrances, which are mainly located on opposite sides of the hill used, at a distance of 200 meters from each other. Basically, they use two entrances and taxiways with Y shape in accordance with the contours of the hill base. A small number of airfields use one entrance, but Guiyang airbases in Nanjing MR and Yinchuan in Lanzhou have four entrances in one hill.


J-6A Farmers


The J-8 Finback and J-7 Fishbed can be placed in “fighter-sized” underground hangars (Zhenguan Studio, © 2010 Air Power Australia).


H-5 (IL-28) Beagle, developed as an analogue of the Canberra and B-66 medium bombers, is on display in an underground hangar in Datangshan.


The Luyang / Ranghe-Zhen avabaz hangar is currently used as storage space and as a museum. It is unusual in that it combines hangars of sizes under "MiG", "Beagle" and one partially completed under "Badger". Above, the inside view of a hangar-sized "badger" is currently used to showcase old fighters.


Comparative dimensions of the entrance to the underground hangars of the PLA Air Force. Some of the entrances of the fighter bases are quite narrow - 12 meters, while some "Badger" sizes reach 40 meters in width. There are eight well-known "Badger" size hangars with 35-40 meters in width, one of which is written off. Fourteen well-known "Beagle" size hangars in 22 meters in width and seventeen known MiG size hangars from 12 to 14 meters in width.

The study of satellite images shows that air bases are created on three standard widths of entrances to underground hangars:
Size under "MiG": X-NUMX-12 meter-wide entrance is compatible with J-15 / MiG-4 Fagot, Q-15 Fantan, J-5 / MiG-5 Fresco, J-17 / MiG-6 Farmer, J-19 / MiG-7 Fishbed -21 Finback;
Size under "Beagle": 22 meter input is compatible with H-5 Beagle (IL-28);
Size under "Badger": The 35-40 meters wide input is compatible with the H-6 Badger (Tu-16).
The most common entry width is about 14 meters and is obviously designed for older PLA fighters, but still compatible with the later J-8 Finback (MiG-23) and JH-7 Flounder. This explains the absence of the J-11A / B Flanker (Su-27) near such hangars, the wingspan of the Flanker is simply too large (14.7 m) to pass through such a gate.

Using J-11A / B from these airfields will require upgrading the Su-27K / Su-33 / J-15 with folding wings or producing a new aircraft with the same wingspan as the width of the existing tunnels or the expansion of the tunnels.

New Chengdu J-10A / S / B has a wingspan of 9.7 meters and can be placed in the existing underground hangars of the PLA Air Force.

The Chengdu J-20 prototype will require folding wings or at least a wingtip in accordance with the 14-meter high entrances to underground hangars.

Many of the observed air bases have an 22 meter wide entrance and apparently were built to house the H-5 Beagle (IL-28) aircraft whose wingspan was 21.5 meters. They can be placed J-11A / B, Su-30MKK / MK2 and J-20 without the need to make changes with the aircraft or tunnels.

Half a dozen famous operating airfields have underground hangars with an entrance width from 33 to 40 meters providing accommodation for the H-6 Badger (Tu-16) and are thus compatible with all smaller aircraft types.

Shahezhen's air base in Beijing, better known as the Datangshan Museum, has an underground size hangar under the Xian H-6 Badger / Tu-16. Datangshan is the only PLA PLA open-air hangar open to the general public.

It should be recognized that the detailed internal location of the underground hangars used in the PLA is largely unknown, since there are very few pictures in the open press. Given the nature of the underground hangars, there are numerous possibilities in terms of their internal layout.

It is important to note that most of the airfields with underground hangars are deprived of external hangars that are used in other aircraft for engineering work on aircraft.

H-6 Badger towed from an underground hangar. Six of the famous airfields
have 30 meter inputs allowing placement of the H-6 Badger (Tu-16).


Placement of fighters in underground hangars faces similar problems as placement of aircraft in aircraft carrier hangars, but only with the difference that aircraft carrier hangars usually have a greater width than underground hangars. For this reason, the PLA Air Force has developed a range of aircraft maintenance procedures in such a limited space.


A significant increase in the internal accommodation area and aircraft maintenance capabilities, equipment storage and personnel accommodation can be achieved using the integrated (right), rather than simple (left) internal layout.

The simplest internal arrangement in underground hangars is made in straight, curved or segmented tunnels connecting two entrances. This arrangement is used in Datangshan, where the total length of the hangar between the entrances is just over 500 meters, suggesting that the H-6 aircraft be placed head-to-tail. This hangar could accommodate at least a dozen aircraft, which is typical of the PLA Air Force squadron.

If we assume simple straight, curved or segmented tunnels connecting the two entrances as a standard internal layout, then the linear distance between the inputs gives a reasonable estimate of the internal potential. For most airfields, this value is about 500 meters, although on some it reaches up to 1000 meters, and on some it is only about 300 meters. Airfields with entrances on the same side of the hill are most likely using horseshoe-shaped hangars. (Some measures necessary to create a single underground hangar can be obtained by estimating tonnage of the rock produced. Their total volume is estimated to be 3200 cubic meters. With a cubic meter weight of 2.5-3 tons this amounts to 100000 tons of rock per hangar or more complex arrangement of the hangar).

Seven well-known operating size hangars under "Badger" have a minimum total capacity of the order of 120 H-6 (Tu-16). This means that all H-6 currently in service can be placed in underground hangars.

Fourteen known Beagle-sized underground hangars have a minimum total capacity of the order of the 600 Flankers or 500 J-20. Again, this is enough to more than accommodate all existing PLA Flankers.

Seven well-known operating MiG size hangars have a minimum aggregate capacity of the order of the 600-800 of the J-10 aircraft, representing a significant portion of the planned number of aircraft.

At least three more underground hangars are known, but, given the lack of information about them, a reliable estimate of their capacity cannot be made.

The total number of combat aircraft that can be placed in underground hangars in the event of an attack on mainland China is at least 1500 aircraft.

In continuation of the article:
Vulnerability of underground air bases
Overview of all PLA underground air bases
Estimated capacity of PLA underground air bases
Details of the construction and construction of underground air bases
General plan of the location of the air base
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  1. SIA
    SIA
    +3
    23 February 2012 10: 04
    Here are the Chinese hardworking, huh? Well done that they hide the equipment, I hope he is not doing this in an earthquake-prone zone?
  2. SenyaYa
    +3
    23 February 2012 11: 46
    They are therefore hiding equipment from the RUSSIAN Air Force and are trying
    1. vector17
      +1
      23 February 2012 13: 57
      "They hide the equipment from the Russian Air Force that's why they try" - yes, most likely it is ... The States have good air control .. but we mainly work on Google
      1. SIA
        SIA
        +1
        23 February 2012 16: 00
        Even if this is so, it will not take a long time to search. And we’ll find it if we roll such Lyuli that the sky will appear from a sheepskin. And the armored gates will not save.
  3. SenyaYa
    -1
    23 February 2012 19: 29
    As for the CHUI CHILDREN, I would tire of doing fingers like a fan .... so as not to CHOICE yourself .... understand me correctly, I am also a patriot ... but relist ... RUSSIA in today's state will not take out the war with CHINA
  4. Sasha36543
    +1
    24 February 2012 00: 47
    SenyaYa,

    Will not take out with conventional weapons.
    1. SenyaYa
      0
      25 February 2012 14: 03
      The Chinese also have more than enough UNUSUAL WEAPONS for which they have full bunkers

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