Forces: February 4, 2005

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The Chinese army (the PLA, or Peoples Liberation Army) has its own air force, even though the vast majority of military aircraft are assigned to the Chinese Air Force.. Most of the army equipment is transport helicopters (626) and helicopter gunships (32). There are also 210 UAVs and four fixed wing transports. They also have a reserve of older 276 aircraft. These include 180 of these are 1950s vintage Mi-4 helicopters, while another 90 are older UAVs. There are still 80 M-4s on active duty, and the reserve ones are probably being used for spare parts. The most modern equipment is 170 French helicopters. This is a small helicopter force for a million man army, but China plans to change that. One reason China, and France, want to end the European arms embargo against China is so that France can sell more military helicopters, and weapons systems, to China. France is still a major supplier of civilian helicopters to the Chinese market. 

 


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