12th Fighter Aviation Division explained

The 12th Fighter Aviation Division (第12歼击机师) was an air division of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLA-AF). It was established in 1950, and disestablished by 2016-18.

PLA-AF fighter divisions generally consisted of about 17,000 personnel and 70-120 aircraft. Among its notable members was Lu Min.^[1]

It was part of the Jinan PLAAF Base, and joined the Northern Theatre Command, but by 2016-18, it had been broken up into three new brigades:^[2]

• 34th Brigade (Gongzhuling, Jilin), Chengdu J-10A, J-10SY;
• 35th Brigade (Qihe, Shandong), Shenyang J-8Bs and JJ-7A;
• 36th Brigade (Gaomi, Shandong), J-10A, J-10SY;

A typical single-seat air brigade holds 32-34 aircraft, in three battalion leader-grade flight groups (each of 8 aircraft), six spare aircraft, and a company leader-grade flight squadron of 2-4 training aircraft.^[3]

References

• Trevethan, Lawrence, and China Aerospace Studies Institute (U.S.), “Brigadization” of the PLA Air Force, 2018. https://purl.fdlp.gov/GPO/gpo114827.

Notes and References

1. .
2. Trevethan, Lawrence, and China Aerospace Studies Institute (U.S.), “Brigadization” of the PLA Air Force, 2018. https://purl.fdlp.gov/GPO/gpo114827, Table 9, p39. Accessed at https://www.airuniversity.af.edu/CASI/Articles/Tag/148199/casi/, August 2020.
3. Trevethan 2018, 19, 22.