| Unit Name: | People's Liberation Army Army Air Corps |
| Native Name: | Chinese: 中国人民解放军陆军军航空兵 |
| Country: | China |
| Branch: | Army |
| Type: | Army aviation |
| Dates: | 1987–present |
| Size: | ? personnel 1040+ aircraft |
| Aircraft Helicopter Attack: | Harbin Z-19, Changhe Z-10 |
| Aircraft Helicopter Cargo: | Mil Mi-17 |
| Aircraft Helicopter Multirole: | Harbin Z-9, Harbin Z-20 |
| Aircraft Helicopter Utility: | Changhe Z-8, Changhe Z-18, Mil Mi-17 |
| Aircraft Recon: | BZK-005, BZK-007, WZ-7 Soaring Dragon |
| Aircraft Transport: | Y-7, Y-8, Y-9 |
The PLA Army Air Corps is the air arm of the People's Liberation Army's Ground Force. Its principal mission is to provide close air support, air assault, transportation, and overall air assistance to the land forces of the PLA. It deploys primordially rotary wing aircraft.[1]
The PLA Army Aviation Corps was established on October 3, 1986, by decision of the Central Military Commission, at the time under the leadership of its chairman Deng Xiaoping, as part of an effort to modernize the organization of the PLA. The Corps started operating in 1987. On January 8, 1988, the first army aviation unit was established in the Beijing Military Region.
The initial units of the army aviation corps used equipment transferred from the PLAAF, including mostly the first Chinese-made helicopter, the Harbin Z-5 (a version of the Mil Mi-4), the licensed-made Z-8 (a version of the French Aérospatiale SA 321 Super Frelon) and the American-made S-70C "Black Hawk" purchased during the Sino-American thaw of the 1980s. The success of the American attack helicopters during the Gulf War impressed the Chinese military command, which put more emphasis on the development of indigenous helicopters. This accelerated program would lead to the introduction in 1994 of the Harbin Z-9 (developed from the French Eurocopter AS365 Dauphin), the Harbin Z-19 (an armed variant of the Z-9, introduced in 2012), the medium attack Changhe Z-10 (introduced in 2012), and the medium utility helicopter Harbin Z-20 (generally based on the Black Hawk in configuration, introduced in 2019).
The progress of the local helicopter industry, however, was slow. The difficulty providing relief after the Wenchuan Earthquake of 2008 brought into clear relief the shortage of helicopters in China, both civilian and military, in particular helicopters capable of operating at high altitudes. The need for more helicopters became apparent and the procurement of military rotary wing aircraft accelerated. While the native Z-19 and Z-10 were already available, the Chinese government tried to accelerate the equipment of full brigades by purchasing a large number of Mil Mi-17 helicopters in 2019, a sign of its desire to accelerate the development of army aviation.[2]
By 2013, the army aviation regiments in six military regions were ungraded to brigades. After the 2015 military reforms, the military regions were merged into theaters and each group army within each theater was intended to have an independent Army Aviation brigade.
As of 2023, each of the 13 PLAGF group armies, plus the Tibet and Xinjiang special military regions, had an aviation brigade, for a total of 13 army aviation brigades and 2 air assault brigades.Each army aviation brigade is composed of 2–3 attack helicopter battalions, and 3–4 transport and assault helicopter battalions, for a total of 32 to 48 attack helicopters and 48 to 64 transport helicopters.[3] The estimated current number of available aircraft runs between 1,000 and 1,500, depending on the source.
The current army aviation units are as follows, the brigade number being usually the same as the group army's number.
The Beijing Garrison, plus the Macao and Hong Kong Garrisons, are the only major regional subdivisions of the PLA without an attached army aviation brigade (although smaller helicopter units are available).
| Aircraft | Origin | Type | Variant | In service | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Attack Helicopters | |||||||
| Harbin Z-19 | China | attack helicopter/reconnaissance | Z-19WZ | 120+ | |||
| Changhe Z-10 | China | Attack/Multirole | WZ-10 | 200+ | |||
| Utility Helicopters | |||||||
| Harbin Z-9 | China | Utility | 120+ | ||||
| Mil Mi-17 | Russia | Utility | 88 | ||||
| Transport Helicopters | |||||||
| Changhe Z-8 | China | Heavy Transport | Y-8A/B/L | 135 | |||
| Mil Mi-17 | Russia | Medium Transport | 140 | ||||
| Sikorsky S-70 | United States | Medium Transport | 19 | ||||
| Harbin Z-20 | China | Medium Transport | 150 | ||||
| Eurocopter EC120 Colibri | France | Light Transport | 15 | ||||
| Changhe Z-11 | China | Light Transport | 53 | ||||
| Fixed-Wing Transports | |||||||
| Xian Y-7 | China | transport | 2 | ||||
| Shaanxi Y-8 | China | Tactical transport | 2 | ||||
| Shaanxi Y-9 | China | Transport | 2 | ||||
| Unmanned aerial vehicle | |||||||
| BZK-007 | China | MALE UAV | |||||
| Harbin BZK-005 | China | MALE UAV | |||||
| CASC CH-4B | China | HALE UAV | |||||