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Basing infrastructure is a vital prerequisite for air operations. Runways, dispersal areas, fuel infrastructure, resupply pipleines for fuel replenishment, munitions storage all contribute to the effectiveness of a military air base. Base hardening and facilities dispersal in turn contribute to the survivability of the base.

The PLA has the most extensive and well developed basing infrastructure in Asia, and it competes in numbers with the former Soviet and US basing infrastructures. While many bases are legacy sites from the Cold War, a significant proportion of these have been subjected to extensive upgrades for dual civil-military use, retaining revetments and taxiways but gaining a runway rated for airliners rather than fighters, and a civil terminal facility. Most PLA-AF and PLA-N bases use extensive networks of dispersal revetments, and a 13 or more are 'superhardened' using large squadron or regiment sized underground hangars, tunnelled into hillsides.

During the Cold War period the PLA constructed much of the air base infrastructure along an arc from Mongolia across the northern provinces and down the coastal arc to the Vietnamese border. This was a byproduct of the strategic imperative to defend against the Soviet threat, and pre-Nixon, the perceived US threat in the Far East.

Since the fall of the Soviet Union, the PLA's imperatives have shifted, resulting in a large scale effort to construct dual use and military airfields across the Tibetan Plateau and the Western provinces, spanning the Chengdu and Lanzhou MRs [Tibet proper falls across the boundaries of these two MRs]. This effort has been paralleled by the construction of airfields in Chengdu MR, north of Burma, and inside Burma under the umbrella of military aid. The specific strategic aims are containment of India in the West, and the 'Second Island Chain' strategy in the Southern and Eastern provinces.

This reference page catalogues over 200 military and dual use airfields. It includes Google Earth KMZ files for air bases and civil airports where the identity of the base can be established with some confidence. As all data is open source, APA cannot guarantee that the data is comprehensive or up to date in every instance. The site will be updated as more open source data and high resolution imagery becomes available.

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PLA-AF/PLAN-AF Air Divisional Structure

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In broad terms a PLA-AF/PLAN-AF Air Regiment is comparable to an RAF/RAAF style Wing, with about half the strength of a USAF Wing.

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PLA Military Regions

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PLA-AF / PLA-N Air Arm Air Bases / Dual Use Airfields

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Notes and Abbreviations

1. AB - Air Base.
2. Int - International Airport.
3. AFLD - Airfield.
4. APT - Airport.
5. Civil - refers to airfields which are dual use or civil (available for military use in contingency).
6. PLAN - PLA Naval Air Arm basing; all other military sites assumed to be PLA-AF.
7. FA - Flight Academy.
8. FD - Fighter Division.
9. GAD - Ground Attack Division.
10. F/GAD - Fighter Ground Attack Division.
11. BD - Bomber Division.
12. TD - Transport Division.
13. RWY - Runway Length in [ft].
14. CTA - Concrete Tarmac Area; an unprotected paved parking area, sometimes arranged as parking bays.
    
15. RVT - Revetment; a parking area usually protected by a berm, capable of accommodating 1 to 3 aircraft.
16. CVR - Lightweight sheetmetal 'carport' or semicylindrical parking cover.
17. HAS - Hardened Aircraft Shelter; concrete bomb resistant shelters.
18. UGH - Under Ground Hangar; typically tunnelled into a hillside.
19. UGH/AR - Under Ground Hangar/Alert Runway; includes takeoff only alert runway of 5,000 - 8,000 ft length.
20. UGH/N - Under Ground Hangar Not completed; usually taxiways in place but tunnelling not completed.
    
21. LoRes - Image resolution too low to assess detail with confidence.

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PLA AF Rugao AB in the Nanijing MR. This base combines  the characteristic pattern of revetments with a take-off only alert runway, which doubles as a taxiway between the primary runway and the western dispersal area (US DoD).

PLA AF Fuzhou AB in the Nanijing MR. Fuzhou is typical for a large proportion of PLA AF and PLAN AF fighter bases, with a primary runway, a parallel taxiway which doubles as a redundant runway, and taxiway 'spurs' at either end of the field accessing a cluster of revetments. Typically the revetments are constructed as concrete pads, and an earthwork berm is later added. Most well established bases have seen the berms planted with vegetation. In the days of visual low level bombing and strafing of airbases the dispersed revetment model could be highly effective. The advent of laser guided and inertial / GPS guided bombs means effectively that the only benefit in the PLA base construction method is a reduction in collateral damage due to hits on neighbouring revetments. Fuzhou has since been rebuilt with camouflage patterned Hardened Aircraft Shelters placed over most of the revetment pads (US DoD).

PLA AF Quzhou AB in the Nanijing MR.  Quzhou is atypical insofar as the revetments in the dispersal area are connected by a full arc of taxiway, requiring multiple 'cuts' by an attacker to close the taxiway. The revetment pads of typical PLA airfields are 75 to 100 ft in diameter and can accommodate up to three Farmer, Fantan or Fishbed fighters. Dispersal taxiways are typically 45 ft wide. At least one Badger base has pads sized to fit a single aircraft, but no berms were installed. It is worth considering that the PLA's approach to the construction of semi-hardened and hardened basing closely follows the Soviet Cold War model, exemplified by former Frontal Aviation bases in East Germany such as Grossenhein, Templin-Gross (note the auxiliary dispersal alert runway), Altenburg-Nobitz, Tutow-Demin, Brand, Welzow, Damgarten, Wittstock, Eberswalde-Finow, Zerbst,  Hinsterwalde, Juterbog, Merseburg, Rechlin and Sperenberg. For comparison, Ramstein AFB in West Germany (US DoD).

China's new 'Second Island Chain' strategy aims to develop the capability to project power beyond the 'Second Island Chain' , ie the arc from Japan through Guam, Northern Australia and Indonesia. Air power plays a critical role in PLA strategic thinking. To implement the 'Second Island Chain' strategy the PLA is investing in its first aircraft carrier, the Varyag, with an air wing of  J-15 (reverse engineered Su-33 Flanker D), and is developing a cruise missile capable bomber force. The final form of the latter remains to be seen, as the PLA-AF experiments with its H-6K turbofan Badger. Theatre strike capability is currently provided by the Su-30MKK/MK2 and in the future likely by variants of the Chengdu J-20.

Hainan Island is a critical element in the 'Second Island Chain' strategy, as it would provide basing for combat aircraft operating into the Indonesian Archipelago, the Australian 'Sea Air Gap', and the southern approaches to Guam. Hainan Island has six airfields, three are semi-hardened / hardened fighter bases, and three are dual use civil airports, two of which have 11,000 ft runways capable of accommodating long range aircraft. Burma with four runways which exceed 11,000 ft length supplements Hainan Island, covering the Western arc out of South East Asia through the Andaman Islands (Map - Author).

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Myanmar / Burma

(Accessible to People's Liberation Army Air Force)

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The Burmese military regime has largely survived due to ongoing and robust military and economic aid provided by China. The quid pro quo in this symbiotic relationship is that China gains geographical access to the Indian Ocean via an uncontested land route across the shared frontier.

The Burmese Air Force's predominant combat aircraft are more than 50 PRC supplied Chengdu F-7M Fishbeds (J-7/MiG-21) and more than 40 NAMC A-5M Fantans, with the residue of 12 Soviet supplied MiG-29 Fulcrums no longer believed to be operational.

When Bodansky produced his late 1990s research paper entitled 'BEIJING'S SURGE FOR THE STRAIT OF MALACCA' it was greeted with some scepticism in Australia or plainly ignored. APA is able to confirm via use of satellite imagery, that Bodansky's assessment of a large scale effort by the PRC to upgrade Burma's airfield infrastructure well beyond the Burmese regime's immediate needs was indeed correct.

Of particular interest is the construction effort under way at Mingalogon, Nampong, Namsang, in addition to the upgrades at Mandalay and Tavoy. When completed this effort will see Burma own no less than six runways longer than 11,000 feet, suitable for heavy aircraft like tankers or bombers, for an air force equipped only with lightweight MiG derivatives.

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Technical Report APA-TR-2007-0103

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