China’s Air Force: from Shield to Sword

... refuelling-tanker aircraft, China is in an extremely difficult situation. The Chinese air force may be the second or third biggest in the world in terms of number of planes, but it’s not even in the top ten for tanker planes. For the many hundreds of fighters and bombers there are just a few Il-86s bought from Russia and tankers converted from obsolete H-6 bombers. Modern tactical aircraft are equipped with air-to-air refuelling systems virtually across the board, but this extremely small number of tankers makes ...