Pilots assigned to an aviation brigade of the air force under the PLA Southern Theater Command sit in the cockpit to get ready for a round-the-clock training exercise on Sept. 8, 2021. (eng.chinamil.com.cn/Photo by Wang Guoyun)

The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force aims to train new pilots for fighter jets more quickly and efficiently, after its flight academy took delivery of advanced J-10 fighter jets and started to use them to train pilot cadets.

The first-ever group of pilot cadets to fly the J-10 fighters at the PLA Air Force Shijiazhuang Flight Academy in North China's Hebei Province took the planes to the sky for training in September, the PLA Daily reported last week.

In the training period, which will last a year, the pilot cadets will practice combat scenario-oriented courses with the J-10s, including aerial combat, combat relocation and live-fire attack, as they are expected to become qualified pilots for fourth-generation fighter jets after graduation, the report said.

As China's domestically developed fourth-generation fighter jet, the J-10 is one of the main battle aircraft that entered service in the PLA Air Force in large numbers as part of the Air Force's strategic transformation, the PLA Daily said, noting that the PLA Air Force Shijiazhuang Flight Academy took delivery of the aircraft after it was designated to carry out the mission to use this type of plane in training in 2020.

Before flying with the J-10s, this group of pilot cadets wrapped up a three-year course of study that included basic theory as well as learning with basic trainer aircraft and advanced trainer aircraft, skipping the learning of intermediate trainer aircraft in the process.

Pilot cadets previously learned to fly basic, intermediate and advanced trainer aircraft in their study at the academy, and would only start to fly genuine fighter jets like the J-10 after graduating and being assigned to combat units. It takes time to adapt to a new aircraft before they can carry out combat missions, a Chinese military expert told the Global Times on Sunday on condition of anonymity.

By skipping the intermediate trainer phase and adding the genuine fighter jet phase in the academy, it shortens the time needed to train a pilot cadet by about a year. These cadets will be immediately ready for missions after graduation, the expert said.

In addition to the delivery of the J-10 fighter jets to the academy, another driving force that allows this new training model to become reality is the commissioning of the new type of advanced trainer aircraft, the JL-10, according to media reports.

Featuring many advanced technologies and resembling a genuine fighter with outstanding performances, the JL-10 advanced trainer aircraft combines the teaching roles of the previous intermediate trainer aircraft and fighter trainers, so that pilot cadets could skip the intermediate trainer phase without any problem, the expert said.

With the new advanced trainer jet, the average flight time of pilot cadets increased by nearly 30 percent, and 90 percent of them successfully graduated, the PLA Daily quoted an officer at the flight academy as saying.

As the PLA Air Force is commissioning more advanced, fourth-generation fighter jets like the J-10, the J-11 and the J-16, as well as those of the fifth generation, namely the J-20, it needs more qualified and well-trained pilots to fly them, analysts said, stressing the importance of the accelerated pilot training model.