In modern warfare, the struggle for air supremacy is the most important task, and pilots are very important talents in many countries, and now the number of pilots in the United States who can go to the battlefield has reached 100,000.
Many military fans have a question: If a conflict breaks out between the mainland and the United States, how many air forces can the mainland send?
The number of pilots in the United States
In 2021, the Federal Aviation Administration announced that a total of 710,000 pilot licenses were issued after the US assessment.
In the face of such a large group of 720,000 pilots, about 100,000 people can be selected from among them who can reach the level of flight instructors, and these people have the ability to quickly adapt to fighter jets.
Of course, these pilots are only limited to flying fighter jets, and they are not half a star behind the air force pilots who have been rigorously trained.
Fighter pilots must undergo hard training and strict screening before they can become qualified pilots, and they must have strong psychological qualities and the ability to face unexpected situations at any time.
The U.S. side still attaches great importance to its nationals' acquisition of pilot licenses, and usually gives them a lot of encouragement.
The US side has a "wishful thinking" in its heart, and in the event of a war, fighter pilots will be killed or injured in some way, and if the number of pilots is seriously insufficient, then these civilian pilots can be used as reserve pilots.
Flying an airplane is much more difficult than driving a car, and people with a pilot's license often still have a certain ability to pilot, so why does the United States have so many pilots?
After the end of World War I, the United States recognized the importance of air supremacy, and then vigorously developed its air force.
The United States realized that it was far from enough to develop new types of aircraft, and that it was also necessary to establish a mature pilot training system, so the US military had its own pilot system very early.
According to incomplete statistics, there are 3,500 flight academies in the United States, and after basic training, many pilots with trainee pilots are provided to the United States.
After obtaining their pilot licenses, these trainee pilots can apply to join the new pilot training, which is to put it bluntly, the US Air Force, providing reserve air forces.
These trainee pilots can apply to learn commercial aircraft, fighter jets, bombers and other aircraft types according to their personal intentions.
In order to motivate the people to learn to fly airplanes, the U.S. government Department of Education has given the right to award bachelor's degrees, and under such a perfect flight education system, the United States has cultivated many civilian pilots.
Compared with the huge number of pilots in the United States, how many air forces can the mainland dispatch if it participates in the war?
Number of pilots of the Continental Air Force
By constantly optimizing the selection of pilots, increasing actual combat training, and researching more advanced combat plans, the mainland has strengthened the all-round combat level of its pilots.
At present, there are dozens of pilot academies in China, and each academy is very authoritative, unlike the United States, where anyone can run it as long as they spend a little money, and all colleges in the mainland have a very good educational physique.
In terms of flight education colleges, the mainland only strives for refinement and not more, because even if it has more flight academies, if it cannot train excellent pilots, it will be meaningless.
It is not for nothing that the number of pilots on the mainland is small, and not only the high cost of training pilots, but also the most important thing is that the mainland's recruitment of air force pilots is notoriously strict among the navy, army, and air force.
When recruiting air pilots, nearly half of the people can be brushed off in the first initial selection, and the physical fitness of the pilot is an important factor in whether they can be selected, and eyesight is particularly important.
Continental tests the pilot's eyesight, using a special C-word eye chart, because this eye chart can measure the vision more accurately, and the interviewer who has had eye surgery will be directly brushed off.
In addition, it takes a longer time for the mainland to train a qualified pilot than abroad, because the mainland pilot education system is very perfect, and there are many very strict systems when training pilots.
After passing the interview, the trainees will be assigned to the designated academy for training, and the continental pilot training is divided into three levels: fighter, bomber, and transport aircraft.
In the process of studying, the trainees should not only learn actual combat flight skills, but also learn various knowledge theories, and after enriching the theoretical knowledge, the pilots will basically master aerodynamics, aircraft manufacturing and other technologies.
Only after learning all the knowledge can you successfully graduate and enter the second stage of training, which is mainly to learn combat technology, combat theory, and also include the important process of moving from subsonic flight to supersonic flight.
Finally, after passing through the heavy selection, they can enter the aviation unit, train how to maximize the ability to perform tasks, how to cooperate in operations and learn various tactics, and the pilots who can go this far will take five years at the earliest.
This is the reason why the number of pilots on the mainland is small, and the air force pilots trained by the mainland are all very powerful existences, and if American pilots are allowed to train in the battalions of the Continental Army, it is estimated that they will run away as "deserters" before they graduate.
Take the Su-27 pilots on the mainland as an example, according to the annual training time of 200 hours of flight, the Su-27 pilots will spend 130 million yuan a year, which does not include the pilot's salary and other expenses.
The mainland's pilots who have been trained for a long time have very strong physical fitness and also have very advanced combat skills.
As of 2023, the mainland's civil aviation has issued a total of 86,091 pilot licenses, and the number of pilots with military fighter jets is small, around 20,000 or 30,000.
Although there is still some gap between the number of pilots on the mainland and the United States, this does not mean that the strength of the mainland's air force is weaker than that of the United States.
Modern warfare is more than just numbers
This is because the mainland and the United States are not training air force pilots at all.
There will also be a gap between the physical fitness and combat skills of the pilots trained by the mainland, and the training level of the American GIs who "yearn for freedom" will not be able to meet the training standards of the mainland's pilots.
If American GIs come to the mainland to interview pilots, they may not even be able to pass the initial interview, but nowadays, modern warfare is not just about numbers, but about the strength of the military industry.
Although the number of pilots in the United States has reached 100,000, their planes are far from that number, which means that even with so many pilots, there are not so many planes for them to fly.
Even if the United States is allowed to produce and manufacture it, do they have the industrial level to produce 100,000 modern fighter jets?
You don't need to think about it to know the answer to this question, because with the current industrial level of the United States, there is still a distance of 108,000 miles away from such a high production volume of fighter jets.
Today, the mainland has many advanced technology unmanned fighters, and with unmanned aerial vehicles, they can defeat US pilots, and the mainland can exchange one drone for the lives of one US fighter and pilot, even if it is one for the mainland.
The advent of the fifth-generation fighter J-20 on the mainland ended the United States' position as global fighter supremacy.
The new J-20 is a heavy stealth fighter, the fighter weighs 17 tons, the cruising speed has reached Mach 1.83, and the maximum flight altitude has reached 20,000 meters.
And in the case of carrying two auxiliary fuel tanks, the endurance of the new J-20 fighter has reached 5,500 kilometers, which is very rare among fighters.
The J-20 not only has the most advanced control technology, but also has a stealth function, making the mainland a global leader in fighter jets.
The emergence of the fifth-generation J-20 has successfully deterred NATO countries, and the mainland's new fighter is called "Burning Teeth" by NATO, from which it is not difficult to see NATO's fear of J-20.
Epilogue:
Although the number of pilots in the mainland's reserve air force is small, it does not mean that the mainland's flight capability is weaker than that of the United States, and the mainland's air defense system is mainly used to protect national security as its main task, and the mainland does not need too many pilots to fight wars.
The United States, on the other hand, is completely different from the mainland, and the United States, which has existed in the international community as a hegemonist for a long time, is thinking about how to provoke a war every day, which is why it needs so many pilots.
The level of pilots in the United States, as everyone must have seen, is simply a vulnerable existence, and even if they go to the battlefield, they will not be able to exert much strength.
Key Sources:
Civil Aviation Resources Network, March 18, 2024 - The 2023 pilot report is released: the post-90s generation has become the main force, and there are 947 women
China News Network, September 27, 2022 - Air Force Spokesperson: China's fifth-generation fighter J-20 has spread all over the "southeast, northwest, and center"
China's Civil Aviation Network, April 23, 2018 - How are foreign civil aviation pilots made?