Now, there can be no doubt that China’s Air Force is on the way up. Xinhua news agency quotes military sources as saying that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force—which is what Beijing calls its air arm—has chosen to go with a new grey-blue uniform. This will mark the first time that the, er, PLA Air Force uniform has had jackets and trousers in matching colors.
The Air Force wants to pump more than $12 billion over the next five years into its new affordable long-range missiles program and recently asked industry to push the flights of some of those munitions beyond 1,200 miles.