They have a successful model to copy from in the U.S. Air Force.
During the 1990s, the U.S. Air Force reorganized its combat units into Air Expeditionary Units, AEFs). Each was a miniature air force, with combat and support aircraft and the troops to maintain them. Several are trained and ready to quickly move to an overseas hot spot on short notice. The AEFs have different mixes of aircraft, suitable to the mission the AEF is expected to accomplish. ...
The Chinese Air Force is still pretty old school, in that many air bases only house air regiments with one type of aircraft. But the Chinese have long realized that in wartime different types of aircraft would frequently operate together. So it makes sense to organize "air brigades" that will be based with brigades of different types of aircraft and train together more often.
Even before our AEFs, we used our aircraft together. Why would the Chinese need to form versions of AEFs to do that?
Remember that the AEFs are designed to be deployed overseas with everything they need to fight so that nothing is left behind in the rush to get overseas.
Where does China expect to send their air brigades?
I can think of Taiwan, where after conquering the island the Chinese might like to quickly extend their air power into the Pacific to deny us the chance of counter-attacking.
Or maybe to Burma to project power into the Indian Ocean and confront the Indian navy.
Or maybe even to Hainan Island to quickly expand their air capabilities to fight in the South China Sea.
The basic idea for the AEF isn't just different types of planes fighting together. It is about different types of planes organized to move somewhere you usually aren't in order to fight together effectively.
