Chinese army Rocket Force tests new conventional missiles

According to Liu Xuanzun in Global Times, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Rocket Force recently conducted live-fire drills in the deserts in Northwest China in which it launched two new-type conventional short-range missiles that accurately hit “hostile” defense nodes despite them being well protected. This means the new missiles can paralyze entire hostile systems by pinpointing key hostile facilities, and they could play a vital role in safeguarding national sovereignty and territorial integrity including Taiwan, Liu Xuanzun quotes.

Under harsh natural environment and complex electromagnetic jamming, the 1st Conventional Missile Brigade attached to the PLA Rocket Force launched two new-type missiles in a rapid-reaction confrontational exercise, accurately hitting well-protected “enemy” defense positions hundreds of kilometers away, and effectively paralyzing the opponents’ key information nodes in their defense systems, China Central Television (CCTV) reported on Saturday.

The launches show that the PLA Rocket Force has expanded its arsenal with the new-type advanced warheads, and enhanced the capabilities of conventional missiles in striking with precision in different situations, paralyzing key hostile nodes and destroying an “enemy” target, CCTV said.

Judging from the report footage and the narration, the new-type missiles seem to be of a new variant of the DF-15 short-range ballistic missile family, upgraded with two new advanced warheads, observers said. For the new missile launched in the exercises, while the missile body uses available, mature technologies, the warhead uses new technologies which could feature new guidance systems and stronger anti-jamming functions, Song Zhongping, a Chinese military expert and TV commentator, told the Global Times on 21 August.

Using road-mobile missile vehicles, the brigade troops took advantage of nighttime for fast maneuvering, and after receiving orders to launch, the troops took half the time to initiate the launch sequence when compared to past records, CCTV report said. Song said that this means the missile is capable of fast reaction and has higher levels of automatization, informatization and intelligentization.

As reported by Liu Xuanzun, analysts predict that a potential PLA reunification-by-force operation on Taian would start with electromagnetic and cyber warfare, followed by intense missile attacks, and air and sea assaults, before amphibious landing begins. The PLA Rocket Force will make use of the new missiles, along with all other missiles it has at its disposal, in a potential conflict across Taiwan Straits, against not only secessionist forces, but also foreign interventionist forces, Song said.