Impressive: the Chinese armed forces come out to show their "chickens"

Over the last three centuries, the world powers have become accustomed to perceiving the Chinese army as a buyer, a thief and a technology seeker, which does not correspond to their current image.

The modern army of the Asian giant today has an inexhaustible amount of troops and military equipment, plus sophisticated weapons, some unprecedented in the world, able to protect any enemy. How is the Chinese army in 2019?

China's official military budget rose from less than $ 10 billion in the early 1990s to $ 177 billion in 2019, the second largest in the world after the United States. ($ 717 billion military budget in 2019).

However, if one takes into account the country's high purchasing power and the hidden elements that are not officially reflected in the Chinese military budget, the difference compared to other military budgets in the world can be even more colossal.

Main areas of military modernization

The key element of China's strategy for the next stage is the update of the Navy, Air Force and Space Force.

Keys to success

The Chinese military industry sector is one of the most powerful in the world. Richard Bitzinger, a researcher at Singapore's S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, identifies three main reasons for the dramatic rise in Chinese military capabilities.

The first is Beijing's application of a new defense industry management model that makes it more competitive. Administrative agency models have been reduced to a minimum, production lines have been consolidated, while many state consortia have been split into small businesses that have to compete for public orders and contracts. export.

The second pillar on which the Chinese military industry system is based is the deep integration of civilian and military projects, which makes it possible to actively use the developments of the commercial sector in the Chinese industry. defense and stimulate the military factories when marketing. Your developments

The third reason for the rise of the Chinese military sector is the sharp increase in the military budget of the Asian giant. As a result, Chinese military companies have been able to attract the best university graduates, invest in research and development, and test new types of technology.

Conventional weapons

If you compare your army with Russia and the United States statistically, Beijing can be proud to beat its major competitors in five of the nine key categories.

However, this predominance does not reflect the enormous difference in quality of war material, much of which is completely obsolete and needs to be replaced, which is already done.

Nuclear missiles

One of the keys to Chinese nuclear policy is its secret. China is not part of the agreements to disclose the number of warheads deployed and guarantees that it will not participate in nuclear disarmament negotiations until it sees serious reductions in stocks by Russia and the United States.

Distinguishing Chinese missiles with nuclear warheads from conventional ones is not always an easy task, with some modifications (including medium-range missiles DF-21 and DF-26) in the cargo and conventional cargo versions.

However, data on the types of Chinese nuclear missiles and some of their characteristics are not only available in US intelligence and Pentagon reports, but also in the Chinese press.

The current stage of military technology development is based on several key components: unmanned systems, artificial intelligence, the use of the "network-centric warfare" doctrine, and mbad data processing. In all these countries, China has been able to bring something.

It has also seen advances in other high-tech fields such as hypersonic systems, drone swarm technology, anti-satellite weapons, quantum communication.

Chinese cyberwar troops are an integral part of the strategic support forces of the People's Liberation Army (PLA). This troop is the result of the dissolution in 2015 of two structures of the staff: the command of the technical intelligence and the command of the electronic warfare.

China is actively developing the field of robotics and technology to control large groups of unmanned aerial vehicles traveling by land, sea and air. The Chinese media are actively commenting on the progress made in the simultaneous use of a large number of robotic vehicles – by sea, on land and in the air – in the form of "swarms" operating from from a basic platform.

By sea

The Chinese Navy is actively studying methods of managing groups of robotic combat ships. In spring 2018, a coordinated action of 56 robotic vessels developed by the company Yunzhou-Tech was tested in the South China Sea.

In February 2018, several HUSTER-68 naval robotic boats were tested. In addition, the unmanned boat Tianxing-1 was developed, the first batch of which has already been acquired by Iran.

The first unmanned guided missile JARI USV, equipped with the AESA radar, is under development.

At least a dozen military and civilian companies are involved in the development of technologies to use "swarms" of unmanned aerial vehicles. The EPL Air Force policy stimulates competition between companies. However, until now, there is no indication that EPL has adopted any of these systems.

As in the case of the United States, the EPL plans to use piloted aircraft as launching platforms and control centers.

On the ground

Many private and public Chinese companies are involved in the development of land robots. However, the work of civilian specialists could receive serious support from the company if the company achieved an interesting military development. The main public institution dedicated to this issue is the China North Vehicle Research Institute, which is part of the NORINCO Group, the country's largest military consortium and main competitor of the American Boston Dynamics.

NORINCO has created Da Gou, a Chinese badogue of the famous Legged Squad Support System (LS3), the first public event to be held in the autumn of 2014. The transfer of ammunition and the badistance to soldiers on the battlefield. In terms of performance, the first Chinese "dog" is still lower than LS3, not to mention the latest American robots, such as Spot and Mini Spot, even able to dance and down stairs.

Hypersonic air vehicles

Several countries are currently developing hypersonic technologies: Russia, the United States, the People's Republic of China, and India.

Until now, Russia is the only country officially armed with a hypersonic weapon, a reality announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin in March 2018. This is the Kinzhal intercontinental ballistic missile, carried by several fighter planes, and Avangard and consisting of a planning warhead at a hypersonic speed.

However, in April 2019, China tested a hypersonic anti-ship missile designed to counter the US Navy's missile defense. Anonymous Chinese sources claim that the new projectile, known as the YJ-XX, has a range of 1,000 kilometers and is capable of overcoming the US Navy's standard anti-aircraft defenses, consisting of SM-3 interceptor missiles and SM-6. .

Hypersonic glider

China is testing hypersonic gliders that project warheads into the atmosphere from ballistic missiles.

Since 2014, hypersonic gliders launched from DF-21 or DF-17 missiles have been tested. In 2017, two test launches were completed over a distance of 1,400 kilometers. It was reported that the glider detached from the rocket carrier at an altitude of 60 km, flew 11 minutes and reached its target at the test site with a margin of error of a few meters.

The main task of these types of aircraft today is to maintain the ability to control at hypersonic speeds, because of the high temperatures on the surface of the combat block.

Hypersonic vehicle for 'shockwaves & # 39;

In August 2018, China announced that it had successfully tested the XingKong-2, an experimental hypersonic flight vehicle that was getting its lifting power thanks to a shock wave generated by its own flight in order increase the lifting force and reduce the resistance. in the air. According to the Chinese Academy of Aerospace Aerospace, the XingKong-2 reached an altitude of 30 km and a speed of Mach 5.5 to 6.

According to the official media, this hypersonic vehicle can carry several nuclear warheads and evade all existing defense systems, including the US missile defense shield.

According to the China Daily State newspaper, the unpredictable speed and flight paths of this hypersonic vessel make interception by one of the existing defense systems particularly difficult.

Several experts believe that the weapon could be adopted in about 3 to 5 years.

Supersonic drones

In June 2018, an image of the Chinese stealth drone known as Dark Sword appeared on the Web, an unmanned fighter apparently able to fly at supersonic speeds. This would be the first test of an advanced prototype project, called AnJian.

The image revealed several characteristics of the aircraft in full size. Among them, a typical air intake of supersonic designs that, according to experts, suggests that it would fly at 1,190 km / h, 700 more than the American drone MQ-9 Reaper, the fastest all time.

Anti-satellite missiles

Already in 2007, Beijing had shown that it could destroy satellites [el cohete chino SC-19 destruyó mecánicamente un satélite meteorológico obsoleto], which are in low orbits, like American spy satellites.

Today, China is testing the DN-3, a solid fuel missile with a mobile launch pad powered by the three-stage KuaiZhou-1 rocket and a fuel-powered engine. liquid.

The DN-3 is capable of destroying reconnaissance and navigation satellites in orbits of 300 to 1,000 kilometers. China claims that the DN-3 is intended for the outer interception of ballistic missiles. In October 2015 and December 2016, versions of DN-3 were released.

An anti-hypersonic anti-ship ballistic missile

The DF-21D is considered the first and only anti-ship ballistic missile in the world. The range of the missile, capable of carrying conventional and nuclear warheads (up to 300 kilotons), is estimated at more than 1,450 kilometers. Its main task is to destroy aircraft carriers and other large vessels in the United States. The designation of the goal is carried out by means of a radar and optoelectronic equipment Yaogan satellites.

Once launched, the carrier rocket "releases" a multiple-return missile capable of reaching a Mach 10-12 speed.

Mounted on a wheeled conveyor, the launchers of the DF-21D are a mobile system. It would be very difficult to locate them before launch. The hypersonic speed of the vehicle would make your interception extremely complicated.

China is currently developing a whole series of anti-aircraft laser systems, the main advantage of which is the low speed of response and its almost instantaneous effect.

In 2014, information from the Low-Air Guard-I laser system, capable of demolishing drones and small planes flying at low altitude, was transcended. The system is equipped with a GPS module and a laser with 10 kW of power and 12,000 effective range.

In April 2019, it was reported that the Chinese Navy had begun testing a naval combat laser. The new facility can also be used as part of a short-range mobile air and coastal defense system.

It is badumed that the system is capable of destroying air targets at a maximum distance of 5,000 meters.

In 2018, a portable laser beam projector with a range of one kilometer and powerful enough to ignite flammable objects was introduced.

Although it has been clbadified as "non-lethal", this "infrared laser rifle" can "pbad through clothing in a fraction of a second," so "if the fabric is flammable, the whole person will burn," reports South China Morning Post. .

The device calls ZKZM-500 and was developed by Xian Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics, attached to the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

RT