East Coast Defense

No, just that no modern nation in our time still attempts to build fortifications or defend entire coastlines

Click to expand...

How come we do it then? and the swedes? Norwegians? Yugoslavians...Soviets??
you US kids should pay little more attention to the actuall defence of nation and not just look it from behind some superpower nuclear umbrella...

Coastal defences arent just fortifications, but compination of land based artillery (and missile) forces, coastal flotillas of patrol and attack boats, and most importantly mines. These thecniques were almoust the key strategy for PLAN for decades so At least i dont expect them to let the whole system detoriate. Modern warfare requires mobility of these units and if its true like someone sayd, that there are SP artillery deployed, then I would say that chinese coast is rather well deployed (as a towed artillery man to the grave, I would say that that is the only good usage for those tracked sardine cans )

But Chinese backs rather long coast line and offocurse that all cannot be defended properly...

Example of PLA/Marines coastal battery:

These guys are in Marines uniforms.

If you look at the concrete circle position, on a hill, it matches exactly with the few coastal battery positions visible on Google earth:

Wow, great pics planeman! What calibre are those guns? I assume 120 mm, but my eyes for barrels aren't that great.

It seems that most of them are right up on a coastal hills at the shores, its a pretty vulnerable position to be in against aircraft. Maybe they're aircraft bait for AAs ?

The top picture seems to show 4 MBTs and two other vehicles, possibly Crotale SAMs (but possibly just light trucks). The bottom picture shows what again appear to be MBTs. Since most current Chinese MBTs have 125mm main guns, I would guess that's what we have here.

The two screen shots are just the most photogenic sites, there are several similar but unoccupied (at the moment the sat image was taken) further inland.

It's not as if the whole Chinese coastline is defended in this manner BTW.

Taiwan is another example of a nation that has a full costal defence system. Almost the entire west coast of Taiwan is covered by SAMs and there are miles of mines and beach obstacles as well as some fixed fortifications. The entire coastline of Kinmen and Matsu islands are fortified too, but that is obvious.

China's coast is as most of you said, too large to defend...which is somewhat a worry considering the increase use of special forces means much of China's coastline is vulnerable to special forces insertion from aircraft, submarines and small craft.

Also, Taiwan's far shorter Western coastline is much easier to defend...I'm surprised that we have not seen any Chinese mine clearing devices fitted on its amphibious tanks yet (in fact, I've never seen mine clearing chains fitted to any PLA vehicle).

But in war time, I think the best coastal defense for China will not lie with coastal fortifications, but with mobile missile launchers, self propelled artillery, self propelled air defense weapons, and the deployment of large numbers of air/surface search radar stations along the coast.

Theoretically, if the enemy did land, PLA troops in their sheer size, accompanied with entire mechanized divisions that are now quite capably equipped with IFVs, Type 96 tanks, SP Artillery, and tank destroyers armed with missiles, and possibly with Z-9G coverage, will flush any enemy force off the beaches. In any defense, and now with satellite aids, China could effectively locate the enemy's landing ships while they are unloading, deploy long range rockets armed with submunitions (eg, A100 or WS-1/2) that will deal severely against any enemy force landing on the beaches, and these rockets can easily be fired around 80-100 km from the landing area. Same thing can be applied using short range ballistic missiles (and if necessary, tactical nuclear or chemical warheads).

If the enemy does land on a more remote place, or where the enemy has successfully struck every bridge, railway, and high way that would constrain the main PLA units to deploy against the landing force, remember PLA now has rapid deployment units, particularly the elite airborne troops and the helicopter deployed light infantry brigades, can deploy virtually anywhere in a short instance. They can deal severely against any landed force, even if the main bulk of the PLA can't get there.

In addition, the best thing for coastal defense where your coastline is vast, is recruit reserves, militia, armed police, conscripts etc...whatever disciplined source of man power you can get, train them to fight in small units and equip them with shoulder launched SAM, mortars, infantry portable rocket launchers, and more significantly, ATGM, and perhaps sniper rifles (of the .50 cal anti-material type). Say a light coastal reaction 200-500 strong unit to cover every 200 km of coastline (well, coastline that is deemed to be vulnerable to enemy landings). If the enemy does land there, and the main PLA force was diverted somewhere else or would take time to deploy, these small teams can quickly set up defense positions and conduct small scale harrassment warfare. Each unit would train vigourously and familiarize themselves in their assigned coastal areas, and especially trained in limited guerilla warfare, harrassing the enemy at long ranges, etc.

Somehow I still think, the best defence is attack. No matter how will Chinese can defence against or even flush out enemies landing in Chinese soil, it will only mean damages to Chinese terroritories and I believe that in war... there will be losts in the civilians sectors... those are chinese too.

I believe that intelligence must be well place... in event where the leaders detected and is very sure of an impendent strike on Chinese soils, they should practice pre-emptive attack.

Tactical Missiles, Strategic Missiles and long range rockets could be use in abundants to strike at enemy's nation, while airborne units, armours and navy ships prepared for an all out strike.

That is just what I think.

The best defence for China's East Coast is a strong PLAN capable of destroying an invading force before it reaches the coast, and with carriers that can force the enemy to fight in the open ocean.

Right now, the PLAN is more or less sufficent for costal defence but is not powerful enough to dominate the eastern Pacific, which is truly necessary to defend China. As China's economy is now integrated with the worlds, simply denying China use of the seas around it may be as big of a blow as an invasion.

Maritime Powers likr the US worry about Boats and Seas, Land Powers like China think about.......

BEIJING, Nov. 6 -- The first transcontinental container train running between North China to Germany has begun formal operation after a 20-month test run, said a local railway official.

The train, which can carry 100 international standard containers, will travel 9,814 kilometers for 15 days through six countries from Hohhot, capital of North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, to Frankfurt in Germany.

Named "Ruyi", which means "complying with one's wishes" in Chinese, the train ran the route 13 times since tests began in March last year, said Yang Junjie, an official with the Hohhot Railway Bureau.

The train will cut transport times and costs, said Guo Jian, another official with the Hohhot Railway Bureau.

Ruyi took just 14.5 days to run from Hohhot to Duisburg in Germany, while a container ship took at least 40 days, Guo said.

Launched by companies in China's Inner Mongolia, Mongolia, the Republic of Belarus, Russia and Germany, the transnational train will take coke to Duisburg and home appliances to the Czech Republic and Romania.

It will bring back raw materials for electronic products and home appliances.

With an annual freight capacity of 2,500 containers, or 50,000 tons, the train will operate twice a month. It had taken 620 standard containers, weighing 12,400 tons, carrying rare-earth minerals from Inner Mongolia, rapeseed from northwest China's Gansu Province and textiles from Guangdong Province, to Europe to date, Yang said.

(Source: Shenzhen Daily)

Planeman, those are not MBT's 2 of them are too boxy.The other 2 are perfect rectangles. Best bet are either observation sites (real, alrernates, and decoys) or radar vans and Silkworm launchers.

The gun firing is a 76mm feild gun (3in) based on barrel size and blast.