PLA Ground Forces news, pics and videos

Fandango831 said:

Well from what I've seen the 81st GA personnel at Cooperation are just using the current post-2021 equipment (though in partial configuration) which is the standard for the PLA anymore when participating in an international exercise whether held at home or abroad with Warrior-8 being the oddity to that norm.

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Looks like there's plenty of 18 tubes to me ngl

As for visual data most imagery I have catalogued whether personally or for work the past 6 years still points to most units within the PLAGF not having full access to the digital solider system as standard issuance and in many cases the system only being issued out in partial or non-functional condition (no power pack or commo).

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6 years is a huge stretch, most PLA infantry where issued gear equivalent to 90s / Early GWOT USMC 6 years ago (to put it generously). The only night vision devices available to your average PLA infantryman (if they're lucky) until 2021 / 2022 were BBG-011A (upgraded copies of 90s LUCIE nvg, poor performance made worse by corruption scandals) and the BBG-191-3 (very questionable early digital tube). Most transformations were centered in the last 2 years with the introduction of the Type-21. The entire "digital soldier system" you keep talking about (comms + combat terminal + digital tube etc.) was pretty much abandoned and scaled back along with the Type-19 system early on, most units have since switched to adopting individual sets / types of equipment with the Type-21, in this case, we'r talking exclusively about digital tubes.

PLA digital tubes are also very much functional (and have been seen functioning) without being connected to a external battery pack, which has been a case since its predecessor the BBG-191-3.

Other trends including the introduction this year of what is likely an in-testing common digital combat sight points towards the PLA looking at a more streamlined/economical approach to enhancing their forces information sharing/night-fighting capabilities over what is now being marketed as an export package with CS/LN2. I don't say this as saying I think the program is defunct, if anything I think it's very much succeeded in establishing a baseline for the PLA that didn't exist before, but I also think as it was originally envisioned is not in line with where the PLAGF is trending towards for what will likely be another system revision in the near-future. Merely my thoughts on the matter with the data I see.

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I think you got the order wrong, the CS/LN2 is a export variant based off the existing Type-21 / 19 system, there's nothing more streamlined or economical about it as its the exact same thing with slight modifications to connectors and side rails for export. And in this specific case, the dual mounted variant CS/LN2 is arguably less economical given that it's well ... two tubes rather than one.