PLA Night Warfare Capabilities

How much training and experience does the PLA give to their troops for combat during the night? Increasingly modern battles are fought during the night and from all the drills and exercises I've seen are done during the day. Just How prepared is the PLA for combat at night?

China has been specializing in night time combat since the Korean War, where the People's Volunteer Army (not even PLA) used cover of night to move across the Yalu River and to surround UN / US positions and attack with short range mortars.

Today, PLA drills extensively in night time. Thermo goggles are standard gear. On the whole, PLA's night time combat ability is probably somewhere between Russia and USA. Basically, PLA has a big and growing technological advantage against any potential adversary other than US army (even there it is at a small and shrinking disadvantage).

Roger604 said:

China has been specializing in night time combat since the Korean War, where the People's Volunteer Army (not even PLA) used cover of night to move across the Yalu River and to surround UN / US positions and attack with short range mortars.

Today, PLA drills extensively in night time. Thermo goggles are standard gear. On the whole, PLA's night time combat ability is probably somewhere between Russia and USA. Basically, PLA has a big and growing technological advantage against any potential adversary other than US army (even there it is at a small and shrinking disadvantage).

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Hm. My impression was that there was nothing wrong with China's night vision technology, but that for the most part, PLA units were lacking the equipment (except for in major exercises or in elite units). Even Western armies have problems distributing night vision equipment on a large scale. I never saw a single pair of thermal goggles throughout my service period in the Norwegian army...

Photos of PLA with night vision goggles have been around since early 2000's. China is the biggest industrial power in the world; it makes sense that it would be able to mass produce night vision goggles in greater numbers than any other country.

Roger604 said:

Photos of PLA with night vision goggles have been around since early 2000's. China is the biggest industrial power in the world; it makes sense that it would be able to mass produce night vision goggles in greater numbers than any other country.

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Few countries produce their own night vision equipment. It all comes down to funds....and considering the large number of soldiers in the PLA, I doubt all of them have ample access to such equipment.

Its just like the dilemma PLA faces with scopes. We have seen regular PLA troops exercise with magnified scopes on their Type 95 rifles and some have even started exercising/trialling red dot scopes. Without doubt these assets can significantly aid the PLA soldier's ability to fight and shoot accurately at longer rangers (or acquire targets quicker at shorter ranges). But just like NVGs, the PLA cannot afford to equip every Type 95 with a scope/sight.

The same argument can be said about body armour.

I'm sure in time of war however, things like NVGs, scopes and body armour can be produced relatively quickly. Perhaps PLA has only sufficient numbers of all three to ensure that most if not all PLA regular soldiers will have the opportunity to train with these combat aids, therefore there are only enough of them to go around for training purposes. So as long as PLA troops are trained to use these aids, it doesn't really matter whether they currently have them or not. Its cheap and economical I know, but nonetheless it is the best compromise between not having them and having too many sitting in the closet gathering dust while costing Chinese tax payers disproportionately.

Actually, part of the problem with making Night Vision is the materials required. The minerals. They've really dropped in price since China opened up its marketplace, the other 1% is in Arizona.

China has something like 99% of the world's known supply of "" which are required for strong magnets, plasma screens, LCD screens etc.

This is doubtless a night vision manufacturing advantage.

lol u got the percentage wrong china produces 97% of the world rare metal but that does not mean that this rare metal can only be found in china. the reason that china produces this much is because of its cheap labor if the U.S wanted to produce the metal it would be possible but needs at least 5 to 10 years for it infratruture to be able to to this. however in war time that could be different also dont forget that a lot of the western country hold reserves of rare metal in case of total war

I think the deposits have been fairly exhausted elsewhere, the stat I read was about deposits, not useful output. It's a huge desert in china, asteroid crash most likely or something.

I was more talking about pricing & availability. In a time of war, it's about territory.

I'd have thought that the rare metals are cheap enough (which is fabulous) to make night vision fairly ubiquitious amongst armies today.

Rare eart minerals are abundant, though spread thinly, around the globe. The reason China produce so much is that they have the most dense fields, making them the few remaining viable to be mined. The US surely could produce some more, but the infrastructue and resources required to mine miniscule amounts would be massive.