PLA strike strategies in westpac HIC

vincent

Grumpy Old Man
Staff member
Moderator - World Affairs
We literally has Ukraine example. So much cruise missiles, drone, bombs, and the economic activity is still going.
Not the case for the Taiwan Island.

Who thinks America or the entire West has enough firepower to do real damage to China is delusional. Those people are the same ones many years ago that believed the US can defeat China with 300 Tomahawks.
 

TK3600

Major
Registered Member
Not the case for the Taiwan Island.

Who thinks America or the entire West has enough firepower to do real damage to China is delusional. Those people are the same ones many years ago that believed the US can defeat China with 300 Tomahawks.
I dont think it is wise to bomb Chinese cities with various cheap rocket, but they can still choose to do it, though it will not meaningfully affect the economic activity.
 

tonyget

Senior Member
Registered Member
Actually it is the opposite. Modern cities are highly hardened and missiles can't deliver the volume of fire needed to disable them.

WW2 is too old so lets look at the 1st "modern" war: Vietnam.

North Vietnam was subject to more strategic bombing than Nazi Germany. But the US couldn't disrupt electrical service in Hanoi fully, even with enough air control to use high volume short ranged bombs.

the US's own news from that era admits this. It is a fascinating read, almost like reading something from Starship Troopers.

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In fact they couldn't even damage a single bridge without losing 11 aircraft and multiple attempts.

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And that bridge was repaired in 1 year.

The electricity grid needs constant maintenance,without it the grid could paralyse within days. And all other infrastructures rely on electricity such as water and network will be disabled as well
 

4Tran

Junior Member
Registered Member
The electricity grid needs constant maintenance,without it the grid could paralyse within days. And all other infrastructures rely on electricity such as water and network will be disabled as well
China has the most resilient power network in the world. They have tons of excess power generation and a super robust distiburion system because it's always been treated as a strategic vulnerability. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if the American network went down before the Chinese one does.
 

FairAndUnbiased

Brigadier
Registered Member
The electricity grid needs constant maintenance,without it the grid could paralyse within days. And all other infrastructures rely on electricity such as water and network will be disabled as well
Yet the US couldn't destroy the Vietnamese power grid even with more firepower than WW2 concentrated on Vietnam and using high volume short ranged weapons.

US will only get to use long ranged weapons without risk of pilots being shot down. And all of them are subsonic missiles.
 

lcloo

Major
My personal experience is that it is normal some of the factories in China have their own back-up power generator that runs on diesel. These are not the small gen set seen in a car garage. They are quite large and powerful enough to light up a few streets, and we had used them several times to run our production machinery during power outage.

I assumed all major infrastruture like airport, water treatment plant, state owned arms factories etc would have back-up power generators.

How long the back-up generators can run depends on how large is the fuel storage tanks within the premises and how fast replenshment of fuel can be delivered. They should be able to run until the power grid is restored.
 

AndrewS

Brigadier
Registered Member
We literally has Ukraine example. So much cruise missiles, drone, bombs, and the economic activity is still going.

I don't think Ukraine is a good example.

1. Remember that Taiwan is an island and will almost certainly face a situation where China has air-sea superiority. That means an effective blockade, with nothing going in or out.
In comparison, Ukraine has long land borders with the EU.

2. We could expect Chinese weapons production to be more than 10x higher, given the disparity in terms of population, never mind industrial capacity.

3. The vast majority of Taiwan's population is concentrated in a thin 30km strip of coastal land facing mainland China, all of which can be reached by low-cost glide bombs. In Ukraine, there is barely any population within 30km of the border.

4. Taiwan has half the population of Ukraine.
 

4Tran

Junior Member
Registered Member
I don't think Ukraine is a good example.

1. Remember that Taiwan is an island and will almost certainly face a situation where China has air-sea superiority. That means an effective blockade, with nothing going in or out.
In comparison, Ukraine has long land borders with the EU.

2. We could expect Chinese weapons production to be more than 10x higher, given the disparity in terms of population, never mind industrial capacity.

3. The vast majority of Taiwan's population is concentrated in a thin 30km strip of coastal land facing mainland China, all of which can be reached by low-cost glide bombs. In Ukraine, there is barely any population within 30km of the border.

4. Taiwan has half the population of Ukraine.
TK3600's point is that China can't be crppled by a conventional missile attack!
 
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