Self Propelled Gun/Rocket Launcher

ansy1968 said:

@supercat I kinda like this one than the PCL 161, it baffle me why the PLA produced two identical 122 mm gun platform?

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There is no mystery at all All armor brigades are divided into 3 class, heavy, medium and light. But the trend is now more toward medium and light. For the fact that they can be deployed much faster and does not required ship transportation. The medium and light can be transported by rail, road or air . So this PCL 161 belong to the light and PCL 181 belong to the medium. PCL 161 can be transported with Y20 and 2 of them will fit nicely
PCL 161 might be heli transportable assuming the gun is 5 ton and the vehicle 10 ton

That's PCL-171(122mm - mengshi 3rd gen vehicle) and from what I know is for mainly light brigades, PCL-161 (122mm - truck) is a bit heavier for the medium brigades?

And the heaviest is PCL-181, 155mm.

What platform would be the most widely used for neutralising enemy airbases/command in the case of a conflict over Taiwan?

Cruise missiles are expensive and have small firepower (see trump's tomahawk attack on syria)
Not sure about SRBMs. Does China have a modern equivalent to Russia's Iskander?
MLR rockets like BRE8 have enough range (barely) and are maybe more cost effective but don't seem to be used in large numbers

sndef888 said:

What platform would be the most widely used for neutralising enemy airbases/command in the case of a conflict over Taiwan?

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A few hundred out-of-date Mig-21 drones loaded with fuel and dumb bombs.

PLA Eastern Theater Army Rocket Clip

The PLA artillery "far fire" self-propelled rocket launcher

sndef888 said:

What platform would be the most widely used for neutralising enemy airbases/command in the case of a conflict over Taiwan?

Cruise missiles are expensive and have small firepower (see trump's tomahawk attack on syria)
Not sure about SRBMs. Does China have a modern equivalent to Russia's Iskander?
MLR rockets like BRE8 have enough range (barely) and are maybe more cost effective but don't seem to be used in large numbers

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I guess it depends what they were targeting, many experts thought they were shooting "something" just because Trump wanted to show off, I agree with those estimations since there were important Syrian assets what weren't hit even when they could have. Cruise missiles have been extremely succesful capability for most countries using them, but then again so have ballistic missiles, i'd say cruise missiles are more versatile especially ones what can be deployed from planes.

sndef888 said:

What platform would be the most widely used for neutralising enemy airbases/command in the case of a conflict over Taiwan?

Cruise missiles are expensive and have small firepower (see trump's tomahawk attack on syria)
Not sure about SRBMs. Does China have a modern equivalent to Russia's Iskander?
MLR rockets like BRE8 have enough range (barely) and are maybe more cost effective but don't seem to be used in large numbers

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China has all of the said assets and would use them depending on the availability and target.
China has DF-15 and DF-16 as Iskander equivalents. And in my opinion, DF-16 is a much better missile than the Iskander. It most likely has a separating warhead unlike the Iskander and this equals higher survivability. It is also 3-14x more accurate and has more range. It also carries a two times heavier warhead with maneuvering capability. One thing Iskander is better at is its trajectory. Iskander uses and boost-sustain cycle so it is efficient at a depressed ballistic arc. This shortens the reaction time.

For rocket artillery, China also has this:
It uses 370 mm rockets with a range of 350 km or 750 mm rockets with a range of 500 km.

Broccoli said:

I guess it depends what they were targeting, many experts thought they were shooting "something" just because Trump wanted to show off, I agree with those estimations since there were important Syrian assets what weren't hit even when they could have. Cruise missiles have been extremely succesful capability for most countries using them, but then again so have ballistic missiles, i'd say cruise missiles are more versatile especially ones what can be deployed from planes.

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A Tomahawk is basically a single 1000 lbs bomb. If they didn't target the runway the base may return to operation easily. Or Americans are lying and the Russian systems really shot down Tomahawks.

Firing laser guided rounds.