PLA Combat Training cannot wait for New Year Celebrations!
Covering Chinese chatters (discourses, narratives, policies and rhetoric) on external events and actors, military and security issues, and India.
A big hello and best wishes for the new year to our readers! Hope you enjoy reading this brief, first edition to kick-start 2024.
Guarding the Great Wall: Big-Bang Start to the PLA’s New Year
By Anushka Saxena
To kick-off the Chinese security apparatus’s spirits in 2024, on January 2, Xi Jinping made a speech to the PLA and the People’s Armed Police forces on the theme, "Safeguarding the prosperity of the motherland and world peace and tranquility" (守护祖国繁荣昌盛世界和平安宁).
His core message to the PLA and the PAP was as follows:
2024 marks the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China and is a crucial year for achieving the objectives of the ‘14th Five-Year Plan.’
It requires resolute obedience to the Party’s commands, loyal fulfillment of duties, anchoring goals, overcoming difficulties, and making new and greater contributions to advancing the comprehensive construction of a strong nation in the Chinese style and the great rejuvenation of the nation.
The Chinese people deeply understand the value of peace, and we are willing to work together with the international community, holding the future of humanity in mind and focusing on the well-being of the people, to promote the construction of a community with a shared future for mankind and build a better world.
It is a repetitive instruction, wherein Xi has reiterated the importance of keeping in mind the ‘two establishes’ (两个确立; i.e. for the Party to establish the status of Comrade Xi Jinping as the core of the Party’s Central Committee and of the whole Party, and to establish the guiding role of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for the New Era); uphold loyalty to the party as the military’s ideological root; meet the needs and goals of the ‘great rejuvenation’ (中华民族伟大复兴); and build a ‘community with a shared future for mankind’ in collaboration with the international community.
Subsequently, the PLA has put Xi’s ideas into work, as a bunch of entities have began engaging in combat training and preparedness exercises to resolve challenges from 2023 and refine capabilities in 2024.
I will do a short recap of some of the training activity that has taken place already below, while highlighting the keywords to watch out for in the preparedness work this year.
To begin with, the reports from today (January 3) tell us that various units from the Central, Northern and Southern Theater Commands focused on aerial skills training, albeit in different modes.
The focus of the Central TC’s Army Brigade’s exercise was to first launch a coordinated swarm of helicopters at the commander’s orders, then for the swarm to navigate a giant cloud mass without wavering due to bad weather, and ultimately escaping anti-aircraft fire from the enemy. Termed as a ‘multi-element flight training exercise’ (多要素飞行训练), this combat training method demonstrated by CTC involves refining of various aerial elements of combat, such as reconnaissance, weather training, avoiding radar detection, and practicing helicopter formations.
Then, the Northern TC’s Air Force Brigade practiced enemy target spotting and locking amidst the presence of ‘electromagnetic interference’ (电磁干扰). Electromagnetic warfare has become critical to the operations of the PLA, given that the military’s latest war doctrine focuses on combination of as many conventional and unconventional methods of deploying force as possible. The success of the NTC’s operation lied in the ability of the radar operator to adjust the ‘search mode’ (搜索模式) and be able to identify the target amidst the ‘electronic fog’ (电子雾).
Finally, the Navy Unit of the Southern TC conducted an academic exercise, with collaboration between soldiers and researchers in live-fire drills, so that the latter can assist the former to refine specialized skills (it is also important to note that live-fire drills have become a necessity in PLA’s Taiwan campaign over the past two years). The purpose of the exercise was thus, to ‘Open the door to train and hone the edge of the system’ (开门练兵磨砺体系利刃; meaning that there is a need to open the doors to academic insights from outside the system and let it effectively hone the unit's systemic combat capabilities).
Skill Training and Talent Formation will continue to receive attention
Another report from today focuses on the PLA Strategic Support Force’s ‘Double High-Level Support’ (or ‘Double High-Level Mentorship/ Guidance’, 双高帮带) programme, and its vitality to developing technological talent in this critical service that aims to enhance the PLA’s cyber, electronic and space warfare capabilities.
The need for such a programme, as highlighted by military commentators, is that “In recent years, focusing on the needs of the force's informatization and the generation of new combat capabilities, this brigade has been exploring and implementing a talent development model where 'senior engineers mentor engineers and assistant engineers, while senior sergeants mentor frontline core personnel.' The aim [therefore] is to build a team of technically proficient and combat-capable technical talent” (近年来,该旅着眼部队信息化建设和新质战斗力生成需要,探索推行“高级工程师带工程师、助理工程师,高级军士带一线骨干”人才培养模式,着力打造一支本领过硬、能打胜仗的技术人才队伍).
The process entails senior engineers and senior sergeants selecting two ‘apprentices’ from among assistant engineers, engineers, and enlisting personnel based on the nature of their positions and specific tasks for which mentoring is required. However, this would require the senior engineers to undergo a two-week specialized training session themselves.
Ultimately, the brigade of the SSF that has now implemented this mentorship programme has highlighted the goals for the high-level technical talent that is developed, as the following: ‘focusing on cutting-edge theories, highlighting interdisciplinary integration, and aligning closely with grassroots needs’ (内容聚焦前沿理论,突出学科交叉融合,注重对接基层需求).
An interesting experiment from 2023: The “Three Mutuals” (三互)
In late December last year, the a battalion from the 80th Group Army of the Northern TC initiated a ‘Three Mutuals’ activity which has the potential to be utilised informally across the services this year too.
The purpose of the activity is for soldiers who have specific expertise in basic training skills such as ‘horizontal bar roll-ups’, to disseminate their skill and knowledge to those who may not be as confident in performing the same.
As described in a report from today, “Soldiers integrated their own specialties, tips, and tactics into ‘skill packages,’ showcased on the ‘mini-platform.’ Those who aimed to improve a particular skill or had weaknesses in professional training could freely select a ‘skill package’ that suited their needs, thereby enhancing their personal capabilities.”
It basically sells skill training as a more prideful alternative to rookies or mid-level officers, if they do not wish to be embarrassed by directly asking seniors for help. This is the observation made in the intra-battalion research of squadrons, by Battalion Officer Zhang Runbo.
He said, “Veterans were unwilling to be grouped with new recruits, and the rookies hesitated to ask veterans for help. Soldiers from the same year or hometown preferred pairing up with each other” (老兵不愿意与新兵编到一个组,新兵不好意思麻烦老兵帮带,同年兵、老乡更愿意结成对子).
It is an interesting mechanism defining the shift from ‘selecting personnel’ to ‘selecting skill’, and can be useful in basic combat training in combination with other programmes for talent and skill development.
Latest from the Indo-Pacific Studies Team:
In this special episode from the ‘All Things Policy’ daily podcast, Manoj Kewalramani, Anushka Saxena, and Bharat Sharma from the IPSP team, among others from Takshashila, make predictions for 2024, on subjects ranging from war in the Taiwan Strait, to the evolution of the role of the Quad. We encourage our readers to hold us to these this time next year!