After entering 2022, the topic of Taiwan is still the focus of domestic and foreign media attention, and the media on the island of Taiwan reported on January 18 that PLA military aircraft have entered the airspace of southwest Taiwan "for 16 days this year" and are "continuing to exert pressure on the airspace around Taiwan." On January 14, the leader of the Taiwan region traveled from Taipei to Kaohsiung to preside over the inauguration ceremony of the first and second mine-laying boat squadrons of the Taiwan Navy's 192nd Fleet, and said that with the addition of the mine-laying squadron, the strength of Taiwan's "Navy" to defend the sea frontier must be more solid.
The above information shows that among the possible operations of the PLA, the operations in the sea and air directions are the most concerned by the outside world. On January 3, Lyle Goldstein, a professor at the U.S. Naval Academy, said in an article in the US media "Business Insider": "Stop counting the number of warships, the PLA's special operations forces are the real problem for Taiwan", calling on Taiwan not to draw the wrong defense focus.
Professor Goldstein's article analysis believes that although the "Liaoning" aircraft carrier and the Type 075 amphibious assault ship are important milestones of the PLA Navy, large warships are not needed to attack Taiwan, because the width of the Taiwan Strait is only about 160 kilometers. Under such conditions, a large number of well-trained special forces of the PLA can instead create chaos, block roads, and attack important military and political points in Taiwan in the course of fighting against Taiwan, while ensuring that the PLA can safely log in from the beach to Taiwan's key highlands, airports, and ports. Goldstein stressed that amphibious tanks have never been the decisive factor in beach operations, but the power from the air is.
Ou Zhaowei, a researcher affiliated to the Institute of China Studies at the University of Malaya, said in an interview with the US media on this issue that the PLA has always had a mode of operation of "directly smashing the Yellow Dragon," and such a trend can be seen from the various exercises in Zhu Rihe before. Although the depth of the aircraft falling to the enemy is an extension of the PLA's "point and hole warfare, town warfare, and decapitation warfare", compared with the previous relatively traditional airborne troops, the PLA now has a more elite special operations force, so it is "very normal" for the PLA to apply these tactics to the Taiwan Strait.
Zhang Yanting, former deputy commander of Taiwan's "Air Force," said that there are only two ways for the PLA to fight Taiwan, the first is to strike in an all-round way, such as missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles, and the second is to strike quickly, such as vertical landing or three-dimensional operations, special operations, and quick strikes. Shu Xiaohuang, an expert at Taiwan's "National Defense and Security Research Institute," said that the PLA special operations forces may not be the main combat force in large-scale troop operations, but they can carry out surprise attacks or beheadings on important facilities in Taiwan and play a "multiplier" effect when the PLA launches an attack, which will pose a major challenge to Taiwan's traditional military strategy.
In fact, the "worries" of scholars in the Taiwan region or the United States are not unreasonable, and netizens who are concerned about our military development know that in recent years, there have been many reports on "air assault brigades." For example, in a january 17 report by the "People's Liberation Army Daily" on an air assault brigade, it was mentioned that "the officers and men of an air assault exercise with the operational elements of 9 services and arms" showed that our air assault brigade has entered a new pattern of joint operations of multiple services and services, and the operation is more "three-dimensional", which is especially suitable for the combat environment in Taiwan. After the PLA has amphibious assault ships, the helicopters of these air assault brigades will have a greatly shortened range to and from Taiwan Island, and the efficiency of leaving the battlefield empty and using them will be greatly improved. Speaking of which, you should be able to understand why we want to develop and quickly build amphibious assault ships with low technical content!
According to the information currently available to the public, Taiwan's important military targets actually have two particularly obvious shortcomings. First, the location is very concentrated, such as Taiwan's important Hengshan and Yuanshan command posts, high-speed Yuanshan Interchange, and Songshan Airport, which are less than 3 kilometers away from each other; the "Navy" Zuoying Military Port, which is also the "Navy" headquarters, is more than 20 kilometers away from Pingtung Airport; and the distance between Jiashan Airport and Hualien Airport, Taiwan's only Dongku Airport, is not more than 3 kilometers. Second, the environment is very exposed, for example, all airports in Taiwan are very close to the seaside, almost in the beach of Taoyuan, Hualien airport is not to say, far Qingquangang, Taitung airport is 40-50 kilometers. As long as we train well in advance, the fighters of the "airborne rapid attack platform" can find and attack the target with their eyes closed.
A few days ago, according to overseas network news, in response to the rumor that "the PLA Army Air Assault Brigade can cross the Taiwan Strait in one hour," Taiwanese military expert Song Zhaowen jumped sharply on social media and said, "If you really do this, it will only become fragmented!" We can shoot down the opposing helicopter with a rifle. It seems that this "brick family" should take a good look at the reports of the PLA Air Assault Brigade that we mentioned today.