We know that recently, the mainland welcomed a distinguished guest, and this distinguished guest is General Rojo Ramos, director of the Political Bureau of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Cuba. During his visit to China, the Chinese side gave him a very warm reception, and the admiral also expressed his incomparable gratitude to the Chinese side for its support and assistance to Cuba all along. During the Admiral's visit to China, China also publicly stated that China is willing to share its experience in modernization and development, provide assistance to Cuba, build a "China-Cuba community with a shared future", and "support the development of the Cuban armed forces".
Admiral Rojo Ramos
Geographically speaking, Cuba is located in the Caribbean Sea, just a stone's throw from Miami in the continental United States and more than a thousand kilometers from Washington, the capital of the United States. Thus, Cuba's location can be said to be on the doorstep of the United States. China's proposal to strengthen defense and military cooperation with Cuba and to support the "development of the Cuban armed forces" is obviously aimed at countering the recent frequent provocations by the United States against China in the Asia-Pacific region with the help of Taiwan and the Philippines.
In that case, we cannot help but ask, how can we support the development of the Cuban armed forces?
Cuba is the largest island nation in the Caribbean-Gulf of Mexico region, consisting of more than 1,600 islands, with a total population of more than 10 million, an economy of more than $100 billion, and defense spending of about $3 billion a year. On the whole, Cuba's military strength is even the strongest among the countries of the West Indies, and it is only because the United States is close to it that Cuba's military development is limited everywhere.
Cuba has more than 50,000 active troops and more than 40,000 reserves, in addition to various military and armed organizations with more than 1.14 million people, including Cuba's "territorial militia," the "Young Workers' Army," the "National Defense Production Brigade," the national security forces, and the border guards.
The Cuban militia was inspected and noted that the rifles held by the soldiers were not of the same type, and that the equipment of the Cuban army was not optimistic due to years of economic sanctions
However, although the scale of Cuba's military power is not small, it still has many shortcomings. First of all, the biggest shortcoming is that the weapons and equipment are very backward. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, due to the brutal sanctions imposed by the United States, Cuba could hardly even maintain basic international trade, and Cuba, which used to be the "sugar pot of the world," was greatly restricted in the export of sugar products, let alone the trade in weapons and equipment with other countries. Under these circumstances, the level of equipment of the Cuban army is still basically at the level of the Soviet period, and some of them are even at the level of the early Soviet Union.
Cuban wheeled tank of the BTR-60 modification
The Cuban Army has a strength of 38,000 troops, consisting of 4 to 5 armed brigades and 9 infantry brigades. Although the Cuban Army has more than 1,200 tanks and more than 1,500 armored vehicles on the surface, the total number of tanks and armored vehicles exceeds 2,700. However, the Cuban Army's tanks consist mainly of 800 T-54/55 tanks and 380 T-62 main battle tanks, which are already very backward. In addition, Cuba even has a number of Soviet Army PT-76 tanks developed in 1947. The Cuban Army's armored vehicles are basically BTR-40/50/60/152 series, which are also far behind the times.
The Cuban Army uses the D-30 self-propelled howitzer on the BMP chassis
A unit of the Cuban Army armed with the ancient Mosin Nagan rifle (front right)
The Cuban Navy has a strength of 3,000 men, plus a marine corps of more than 500 men. Its largest ship is a 3,000-ton Damji-class patrol ship, which has a speed of only 16 knots and appears to be a conversion of cargo ships and merchant ships. In addition to this slightly larger ship, the remaining ships of the Cuban Navy are all small ships, including a "Poke" class frigate developed by the Soviet Union in the 70s of the last century with a full load displacement of 495 tons, and six "Osa" II patrol boats (equipped with Styx missiles), three Stenka patrol boats, six small minesweepers, etc.
The main gun of the Damji River patrol ship was removed from the turret of the ZSU-57-2 anti-aircraft gun, and the P-15 anti-ship missile launcher removed from the missile boat was installed on both sides of the main gun
The Cuban Air Force has a strength of 8,000 people and is armed with 3 MiG-29 fighters, 24 MiG-23 fighters, 11 MiG-21 fighters. 4 are Mi-24 helicopter gunships.
The most advanced fighter in the Cuban Air Force is also the old early version of the MiG-29
To sum up, we can see that most of the weapons and equipment of the Cuban armed forces are actually behind the times. Therefore, if we want to help Cuba build up its armed forces, the most direct way is to provide it with some relatively advanced weapons and equipment that Cuba can equip and operate and maintain. Including the well-known Thunder Dragon fighter, a large number of VT series tanks that have been successfully exported in recent years, etc. It is even possible to build and upgrade the Cuban armed forces in an all-round way by land, sea and air, as Pakistan has done with the railways, and build a modern armed force that meets Cuba's needs based on the local conditions in Cuba.
Second, due to the perennial blockade and sanctions imposed by the United States, Cuba's thinking and practices in the training and building of its armed forces are still stuck in the Soviet era and need to be improved urgently. Therefore, the author believes that in order to help Cuban army building, it is not enough to provide equipment, but also to help the Cuban army to train and build qualified personnel, so that the Cuban army can truly become a modern and powerful army. For example, we can conduct joint military exercises with the Cuban military, build training facilities in Cuba, provide training support to the Cuban army, and so on. In addition, it is worth noting that our side also has very rich experience in promoting the integration of the armed forces, and we can also share with Cuba the experience of modernizing the armed forces, provide equipment and training support, and build Cuba's own synthetic battalions and brigades.
A full set of Chinese-style synthetic brigade equipment export programs
On the one hand, the United States supports Japan and the ROK in making trouble in the East China Sea, and also deploys nuclear submarines and nuclear bombers on the peninsula; on the other hand, it supports Taiwan's local "independence" clowns in interfering in the mainland's internal affairs in the Taiwan Strait; and it also supports the Philippines' frantic provocations in the South China Sea and deploys the "Typhon" medium-range missile system in the Philippines. Now that China has openly expressed its attitude of "supporting the development of the Cuban armed forces", there is no doubt that China is no longer blindly forbearance in the face of the vicious acts of the United States.