In the past, we often said that China's military industry has the world's first long-range rocket artillery technology, and this strength has of course been recognized by the whole world. However, if we look at the long-range rocket artillery installed by the Chinese Army, it was not even comparable to export products at one time, and this may also be related to the fact that the Chinese Rocket Force originally possessed the world's first land-based short- and medium-range ballistic missiles, and was not in a hurry to install them. In the past two years, as the Taiwan military has included the long-range fire of the PLA Army Group Army in the scope of its notification, it indicates that the process of the PLA in installing long-range rocket artillery is speeding up, and there has even been a situation of advanced deployment.
In the past few days, a very exciting picture has appeared: In a news report on CCTV programs interviewing the artillery brigade of a certain group army of the army, a sergeant major of a certain unit equipped with PHL-191 370mm rocket launchers said that the striking distance of the new rocket equipped with it is seven times that of the original. In the past, the 300mm rocket artillery commonly installed by the rocket artillery brigades of the Chinese army had a firing range of 90 kilometers in the earliest version and 150 kilometers in the simple guided version. If we calculate it by 90 kilometers, it means that the Chinese Army is officially equipped with a giant rocket with a range of 630 kilometers, and we can find out from the Zhuhai Air Show that the similar weapon is the PHL-191 can launch a total of 750 mm rockets. Like the U.S. Seahorse rocket launcher, the Chinese army's long-range fire launches a wide variety of rockets, equipped with 300mm, 370mm and 750mm rockets, and the range covers from 90 km, 150 km to 630 km, which the US Seahorse is simply incomparable.
Judging by the footage reported by CCTV, this 750-mm rocket is very similar to the Iskander M. We can see the clues from the 750 mm rockets exported from the Zhuhai Air Show, which are equipped with a variety of warheads such as submunitions, armor-piercing bombs and high-explosive bombs, and use Beidou satellites and laser gyroscope inertial navigation, with a hit accuracy of about 15 meters.
This raises the question: why does the Chinese Rocket Force still have 750mm rockets when it has more powerful surface-to-surface tactical missiles? Of course, it has a certain strategic value.
First, it is possible to expand the strike range of the army group to about 600 km. Under the conditions of the reform of the theater system, the firepower of all branches of the armed forces will be more abundant, and there will be noticeable changes in the distribution of missions and tasks between the army and the rocket force. If the army can complete the strike on solid targets and node targets within a range of 600 kilometers on its own, it can reduce the coordination work of inter-service arms and carry out combat missions more quickly. At the same time, the Rocket Force began to install more high-end missiles such as the DF-17, and slowly handed over the task of several hundred kilometers of surface-to-surface missile strikes to the Army.
Second, China's ability to assemble 750 mm rockets in batches shows that it has a very reasonable cost performance. Although we can come up with many reasons for the installation of 750mm rockets, it cannot be denied that the biggest reason is that they are cheap. If we can make this kind of rocket at a cost of about 2 million yuan, then we can really install thousands of rockets, which is a very cost-effective rapid strike firepower.
Third, it will enable the Army to undertake more important missions and tasks in the war against Taiwan. If in the past, the army could only play a role in the middle and late stages of military operations against Taiwan, then because of long-range rocket artillery, it can play an important role in the early stage of firepower preparation. According to the range of the PLA's long-range fire, there is almost no safe place on the island of Taiwan, and the consumption brought about by intercepting long-range rockets is beyond the reach of any defensive opponent, let alone the Taiwan military.
Fifth, we can better promote the export of China's long-range rocket artillery, of course, we still have to increase the counterweight for the export type, and the range is controlled to 290 kilometers. No matter how well we say anything about weapons and equipment at weapons exhibitions and air shows, it is not as effective as the advertisements of the PLA itself.
Overall, the PLA Army has always had a phobia of underfirepower in the past, but I feel that with 750mm rockets, it can really be cured, because this stout guy has very explosive firepower, or a surface-to-surface ballistic missile.