B.RAMAN
Has the Chinese Army (PLA) created for itself a
capability for helicopter-borne operations across Tibet in Arunachal Pradesh?
2.That is a question that needs to be examined by
Indian analysts and experts in the light of a report carried by the “PLA Daily”
on July 12,2012, which is annexed.
3.It makes three important points:
·
The PLA Army Aviation Force, which was
initially raised for giving ground support to the Army in its operations, has
now been upgraded to enable it to play an independent assault role.
·
The combat areas of the PLA army
aviation force have expanded from plain to plateau.
·
As a result, the PLA army troops
possess the capability for launching air-to-ground precision strike in high altitude areas. ( 13-7-12)
( The writer is Additional Secretary (retd),
Cabinet Secretariat, Govt of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director,
Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai, and Associate, Chennai Centre For China
Studies. E-Mail: seventyone2@gmail.com . Twitter: @SORBONNE75 )
ANNEXURE
PLA army aviation force shifts from support type to
main-battle-assault one
As
an air-confrontation drill conducted by an army aviation force under the
information-based conditions was unveiled at a place in the south of China’s
Yangtze River on the day, June 11 is a day destined to be remembered in the
history of the army aviation force of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army
(PLA). A PLA army aviation brigade, which was just upgraded from a PLA army
aviation regiment, dispatched the PLA’s new-type helicopters for the first time
to participate in the actual-troop drill and made its debut by dispatching the
PLA’s largest helicopter fleet for emergency combat drill before tens of PLA
generals.
The
troop unit’s shift from a “pupa” to a “butterfly” is a miniature of the
transformation and development of the PLA army aviation force. According to the
briefing, after it was put under a group army from an army aviation regiment
directly under a military area command in 2003, the brigade initially realized
the shift from the support type to the main-battle-assault one in its
over-nine-year transformation and development period, becoming the “iron fist
in the air” in the joint strikes for victories.
In
the summer of last year, a ground-and-air joint combat drill was conducted on
the snow-covered plateau, marking that the combat areas of the PLA army
aviation force have expanded from plain to plateau. As a result, the PLA army
troops possess the capability for launching the air-to-ground precision strike
in the high altitude areas.
The
“lying on the ground” army troops really begin to fly， said a leader of the Army Aviation Department of
the PLA General Staff Headquarters. He added, “The ‘two reductions and two
additions’, namely, the establishment of the PLA Army Aviation Force soon after
the one-million disarmament in 1985 and the establishment of the PLA Army
Aviation Academy after the 500,000 disarmament in 1999, allowed the army
aviation force building to take the “express train” of our times. As a result,
the army aviation force has gradually developed into a powerful combat force
with air-ground integration and air-sea integration capabilities.”
Today,
the PLA army aviation force has established its own operation theory systems
supported by the 19 monographs, which are developed from scratch and from weak
to strong, and its main plane-model development realized the leap from the
imported ones to the independent innovation and mass-production ones.
Editor:Zhang Tao
