China's transport, tanker & heavy lift aircraft

Lol you guys aren't new to this forum, with that logic you may as well say China and everyone else should disband their conventional military forces and leave the entirety of their military power based on the deterrence a handful of ICBMs offer.

US may be withdrawing from Afghanastan and the chance of an invasion from that direction may be slight, but the US presence in the middle east would still be a factor in the minds of PLA planners -- whether the afghan government, or any other middle eastern government would allow US to build up troops is not up to us to speculate I think, but we all know how powerful US influence is in the region. And don't forget about India lurking on the other side of the himalayas.


Besides, moving MBTs across long distances is probably a capability you'd prefer to have, even if you don't need it that often.

delft said:

Imagine a huge armored force attacking from Afghanistan or from India over the Himalayas ( I know, very difficult to imagine ). Would China want to meet it with its own tanks or would it be better to give the main roles to Second Artillery and PLAAF?

Some people have that kind of imagination. I remember reading about a press conference at the Pentagon in the mid '80's were some colonel said there was a threat of Libyan armor attacking Sudan ( in area the largest country in Africa ) through a thousand miles of desert with few roads and with little air cover.

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Armored forces attacking from the Himalayas? The Allied forces lost countless planes simply trying air-lift supplies to China from India during the late stages of the WWII. And most of the loss came when crossing the Himalayas, NOT Japanese attacks. The terrain and weather around the Himalayas is absolutely horrific. Moving tanks on land is almost impossible. There mig be some small roads that are passable, but you can expect they would be heavily guarded and surveyed. And it would be so easy to set up ambush and destroy an entire column with minimal effort.

AeroEngineer said:

To correct you, Type 99A2 does NOT exit. There are only Type 99 and Type 99A.

Around 50 Type 99 are build and used for testing only from 1999- 2005. Then the finial production variant Type99A had many improvements such as amor, better sensors, engines, and munitions started mass prodution and now around 600 were build.

Type99A2 does not exit.

Just like 054 to 054A FFG, J-10 to J-10A fighters, etc,etc.

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Stick with aero engineering, since what you wrote shows great ignorance for Chinese AFVs.

jobjed said:

So from 2013-2015, Russia will provide 10 second-hand IL-76MD's to China while also providing maintenance to some IL-76MD's already in PLAAF service.

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I think China settle for the IL-76 row with Russian by accepting this 10 refurbished IL-76 and free maintenance for its IL-76 fleet for 1.5 billion pay in 2005.

vesicles said:

Armored forces attacking from the Himalayas? The Allied forces lost countless planes simply trying air-lift supplies to China from India during the late stages of the WWII. And most of the loss came when crossing the Himalayas, NOT Japanese attacks. The terrain and weather around the Himalayas is absolutely horrific. Moving tanks on land is almost impossible. There mig be some small roads that are passable, but you can expect they would be heavily guarded and surveyed. And it would be so easy to set up ambush and destroy an entire column with minimal effort.

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Huh... I would expect technology to be improved, updated and getting better after so many years.

Heavy transports have really come to age once they started the Afghan withdrawal

UK upgraded a air base just outside Dubai, Al Minhad air base, it's a staging post for all UK militray equipment that is currently being flown out of Afghanistan for the withdrawal of all major militray forces, it lands a C17s and C130 all day bringing in vehicles from where they are loaded on to ships to thier onward destination

On one occasion a C5M Super Galaxy flew all the way from Afghanistan to US over the Arctic non-stop with a load of cargo

Only Super Galaxy can do this, it can lift just shy of 300,000 lbs!!! Point is over sized and heavy cargo is always needed to be transported by air, somewhere sometime and these aircraft are a must have, For C17 UK has 8, Aussies have 6, even Qatar has 4 and India is taking up to 16 units, not to mention the US which has just over 220

delft said:

Imagine a huge armored force attacking from Afghanistan or from India over the Himalayas ( I know, very difficult to imagine ). Would China want to meet it with its own tanks or would it be better to give the main roles to Second Artillery and PLAAF?

Some people have that kind of imagination. I remember reading about a press conference at the Pentagon in the mid '80's were some colonel said there was a threat of Libyan armor attacking Sudan ( in area the largest country in Africa ) through a thousand miles of desert with few roads and with little air cover.

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Its not over the Himalayas.

The potential conflict could fight over terrain that is the foot hills of HImalayas. and although terrain is not exactly desert flat land or lush central europe it is not pure light infantry and artillery land either.

in '62 Where PLA was on offensive in Aksai Chin, I think it used armor units to support its tactical attack , although could be wrong.

Much of Aksai Chin is plateau land and any defensive or offensive fight would require mobile troops. Anywhere you can drive a truck you can use armor.

Also, During 08 Lhasa Riots some of those video show mobile army units called dressed in Woodland Flecktarn, i..e elite units, , Some of them were riding in Type 89 APCs. Xinjiang and Tibet MR's Mobile reserves are all mechanized...

Also, think about it. if a major crisis erupts over sparsely populated lands where your lines of communication are not secure from inserted commando units, wouldn't you rather have armor than trucks?

i.e. said:

Also, think about it. if a major crisis erupts over sparsely populated lands where your lines of communication are not secure from inserted commando units, wouldn't you rather have armor than trucks?

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I would rather have both.

kroko said:

I would rather have both.

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so I rest my case.

i.e. said:

Also, think about it. if a major crisis erupts over sparsely populated lands where your lines of communication are not secure from inserted commando units, wouldn't you rather have armor than trucks?

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Actually I would rather have persistent satellite coverage, transport and attack helicopters, and back on topic for this thread... heavy air transports and C-130 type gunships.