Highlights of President Hu Jin Tao's inspection of PLA HK Garrison, 29-06-2012

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antiterror13

Brigadier
plawolf said:
Come on guys, surely you all remember the very explicit threats Taiwan made, when Chen was in power and tensions were high, about reducing HK and Shanghai to ruin if the PRC ever tried to take Taiwan back?

They even made plans to try and bomb the Three Gorges Damn.

HK has no military significance other than the actual units the PLA stations there, which are entirely for defensive purposes anyways, but it is a critically important economic and financial centre for China, and as such, would be well worth protecting, especially since it's location makes it very vulnerable and there would be very little warning or chances to mount an effective intercept if someone who wanted to attack China selected it as one of the first places to attack.

In addition, it's close proximity to the manufacturing hubs and shipyards of the Pearl River Delta would also allow long range SAMs like HQ9s to provide cover for those areas as well, and you will get a little extra range and warning time with HQ9s in HK rather than on the mainland. That could be why the HQ9s are still in HK even though tensions with Taiwan has eased significantly lately.

Although saying that, has anyone spotted HQ9s in or around HK recently? You would think that with somewhere as densely populated and developed as HK, someone would have spotted them at some point or know where they are normally based. Are we 100% sure the HQ9s are still there?
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HQ-9 range is more than 200km, so really it doesn't need to be stationed in HK to protect HK
 
plawolf

plawolf

Lieutenant General
antiterror13 said:
HQ-9 range is more than 200km, so really it doesn't need to be stationed in HK to protect HK
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Range isn't everything. Topography is also very important. For example, I doubt very much that any incoming cruise missiles would be flying anywhere as high as most of HK's buildings are tall. Having a SAM in range on the mainland is still no good if it cannot target the incoming bogies because buildings are in the way.

Stationing HQ9s and other SAMs on HK itself would allow them to be place such that they have unobstructed fields and view to best detect and engage incoming threats.
 
MwRYum

MwRYum

Major
plawolf said:
Although saying that, has anyone spotted HQ9s in or around HK recently? You would think that with somewhere as densely populated and developed as HK, someone would have spotted them at some point or know where they are normally based. Are we 100% sure the HQ9s are still there?
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Not even once...if APCs convoy drive through the streets during the routine change of guard rotation can get on headline, and get people freakout, think about those big HQ9 TEL vehicles mobilize in convoy...the fact is, we at HK never saw any PLA vehicle with more than 6 wheels.

Besides, with HQ9 always deploy in pre-determined launch sites and consider just about every plot of land in HK, if not for parks (ie off limit to vehicle of all kind) then it's solid gold real estate that only the rarest occasion would left idle, plus in most areas buildings are so tall they'd make very poor SAM sites - whether for launcher or radar.

And yes I said radar...unless that radar is sitting on top of a high hill that has excellent LOS all round and have datalink (best wired, wireless is prone to jamming) to the TEL and command units, it'd be waste of time because the SAM site would more likely have restricted direction of engagement.

Then there's the TEL...in HK where we've wall-like building density and height at 30-stories average, SAM would be more likely slam into some building than anything else...

And given any viable attack would be from sea, you might better off deploy 054A from the SSF instead.

Though on the simple subject of "seeing those vehicles", not a bad thing if they display a few during the annual openhouse event, though if you want to see HQ9 TEL, you can take picture to your heart's content at the aerospace museum outside Beijing, where they've it on display, in erected mode.
 
plawolf

plawolf

Lieutenant General
MwRYum said:
Not even once...if APCs convoy drive through the streets during the routine change of guard rotation can get on headline, and get people freakout, think about those big HQ9 TEL vehicles mobilize in convoy...the fact is, we at HK never saw any PLA vehicle with more than 6 wheels.

Besides, with HQ9 always deploy in pre-determined launch sites and consider just about every plot of land in HK, if not for parks (ie off limit to vehicle of all kind) then it's solid gold real estate that only the rarest occasion would left idle, plus in most areas buildings are so tall they'd make very poor SAM sites - whether for launcher or radar.

And yes I said radar...unless that radar is sitting on top of a high hill that has excellent LOS all round and have datalink (best wired, wireless is prone to jamming) to the TEL and command units, it'd be waste of time because the SAM site would more likely have restricted direction of engagement.

Then there's the TEL...in HK where we've wall-like building density and height at 30-stories average, SAM would be more likely slam into some building than anything else...

And given any viable attack would be from sea, you might better off deploy 054A from the SSF instead.

Though on the simple subject of "seeing those vehicles", not a bad thing if they display a few during the annual openhouse event, though if you want to see HQ9 TEL, you can take picture to your heart's content at the aerospace museum outside Beijing, where they've it on display, in erected mode.
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Yes, good points, which is why I asked whether we have ever had confirmation that HQ9s were ever deployed in HK to start with.

Something else to consider is that with mobile systems like HQ9s, one of the key strengths is their mobility and ability to shoot and scoot to avoid retaliation.

With somewhere as densely populated and developed as HK, your scope for movement is really restricted as well as the suitable sites you could set up, as you have already touched out.

Just to put the cherry on top, HK is also a very small island. Take out the bridges and any HQ9s deployed there are effectively trapped. Not a goo position to be in.

There are merits to deploying HQ9s on HK, but there are also drawbacks.
 
MwRYum

MwRYum

Major
plawolf said:
Just to put the cherry on top, HK is also a very small island. Take out the bridges and any HQ9s deployed there are effectively trapped. Not a goo position to be in.

There are merits to deploying HQ9s on HK, but there are also drawbacks.
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While you got the "small" part right, but on HK Island - if not the whole HK territory - we use very few bridges, we mostly got overpass instead; if you talk about physical link between HK Island and the main landmass, there're only 3 cross-harbor tunnels, all you need is to send in bomb trucks to detonate inside the tunnels, you might not be able to collapse the tunnels but the tunnels will be effectively out of commission for a long time.
 
plawolf

plawolf

Lieutenant General
MwRYum said:
While you got the "small" part right, but on HK Island - if not the whole HK territory - we use very few bridges, we mostly got overpass instead; if you talk about physical link between HK Island and the main landmass, there're only 3 cross-harbor tunnels, all you need is to send in bomb trucks to detonate inside the tunnels, you might not be able to collapse the tunnels but the tunnels will be effectively out of commission for a long time.
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Thanks for the info on the underpass thing, good to know.

Although I doubt the people China is looking to defend HK from are all that much into suicide bombs and 70 virgins in the afterlife thing. ;)

But still, tunnels need entrances, and modern bombs/missiles could quite easily fly through them and detonate inside the tunnels for similar effect to your truck bomb suggestions.
 
MwRYum

MwRYum

Major
plawolf said:
Although I doubt the people China is looking to defend HK from are all that much into suicide bombs and 70 virgins in the afterlife thing. ;)

But still, tunnels need entrances, and modern bombs/missiles could quite easily fly through them and detonate inside the tunnels for similar effect to your truck bomb suggestions.
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While you'd have a hard time to find people would laid down their lives for Allah in HK, but if the "pro-democrat" media outlets still keep feeding the populace more crap (face it, sex and anti-government drive up sells more in HK), some day we might have a young man do more than just wearing Che's t-shirt but practice Che's deeds instead.

And you seriously need to check out the google map - with terrain mode on - to see what kind of terrains of the cross-harbour tunnels are. When you figure in they're quite congested during daytime, typically with plenty double-decker buses running through them, fly that thing inside you'd need the flight computer with SKYNET's AI prowess. But, you could seal off the tunnels just as well by collapse the entrances at just one end then crater the other end, with bomblets scatter all over the place to further delay repair effort.
 
F

franco-russe

Senior Member
lostsoul said:
Anyone have a breakdown of the entire PLA Garrison in HK?
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The Hong Kong Garrison has the following components:

Hong Kong Brigade

had six battalions, of which 1 Bn equipped with ZSL93, 2 Bn with ZSL92B.

As reported by MwRYum, there have been a series of upgrades since 2010, including the formation of a special operations battalion, an armoured battalion, an engineer battalion and an air defence battalion.

In 2012 ZSL92 (ex 54 Bde Tibet) were acquired for 3 Bn. I suppose this is the armoured battalion referred to (though it should probably have been ”armoured infantry battalion”). The special operations battalion is probably one of the former infantry battalions.

The air defence battalion is evidently equipped with HQ-6D and LD-2000 (truck-mounted 730).

Hong Kong Helicopter Regiment, based at Shek Kong (where the parade for Hu JIntao took place), has
Z-8KH 6301, 6302, 6303, 6304
Z-9 6004, 6005, 6006, 6007, 6009, 6100, 6101, 6201, 6202, 6203, 6204, 6205, 6206, 6207

Hong Kong Ship Squadron is based at Stonecutters Island, with a further base at Shenzhen-Shekou
(22 30 41 N 113 51 46 E) and has

Type 037 II HOUJIAN class missile boats 770-774
Type 026H patrol boats 7357-7360
Type 074 YUHAI class landing ships 7593-7595

In each of the years 2012 and 2013, the squadron will acquires two Type 056 corvettes, starting with 596 HUIZHOU (plus 597-599?). I expect them to replace the HOUJIAN class.
 
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