Just because the PLA does something doesn't necessarily make it the best option. For example, the PLA went into the Sino-Vietnamese war woefully underprepared in terms of infantry combat equipment. The same deal has happened multiple times to the US army. If constant combat experience isn't possible, then the priority is to plan ahead, for example, by taking lessons from the current fight in the Ukraine war. In all possible cases of future conflict, aside from a pure naval/air battle between the US and China, there will, to some degree, be ground combat, whether that be in the plateaus of Tibet, or urban combat in Taiwan. They may be low scale, (not as grand as a fight in eastern Europe), however in fact has a high probability of occurring. Upgrading infantry kits can be done in short order, but there is no guarantee that such a kit will be well designed, as seen by the current infantry combat equipment program being lacklustre and having numerous design flaws. This takes time to perfect. In addition, training, experience, and infantry combat tactics take much longer to learn from scratch. This is not something that having a massive manufacturing base can fix. Choosing to ignore a vital branch of the PLAGF until an "actual ground war" occurs is quite short-sighted.
PLA Small arms
- Thread starter Vanguard1688
- Start date
This is what I've been trying to say, and you've put it very well. Yes, infantry kit is not as important as a fucking J-20 or the like, duh. But it can not -- can not -- hurt to prepare your soldiers for an extended ground slog through better training and kit. And kit should be easily improved for a textile powerhouse like the PRC, but it was not. And training always ought to be improved, but it isn't being done so fast enough.
Infantry is currently one of the PLA's weak points, which should have been quickly brought up to at least Singaporean standard in the Type 19 and 21 programs but simply wasn't, be it out of lack of imagination or lack of competence.
by78
General
Long time no see. ZH-05/QTS-11 makes an appearance at the Sino-Cambodia joint exercise "Golden Dragon 2025".
The official designation is apparently QDS-121.
It's all personal comfort. I personally like the feel but I know many others don't. Can't convince others since it's just personal preference at the end of the day.
while i don't challenge the claim that PLA infantry have issues, what exactly is the singaporean standard?
i met a few singaporean soldiers, including one commando (non regular though i think) who had joint exercises with the PLA, and they seem to hold the PLA guys they met with pretty high regards
on the point with infantry kits, budget and scale likely play a part, army get lower priority and have a ton of old equipment to use up, leading to slower rollout of new kit. that being said there are quite a few civilian supplier that sells gear improvements/additions to PLA units
Such arrogant and ignorant prejudice is a blatant manifestation of utter cluelessness about the PLA's naming conventions for weaponry and equipment.