Japan’s Sankei Shimbun last month reported that two Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) Yuzhao-class Type 071 amphibious transport dock ships were spotted on Nov. 14 sailing southward between Taiwan and Japan’s Yonaguni Island, lingering briefly off Hualien County.
The report said that in addition to normalizing “joint combat readiness patrols” off Taiwan’s east coast, the mission’s purpose might have been to conduct simulated landing drills. It explored the possibility that China’s military has incorporated amphibious landings on Taiwan’s east coast into its invasion planning.
The PLAN’s Type 071 ships rarely sail east of the first island chain, but when they do, it is nearly always as part of the PLA’s annual “blue-water joint-exercise task force.”
For example, the Changbai Shan, hull number 989, sailed east of the first island chain as part of 2019’s Task Force 174, and the Wuzhishan, hull number 987, took part in last year’s Task Force 161 and this year’s Task Force 175. Both were attached to the PLA’s Southern Theater Command during the exercises.
However, the Type 071s that lingered off Hualien last month were clearly attached to the Eastern Theater Command.
In terms of firepower and location, these latest maneuvers represent a break from the past and were clearly directed at Taiwan’s east coast.
The PLAN’s blue-water task force traverses the first and second island chains, entering the Pacific Ocean to conduct exercises. As such, it has always been unclear why it includes the amphibious transport dock ships.
An interview with a commanding officer from Task Force 175, conducted by China Central Television, shed light on the issue. The officer’s shoulder sleeve insignia, chest insignia and camouflage training fatigues revealed that the PLA Rocket Force and Strategic Support Force had been integrated into the command structure of the task force.
I wrote about the enhanced inter-service integration in an article titled “Defense doctrine must be updated,” published in the Taipei Times on Feb 14, 2019.
The Type 071 is one of the PLAN’s largest surface ships in length and beam, just behind the aircraft carriers and the Type 901 fast combat support ship.
Last month, media reported that the PLA has been using full-scale mock-ups of US aircraft carriers as targets in central China’s Taklamakan Desert to test its “kill chain” capabilities.
It is logical to assume that the PLA’s blue-water exercises are a cover for it to test the integration of Strategic Support Force target acquisition and Rocket Force long-distance maritime strike capability.
A squadron of modified Soviet-era Sovremenny-class guided missile destroyers, types 052C and 052D that sailed north between Taiwan proper and Yonaguni in the beginning of September, and the two Type 071s that loitered close to Hualien, shared the same purpose: to test the PLA’s “kill chain” capabilities off Taiwan’s eastern seaboard.
The PLA’s Strategic Support Force operates a number of systems, including satellites, high-frequency surface wave radar, skywave over-the-horizon radar, sonobuoys that can be dropped to 400m below sea level and submarine cables.
Taiwan’s Central Mountain Range acts as a natural barrier shielding waters off the east coast, so that standard early-warning radar and high-frequency surface wave radar are unable to provide a complete picture of surface ships in the area.
However, skywave over-the-horizon radar, sonobuoys and submarine cables complemented by Shaanxi KJ-500 airborne early-warning and control aircraft and Shaanxi Y-9 electronic intelligence aircraft can provide the PLA with a complete intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance picture of the waters.
The US military’s online USNI News last month reported that the PLA has constructed a second mock-up of an aircraft carrier and guided missile destroyer within a desert target range in Xinjiang’s Ruoqiang County, showing that the PLA intends to use its anti-ship guided missiles to attack destroyers and aircraft carriers.
Since 2019, the US Department of Defense’s annual “Military and Security Developments of the People’s Republic of China” report has identified Hualien County and Taiwan’s northern coastal waters as under threat from PLA land-based YJ-62 Yingji “Eagle Strike” subsonic anti-ship cruise missiles.
Whether the threat is from the air or from long-distance, highly maneuverable sea-skimming missiles, the geographical advantage of Hualien and Taitung counties no longer exists.
Fast-tracking the development or purchase of a land-based and shipborne theater missile defense system should be the top priority for Taiwan’s military.
Lu Li-shih is a former instructor at the Republic of China Naval Academy and a former captain of the ROCS Hsin Chiang.
Translated by Edward Jones
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