Zarvan
ELITE MEMBER
- Joined
- Apr 28, 2011
- Messages
- 54,470
- Reaction score
- 87
- Country
- Location
PLA Naval Personnel Practice Laying Mines
To prevent the United States from intervening in an assault on Taiwan, China's People's Liberation Army is likely to use naval mines in an anti-access and area denial strategy, Lyle Goldstein of the US Naval War College's China Maritime Studies Institute wrote in a piece published in National Interest magazine on Oct. 14.
In World War II, the parachute-retarded influence sea mine with magnetic or acoustic exploders was one of two weapons besides the B-29 strategic bomber that the US used successfully to destroy the Japanese economy and morale. North Korea subsequently used sea mines to good effect against UN forces led by the US off the port of Wonsan during the Korean War, though the the US was able to prevent the North from using the port. During the Gulf War, two US warships were seriously damaged by Iraqi sea mines.
One thing American defense analyses have always ignored is that sea mines remain a core tenet of Chinese naval doctrine, according to Goldstein. Mines and their precursors have been used since the Ming Dynasty in the 14th century and while they may not grab the attention like China's more advanced anti-ship ballistic missiles, supersonic anti-ship cruise missiles and hypersonic weapons, they are the weapons that are likely to be used as a key tactic.
Several years ago, a professor from the PLA Navy's Qingdao Submarine Academy told Chinese military magazine Ordinance Science and Technology that sea mines still play an important role in China's conception of naval warfare. Using the example of the USS Samuel B Roberts, an Oliver Hazard Perry-class guided missile frigate severely damaged by an Iranian mine in 1988, the professor said that even a fishing boat with simple modifications can carry out mine blockades.
Goldstein used the August 2015 issue of Modern Ships, another Chinese military magazine focusing on the development of naval warships around the world, to demonstrate China's mine blockade capability against Taiwan. During the first phase of an assault, which could last between four to six days, the PLA could deploy 5,000-7,000 mines in the waters around the island.
China would then deploy another 7,000 mines during the second phase. This means that more than 10,000 mines would be laid in just 10 days, compared to the 12,135 mines laid in the waters around Japan during Operation Starvation in the last year of World War II, Goldstein said.
Naval mines remain China's most effective area denial weapon|WCT