PLA Makes Big Investments In Artillery

Aviation Week and Space Technology ^ | 10/6/2010 | Richard D. Fisher, Jr.

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

The International Institute for Strategic Studies’ Military Balance 2010 report places China third in the number of artillery systems it fields, after Russia and North Korea. But China doubtless exceeds both in resource commitment and breadth of artillery investments. Credited with an estimated 17,700-plus towed, self-propelled and rocket systems, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has at least 56 artillery systems in use, development or available for export. The U.S. Army and Marine Corps, by contrast, have 8,137-plus artillery pieces of roughly 10 types.

China has had a mixed record of using artillery for military and political-military goals. Its successes, as when it routed Indian forces in 1962 with the high-altitude use of artillery and mortars, have been offset by incidents provoking third-party responses or leading to regional standoffs. Examples include the shelling of islands controlled by Taiwan in 1955-58, resulting in U.S. intervention and a stalemate over the Taiwan Strait. In July, a unit based in the Nanjing military region fired missiles from 300-mm. PHL-03 multiple rocket launchers (MRLs) into the Yellow Sea to show China’s anger at U.S. naval exercises with South Korea. The exercises, a result of China-backed North Korea’s sinking of the South Korean frigate Cheonon in March, went ahead anyway.