Not too big not too small just right

Impressive pictures aside, the following set of PR photos depicting a "standard"  Artillery Battalion of a  "mid size" "everyday" "back in the days" "Joe six pack" "vanilla" "boring" "khakis pants" China Army Combined-Arms Brigade can serve as a good TOE reference.  PLL09 122mm 8x8 Self-Propelled Howitzer,  PL96 122mm Towed Howitzer, PHL81 122mm MRL, oh my.

Unit:  149th Combined-Arms Brigade, 76th Group Army, Western Theater Command
Source (here)

Photo Of The Day: Y-20 aerial refueling variant

Source (here) and many many sites inside of China.

A Y-20 aerial refueling variant has been part of the overall Y-20 program from day-one. As such, it is just a matter of time a picture of it surfaces online.  No surprise there. Checkbox, check.

Until the new Y-20 Tanker is commissioned with sufficient numbers, the China Airforce has to solider on with a much less capable H-6U fleet and three refurbished Il-78 tankers from the old Ukrainian AF

Flamethrower, an elegant weapon... for a more civilized age.

Unit: A Combined-Arms Brigade,  75th Group Army

The Chinese is fond of flamethrower and it is equipped to all military service branches.  For new China Army's TOE,  flamethrowers are organic to a Combined-Arms Brigade's Combat Support Battalion, Combat Engineering Company.


Source (here)

 

14.5 mm QJG 02, China's standard second-line dual-purpose HMG

14.5x115mm, 500 rounds per minute.

A quintessential Chinese infantry weapon of the early 2000s:  Man-portable (a 5-man crew), can fire either Chinese/Soviet ammo and build on top of a mixture of Soviet lineage and local mod/improvement.   Also, found in the Middle East.

 

Norinco QJG02 14.5mm AAA in Iraq

China Rocket Force PR.

New school vs ole-school PR

Source (here)

PR Photos Of The Day: Old PLA never die, they simple fade as PAP

Unit:  4th PAP Mobile Division, 5th PAP Mobile Corps.

This is the old PLA, 100% foot mobility riding on number "11 Bus". Yup, nothing says ole-school PLA than those photos below:

Historical Photos Of The Day: CNS Nanchang Circa 1970s

She was commissioned by the IJN April 30, 1941 and decommissioned in 1979 as CNS Nanchang

Saturday, May 25, 2019

Historical photos of the day: DDG Nanchang, first of her name

DDG Nanchang the lead ship of the Type055 class of destroyer is the third PLAN naval vessel bears that name.  First PLAN Nanchang was a recommissioned 993-ton IJN gunboat Uji.  The KMT took procession of her in Sept 13th, 1945 after the end of WWII.  Then, her entire crew defected to the Communist cause 6 days later on Sept 19th. 

The second ship that bared the name of Nanchang was DDG 163, Luda class.  She was decommissioned in Sept 8th, 2016 after 34 years of service.

In some ways,  the story of Nanchang mirrors that of the PLAN; from ragtag to not-so-great then ending up world class.

Thursday, April 25, 2019

DDG 101

Terraforming Woody Island.

Sure, this is not as a great as growing potato in Mars but the China Marine is now able harvest 1500 kg of veggie out of half acre of sandy beach at Woody Island.  The knowledge gained will help to terraform more sandy areas elsewhere such as the Gobi Desert (here)

Sources (here) and (here)