Monday, May 28, 2018

JH16-1, China's new 9×19mm parabellum submachine gun

In a May23rd (link here), Guangdong SWAT drill, they fielded the new JH16-1 9×19mm Parabellum submachine gun which was revealed last year.

JH16-1 by Hubei Jianghua Machinery Co or Factory 9616 before it was transferred as a civilian company in 2002, fires9×19mm Parabellum but can be adapted to different calibers for export.

Weighting in 2.8 kg and with a rate of fire around 800/minute to effective firing range of 200 meters.  JH16-1 is heavier and slower than the traditional Type79 SWAP submachine gun (1.75kg and 1000 rounds per minutes) but they in the same category over all.   Type79 fires 7.62×25 mm Tokarev.



 9×19mm Parabellum
 JH16-1 and Type 79 together


Pics from the May23rd drill




Other pics from the same SWAT drill








Sunday, May 27, 2018

Cold War Artifacts of the day: The 7 Chinese artificial hills of the NorthEastern Frontier

Long before the Chinese started constructing artificial islands, they built 7 artificial hills/fortresses in NE China, hoping to slow down an impending Soviet armor thrust into Beijing.  The Soviet cold war goal was to capture Beijing, install a puppet government and divide China into half;  knowing full well the Soviet Far East did not have the manpower to conquer entire China while facing a much more powerful NATO in due course.

From 1969 to 1978, the buildup of Soviet troops along the Chinese-Soviet boarder accounted for 80 percent of the total increase in Soviet military manpower.  In 1973, Soviet ground troops long the Soviet-Chinese frontier were increased from 23 divisions in 1968 to 45 divisions -- including 8 tank divisions.    (Page 34, from Adversaries to Partners?: Chinese and Russian Military Cooperation after the Cold War,  By Ming-Yen Tsai) 

Here are pictures of fortress number 4 located in Ejin Banner of Innter Mongolia:  Totaling 80 acres in size, 340 meters in diameter and a radius of 160 meters. Elevation of 51 meters and the fortification is surrounded by a gully of six meters deep.  Construction started in March 6, 1963 and completed by the end of 1969.  Total garrison was 4748 troops.  The purpose of those artificial artificial hills/fortresses was to slow down the Soviet blitzkrieg as they were not expected more against such a mighty foe.


Another one from Zhengding County, Hebei Province.  




























Professional publication of the day: Brigadization of the PLA Air Force

By  Lawrence "Sid" Trevethan, a friend of this blog and China-defense forum. Order your copy here 

In 2016, China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) began to implement its 11th large-scale reorganization, including a 300,000-man force reduction. One key component of the reorganization was the PLA Air Force’s (PLAAF) shift away from its traditional Division-Regiment system to a Base-Brigade structure for its fighter and ground attack aircraft. This transition originally began in 2011 but implementation was apparently delayed soon after it began and did not restart until 2017. This paper discusses the evolution of the PLAAF’s fighter and ground attack combat aircraft units and flight colleges to a brigade structure.




Saturday, May 26, 2018

Photos of the day: Air assault drill in Xinjiang

Source of the PLA Daily article: http://www.81.cn/jmtt/2018-05/25/content_8041893.htm

Xinjiang, where China's One Belt One Road happens to fan out from that very region.