Old and New: Flamethrowers Meet Unmanned Ground Equipment

 The PLA has always had a soft spot for flamethrowers, their close‑in “BBQ solution” of choice for clearing trenches, bunkers, and anything else that needs a decisive application of fire. The affection runs so deep that even the PAP has been known to break them out for policing duties, which tells you everything about the institutional mindset.

Of course, the old saying still applies: a flamethrower is just as dangerous to the operator as to the poor soul hiding in the next trench over. That’s the eternal tradeoff: great effect but with questionable survivability.

The answer is simple: remove the operator.

Enter the combination of the proven Type 74 flamethrower with a modern Unmanned Ground Equipment (UGE) platform.   In this case below, the ZRY222 UGE. It’s the logical next step in PLA pyrotechnic enthusiasm: if you’re going to go full fire‑and‑smoke, you might as well do it from a safe distance while the robot rolls forward belching flames like a mechanized dragon.

The result is a very PLA combination: old‑school brutality and effectiveness, delivered through new‑school robotics. A Cold War flamethrower strapped onto a remote‑controlled UGE, trundling along with all the subtlety of a welding torch on tracks

With this setup, the PLA isn’t just embracing unmanned systems,  it’s doubling down on its long‑standing love affair with fire. The operator gets to sit comfortably behind a console, the robot gets to do the dangerous part, and the target gets… well, roasted.   The smoke generator is icing on the cake.

Monday, March 25, 2019

PR photo the day: manhunt.....with flamethrower

In this drill, the People's Armed Police, Gansu Corps simulated a manhunt to catch 6 terrorists. Yup, if PR pictures below is a correct depiction, one of the tools available to the PAP in this hunt is flamethrower.  Really begs the question on how to get positive identification on those suspects afterward.

 

Tuesday, June 02, 2020

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)

 

Saturday, May 30, 2020

PAP Unit Of The Day: Shanghai PAP Corps

Shanghai is one of the four municipalities of the PRC, as such, it "enjoys" the protection of a dedicated provincial-level PAP Corps.    Shanghai PAP Corps has organic mechanized infantry, light artillery, NBC (nuclear, biological, chemical), engineering, combat pioneer, and other specialist units.  It is Shanghai's equivalent to US National Guard.

Source (here)

 LG5 40mm "sniper" grenade launcher

Flamethrower

Civilian GongAn SWAT, not part of the PAP 

Video of the day: J-15 refueled by Y-20A, birds from the Liaoning

It is a rather ordinary People’s Daily YouTube video (link), the editors serve up the usual montage of carrier aviation: J‑15s launching, trapping, taxiing, folding wings, and doing all the familiar deck‑ballet that appears in every PLAN promotional package of the Liaoning as of late. Intercut with that is the standard amphibious‑warfare highlight reel built around 075 LHD Anhui (Hull 33) showing helicopters lifting off, LCACs roaring out of the well deck, and the obligatory “joint operations” graphics that have become a staple of PLA media.

On the surface (pun intended), it’s all routine. The kind of content you can watch on mute and still know exactly what’s happening.

But buried inside this otherwise predictable production is one detail that actually stands out, at least for me: a J‑15 taking fuel from a Y‑20A tanker.

The PLANAF has had buddy‑store refueling between J‑15s for years.  it is a useful stopgap, but it never solved the fundamental range limitations of a carrier‑based strike fighter operating from a ski‑jump deck.   The Y‑20A, however, is a different story. Plugging a J‑15 into a proper tanker will expand the aircraft’s operational envelope beyond the tight radius imposed by the internal fuel capacity itself.

The Y-20A is from the PLAAF 38th Regiment, 13th Transport Division, under the PLA Central Theater Command Air Force, making it technically speaking,  a joint PLAN/PLAAF drill. 

 

http://china-defense.blogspot.com/2014/01/j-15s-buddy-centerline-refueling-store.html
 

J-15's buddy centerline refueling store

Here is one potential solution to the challenge of limited takeoff weight and range of Short take-off but arrested-recovery (STOBAR) carrier borne aircraft -- Give them a “hard point mounted fuel pod with a hose-and-drogue system” (a.k.a buddy store) This arrangement  allows carrier borne aircraft to increase their combat range as well as their take-off weight without the need of a dedicated tanker support.


Judging from the following public release photos of China’s Shenyang J-15 Flying Shark, such a buddy store is available to the Chinese Naval Aviators, assuming that they have mastered the mid-air refueling techniques of course. Given the fact that the J15 is based on the Russian SU-33, the Shangyang buddy store bears resemblance to the UPAZ-1A Sakhalin centerline refueling store series currently available in the international arms market.

SU-33's UPAZ-1A at play

 

 

Happy 72nd Birthday to the PLAN Submarine Force — This Year’s Guest of Honor: 406, the Xia‑class SSBN

This year’s featured boat for the PLAN Submarine Force’s 72nd birthday is… 406, the lone Xia‑class SSBN. Yes, that Xia.  China’s first boomer, the one that has been “almost retired” for two decades but somehow keeps showing up like Uncle Larry who refuses to leave the family hot pot dinner.

So what’s actually confirmed about 406?

According to yesterday’s CCTV segment, she’s still around, still floating, and still “supporting” the PLAN by serving as a familiarization platform for new submariners. In practice, that means she’s the classroom model, a training aid if you will. The “this is what a boomer looks like on the inside” walk‑through exhibit. Add in a motivational video about the glory of PLAN to educate NUBs (“Non‑Useful Bodies”), and voilà, she’s technically still “in service.”

 Launched in April 1981, which makes her 45 years old, 406 is now the longest‑serving nuclear‑powered submarine in the PLAN’s orbit. Calling her “still going” is generous as she’s not going anywhere. However, she is still physically present, as the CCTV screenshots below dutifully prove. Even CCTV, which normally bathes PLA hardware in soft lighting and patriotic adjectives, couldn’t hide the rust streaks on this harbor queen. 

Net‑net, straight from the official PR department:

There is absolutely nothing happening in the PLAN’s nuclear submarine force right now. Things are so quiet that CCTV had to celebrate the service life of a 45‑year‑old submarine that hasn’t left the pier in ages. If this is the highlight of the year, then yes  nothing to see here. Absolutely nothing. 

 

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Photo of the day: Nuclear Submarine Base, North Sea Fleet, PLAN

Just your everyday staged People's Liberation Army Navy SSBN base visit.

 Just in case you want to know, that is a Type 092 Xia class SSBN.

 

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

January 11th.

I'm not going to engage or fuel the speculation on that happened on 1.11. However, I can offer some recent submarine photos instead.

094 Jin class SSBN

Song Class running naked.  No wonder the China Navy subs are so noisy

093 Shang class SSN

The hunchback of the China Navy, 092 Xia Class

 

 Old Golf class. 

 043 Qing Class