Sino-Pakistan Karakoram 2026: Counter-Terror Drill or the World's Most Tactical Flea Market?

 CCTV screen captures of the Pakistan-China first-ever joint army exercise "Karakoram 2026."

The exercise currently underway is Karakoram 2026, being held in Korla, Xinjiang. Beijing has described it as the first formal China-Pakistan Army-to-Army ground force exercise (link) , with training focused on counter-terrorism, drones, long-range marksmanship, and joint command procedures. As with many recent PLA exercises involving foreign militaries, drones, and especially robotic "dog drones," are heavily featured.

A word of caution: I'm talking about this particular Central China TV segment, not the exercise itself.

Because judging solely from the footage, it felt less like a military drill and more like a Saturday morning market where everyone's trying to sell you something.

• Try before you buy? Check.
• Tables laid out to display the merchandise? Check.
• Neatly lined-up products arranged to impress a potential customer? Check.
• Helpful sales representatives standing nearby to explain all the features? Pretty much check.

The star of the show appeared to be the ever-growing family of Chinese drones and unmanned gadgets. If a defense export catalog suddenly came to life and started moving around a training ground, it would probably look a lot like this.

As for what Karakoram 2026 means for the broader China-Pakistan military relationship, interoperability, and regional security dynamics, I'll leave that discussion to the subject matter experts who earn their living producing 37-minute YouTube videos with titles ending in question marks.

I'm just here to admire what looked suspiciously like a very well-organized defense trade show disguised as a military exercise.  Again, I am referring this particular Central China TV segment only

 

Friday, August 02, 2024

Defence Diplomacy Of The Day: China, Vietnam conclude joint counter-terrorism training

Of course, this is the new PLA, therefore they must bring "drones, drones, and more drones" with them wherever they go.

 

Just Photo: CV-16 Liaoning Heading to Sea with J-35 Stealth Fighters on Deck

 

122mm Naval MRL for Amphibious Firepower: Back in Service, or Never Bothered to Dismount?

 Continuing from the previous discussion on the PLA/NORINCO approach to procurement, particularly the way a successful concept gets replicated, adapted, and squeezed for every possible application, another interesting example recently surfaced. Pun fully intended.

Two photographs circulating on the Chinese internet appear to show a pair of 122mm multiple rocket launchers still mounted aboard a PLA Army Landing Craft Medium (LCM) from the Southern Theater Command. The vessel itself resembles a downsized version of the Type 073 landing ship medium, but what immediately caught attention was not the hull. It was the rockets.

Some readers may remember the considerable online discussion back in the early 2000s when the PLAN mounted five 25-round 122mm multiple rocket launchers on the Type 053H frigate Jiujiang (Hull 516). At the time, the concept struck many observers as unusual, if not outright bizarre.

My view then was largely the same as it is today.

Four launchers carrying a total of 250 rockets sounds impressive until one starts doing the math. Unlike dedicated shore bombardment platforms, there was no rapid reload capability. A 122mm unguided rocket also lacked the accuracy needed for precision strikes, particularly from a relatively small frigate moving in open water. Against hardened defensive positions, saturation and volume of fire matter, and 250 rockets simply did not seem sufficient to justify the effort.

By comparison, the U.S. Navy's WWII-era rocket support ships were built around overwhelming volume. During amphibious operations in the Pacific, particularly Okinawa, an LSM(R) could carry roughly 480 rockets dedicated solely to supporting troops ashore. That is not fire support. That is landscaping on a military scale.

Eventually the online debates faded away. Jiujiang was decommissioned in 2017, and many observers concluded the entire naval MRL experiment had been a one-off curiosity. An interesting chapter, perhaps, but not one with a future.

Fast forward to today, and these newly surfaced images suggest otherwise.

The appearance of 122mm MRLs aboard PLA Army amphibious craft raises an interesting possibility. Perhaps the concept never died at all.

In fact, there is an equally plausible explanation: the PLA Army and the PLAN may have been experimenting with the concept simultaneously all along. While Jiujiang received most of the public attention, the Army side may have quietly continued operating its own rocket-equipped landing craft with little outside notice.

And if that is the case, there is another factor that should surprise absolutely nobody.  The PLA is famously reluctant to throw away a solution that still works.

This brings us back to the Bv206-inspired articulated tracked vehicle discussed previously. Once the PLA identifies a concept that proves useful, it tends to expand it across every imaginable role. Ambulance becomes command post. Command post becomes logistics carrier. Logistics carrier becomes something carrying a machine gun. The platform never really retires; it simply acquires another mission.

The same logic may apply here.

A rocket launcher mount already installed on a serviceable landing craft still launches rockets. The hull is still operational. The supporting logistics chain already exists. Why spend money removing a capability that still functions?

To borrow a phrase that has probably appeared on more than one procurement briefing somewhere:

"New equipment costs money. Existing equipment is already paid for."

Viewed through that lens, the continued presence of navalized 122mm MRLs aboard amphibious craft becomes far less surprising. It may not represent a revived capability at all. It may simply be a capability that never went away because nobody could come up with a compelling reason to remove it.

After all, this is the same military culture that sees a useful idea and asks, "How many different jobs can we make this thing do?"

Sometimes the answer is an articulated tracked carrier that ends up doing everything short of filing taxes.

Sometimes the answer is a rocket launcher that remains bolted to a landing craft for two decades because taking it off would require a budget request.

And if there is one lesson from watching PLA procurement over the years, it is this: Never underestimate the lifespan of a capability that is still "good enough" and already paid for.

 

Tuesday, May 16, 2017

PLAN decommission of the day: FFG516 "Jiujiang" China's only MLR fire-support frigate

Cal: 122mm
No tubes: 50 x 5 (250)
Weight: 5,000kg
Max effective range: 20km
Max range with extended range rocket: 30km
elevation: 0-60 degrees
Field/angle:+- 120 degrees.
Rate of fire: 50 rounds: 18-20 seconds.
Max change rate of elevation: 16 degrees per second.
Max change rate of direction: 16 degrees per second.

"Inspired by a Real-Life Event": A PLA 'Shanzhai' Tracked, Articulated All-Terrain Carrier

 

There is nothing publicly available that confirms China ever imported the famed Swedish Bandvagn 206 (Bv 206) or acquired its design directly. The Bv 206, of course, earned its reputation the old-fashioned way: by being exceptionally good at traversing snow, mud, swamps, rivers, and just about every other environment that would make a normal vehicle's driver question their life choices.

 

Back in 2010, I blogged that a Bv 206-inspired/Shanzhai/knock-off vehicle appeared at the 22nd International Medical Instruments and Equipment Exhibition and it was written by the PLA daily, see below. At the time, it was presented in an ambulance configuration, which seemed innocent enough. Fifteen years later, that humble "inspiration" has multiplied into an entire family tree of articulated tracked vehicles in military and civilian forms

 

Today, variants can be found serving as ambulances, firefighting vehicles, POL (Petroleum, Oils, and Lubricants) carriers, command posts, logistics transports, and various other support platforms designed to keep the PLA moving through snow, mud, marshes, and whatever terrain map planners decide to torment drivers with. The latest versions are also noticeably more armored and, in some cases, equipped with 12.7mm machine-gun mounts. 

 

For those who follow PLA and NORINCO procurement patterns, especially before the 2010s, none of this should come as a surprise.  The vehicle itself is almost secondary to the procurement philosophy it represents.

The PLA has a long history of observing existing concepts and proven solutions from around the world. Sometimes the result is a direct purchase. Sometimes it is an evaluation program. Sometimes it is an "inspired by a real-life event" moment. Either way, the concept gets studied, measured, tested, and judged on one simple question: does it work?

If the answer is yes, the PLA tends to extract every possible ounce of utility from it.

A vehicle designed for medical evacuation becomes a logistics carrier. The logistics carrier becomes a command post. The command post becomes a communications node. Eventually, someone looks at the platform and asks whether it can also haul fuel, carry troops, fight fires, or tow equipment. If the answer is remotely plausible, another variant appears.

The Bv 206-inspired family is a textbook example of this approach. The original idea was not simply copied; it was absorbed into the system and expanded into every role that could justify having an articulated tracked chassis.

In many ways, that is often the more interesting story. The hardware itself may be familiar, but what stands out is the PLA's habit of finding a solution that works and then squeezing every last kilometer, every last mission set, and every last procurement budget line out of it.

As the saying goes, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. In the PLA procurement world, it is also frequently the beginning of an entire vehicle family.

The new improved armor and 12.7mm variant that's showed up recently:

 

 

Old CDF post from  2010 

 

Monday, April 05, 2010

Shanzhai spirit strikes again.

The PLA's First-generation All-Terrain Tracked Ambulance that was revealed during the 22nd International Medical Instruments And Equipment Exhibition (here) -- a 山寨
knock-off Alvis Hagglunds BV206S.

New generation of PLA medical equipment on international exhibition

(Source: PLA Daily) 2010-04-06

All-terrain tracked ambulance

　　At the 22nd International Medical Instruments and Equipment Exhibition, a new generation of medical equipment of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) made a collective display on March 26 and became a highlight of the exhibition. Such categories of China-made equipment as plateau oxygen-generating equipment, information-based equipment, simulation training equipment, test equipment, NBC equipment, emergency rescue equipment and long-distance medical treatment equipment were displayed respectively at the exhibition, all-roundly showing the achievements obtained in the construction of the PLA information-based medical equipment in recent years.

　　The all-terrain tracked ambulance which was displayed for the first time adopted the structure of tracked dual-car body and installed with the satellite positioning system. With such a vehicle, the frontline combat troop units (elements) can implement cross-country maneuver under such special terrain conditions as desert, marshland, tidal land and snowfield and accomplish rapid and safe transportation and on-the-way first-aid for the wounded from battlefield (disaster-stricken site).

　　The “NBC” bioinstrumentation vehicle which can offer mobile and rapid bioinstrumentation technology platform to fight against sudden epidemic outbreak and anti-terrorism in peace time and carry out NBC medical rescue in war time. It can be used as a mobile lab for bioinstrumentation.

　　The field operation vehicle has the function of remote medical consultation, which can link the forefront field medical agencies and rear hospitals to carry out remote expert consultation and offer diagnosis and treatment guidance for the rescue of the wounded under emergency maneuver conditions, and support the early-phase treatment and special treatment of the critically wounded from a distance by relying on the remote medical information network of the PLA.

　　It’s learned that during the “Peace Mission 2009” joint military exercise, the Wenchuan earthquake relief, the Haiti earthquake relief and the UN peacekeeping missions, the employment of the new generation of military medical equipment enabled the further improvement of the medical support capability of the PLA in implementing diversified military actions.

Editor:Liu Wanyun

 

 

Photo collection over the years.