PR Video Of The Day: 124th Amphibious Combat Assault Brigade Storming A Beach with Dog and FPV Drones

The 124th Amphibious Combat Assault Brigade, 72nd Group Army, Eastern Theater Command (link), was the farmed  124th Amphibious Mechanized Infantry Division before the reform.(link)

 You can watch the report in its video format (here)

In this Central China Television (CCTV) report, the dramatized depiction of storming a fortified beach from a Type 071 Landing Platform Dock (LPD) was showcased. How closely this exercise reflects real-world operations is debatable.  I’ll leave that judgment to you.

That aside, several noteworthy points stand out. The Type 071 amphibious transport dock, as shown in the footage, can carry up to 60 armored fighting vehicles and is capable of deploying a battalion-sized assault group. However, the ZBD-05 amphibious infantry fighting vehicle (IFV) and the ZTD-05 amphibious assault gun were used primarily as battlefield taxis. They did not remain in the fight or employ their firepower to push inland, leaving drones and infantry to absorb heavy casualties.  All of the robotic “dog” drones were wiped out, as the clip shown.

It is also clear that the ZBD-05 and ZTD-05 would be highly vulnerable to the opposing force’s (Blue Force) anti-tank weapons. Interestingly, the Blue Force/Bad Guy in this exercise did not employ drones at all, which raises questions about the realism and tactical accuracy of the scenario.

Saturday, August 22, 2015

Storming the beach -- 124th Amphibious Mechanized Infantry Division

After the much-publicized unveiling of Chinese Zubr offloading a Type96 MBT in July,  the 42nd Group Army, Guangzhou MR conducted another small scale (by Chinese standards) drill two days ago to hone their skills.

 A landing craft air cushion approaches an amphibious dock landing ship during a joint landing training exercise on August 20, 2015. The landing craft air cushion and the amphibious dock landing ship are assigned to a landing ship flotilla under the South China Sea Fleet of the PLA Navy.

 

 

Friday, November 06, 2009

Joint PLA PLAN-Marine Amphibious Military Exercise.

The recently conducted joint amphibious military exercise between the 124th Amphibious Mechanized Infantry Division, 42nd Group Army, Guangzhou MR and the 1st PLAN Marine Brigade, South Sea Fleet, was not well covered by the Chinese media in contrast to the larger exercise such as the Vangard 2009, Firepower 2009, West Region 2009, and the Airborne Maneuver 2009. Nevertheless, it should be noted by this blog.