One of the more amusing trends floating through Chinese milblogs lately is the sudden rediscovery — and proposed recommissioning — of the old PG59 57mm anti‑aircraft gun. Yes, the same Soviet‑era AAA that saw heavy action in Vietnam, spraying the sky at F‑4s and A‑4s half a century ago. The argument goes like this: Taiwan’s defense strategy is increasingly drone‑centric, (link) and many of China’s soft logistics hubs, depots, and supply nodes are theoretically vulnerable to long-range drone attacks. So why not dust off the PG59 57mm AAA, bolt on a modern fire‑control system, and turn it into a cost‑effective point‑defense solution. In other words: if you can’t beat drones with lasers and railguns, beat them with something affordable already found in the warehouse.
The counterargument is equally predictable and equally valid: who exactly is going to man these guns, and how are they going to be trained. China’s military modernization has spent decades moving away from manpower‑heavy systems, not toward them. Reintroducing a weapon that requires a full crew, constant drills, and old‑school gunnery discipline is a romantic idea, but not necessarily a practical one
The point of highlighting this little trend isn’t to endorse the PG59 revival or dismiss it. It’s to note that there’s a real, active segment of China’s online population that follows military development closely and debates it seriously. How loud their voice is, and how much influence they actually have, is harder to measure. But they’re there, and every now and then, they latch onto something like a 1950s AAA gun and remind you that military enthusiasm in China spans everything from hypersonics to hardware that smells faintly of cosmoline. (old Type56 SKS reference inserted)
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