China’s army is improving attack helicopter skills against U.S. missile defenses and ground vehicles, and recently practiced live-fire missile strikes against mockups of Patriot anti-missile launchers and Army Humvees, according to an Army think tank report.
China’s state television CCTV revealed in June during a live-fire drill that a People’s Liberation Army aviation unit conducted complex, coordinated drone and laser targeting in practice attacks by helicopters against air defense systems, the report by the Army’s China Land Power Studies Center stated.
Disclosure of the recent drills highlights a key war-fighting skill that would take place in the early phases of any future assault against Taiwan.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has ordered the PLA to be ready for an invasion by 2027.
“The drone and helicopters used laser designators to mark and launch 70mm rockets and KD-9 precision-guided munitions at airborne and ground targets, including mockups of high-mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicles [Humvees] and Patriot advanced capability (PAC-3) missile launchers,” the report said.
The exercises shown in the video revealed the PLA is improving skills and doctrine for what the military calls coordinated and complex suppression of enemy air defenses, or SEAD, and destruction of enemy air defenses (DEAD) prior to offensive military operations.
Those capabilities include flying close-to-ground flight paths to avoid radar detection, the use of hunter-killer tactics with laser targeting and then firing precision-guided weapons.
The exercises on state television also showed how the PLA is now using an advanced drone, known as a KVD-002, for the air defense suppression attacks in coordination with the attack helicopters.
In addition to conducting both air and ground strikes, the drones can also be used for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance in planning strike missions.
The video showed the use of KD-9 missiles, a precision-guided anti-tank missile, against Humvee and Patriot PAC-3 mockups.
China’s military has also used full-scale mockups of Navy Arleigh Burke-class destroyers and aircraft carriers based on satellite photos of the shapes, in China’s Xinjiang and Taklamakan Deserts.
The unit conducting the helicopter drills was identified as the PLA’s 84th Army Aviation Brigade based in the western Xinjiang military district.
The ship mockups are said by U.S. experts to be used for practicing precision strikes and to train military artificial intelligence models for a future Pacific conflict.
The desert targets also include mockups of Taiwan government buildings.
According to the think tank report, the most important detail learned from the video is how the attack helicopter pilots coordinated among themselves and with drone operators to locate and laser targets for destruction by using datalink information sharing.
The video showed Z-18 light attack helicopters and Z-20 assault helicopters and the KVD-002 drone carrying out attacks on the mockups of U.S. vehicles and PAC-3 launchers. Russian-made PLA MI-171 transport helicopters also took part.
According to the report, the PLA exercise indicated that the PLA has adopted U.S. military lessons learned during the 1991 Persian Gulf War, including how U.S. Army units carried out attacks on radar and air defense sites using attack helicopters and other weapons during what was called Task Force Normandy.
That operation conducted the first attacks against Iraq as part of Operation Desert Storm. The attack involved eight AH-64 Apache attack helicopters and four MH-53 Pave Low helicopters in destroying two radars that opened a 20-mile corridor to invading U.S. forces.
“The PLA understands it will encounter an extensive integrated air defense system in a future conflict, requiring ways to destroy or damage the network,” the report said, noting the likely deployment of Z-10s and Z-20Ts to destroy air defense sites and open gaps in defenses that will allow follow-on PLA air force and navy airstrikes deep inside target nations.
Taiwan’s air and missile defenses include Sky Bow IV high-altitude ballistic missile defenses, along with Patriot PAC-2 and PAC-3 batteries with anti-aircraft defenses.
In April, Taiwan signed a $6.6 billion arms deal with the U.S. that includes $17 billion for air defense systems and anti-ballistic missile interceptors.
Taipei is planning a “Taiwan Shield” integrated air defense network that will combine newly acquired PAC-3s and Northrop Grumman’s integrated air and missile defense battle command system with Taiwan’s Sky Bow and Strong Bow defenses.
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