Although the reports didn't mention if
the drills took place in the taiwan
straits. the move showed that the pla has
sufficient capability to thwart any
attempt of deploying sea mines to
obstruct the PLA's operations and
taiwan's tactics of laying mines in the
taiwan straits to buy time for u.s
reinforcements will not succeed, Chinese
mainland experts said on monday.
The anti-sea mine exercises come amid
the pla's drills in the taiwan straits
aimed at taiwan secessionists in the u.s, who have been ramping up tensions in the
taiwan straits. An anti-sea mine flotilla consisting of
the Liu Yang, the Kaiping and the Cheung Shu affiliated with the pla southern
theater command recently conducted a
mind-sweeping exercise using live
seaminds. China central television CCTV reported on sunday the ships covered the calm sea under
which smart sea mines were hidden as
they would explode once they detect any
sound or magnetic field change caused by
ships passing by.
The report said
sonar systems and mine-sweeping robots
were deployed to detect identify and
dismantle the mines. In this exercise we comprehensively
tested the anti-sea mine ship's ability
to react quickly, deal with complicated
situations and carry out anti-sea mine
tasks by setting realistic combat
scenarios, battlefield environment and
difficult training subjects.
He Jing
captain of the Liu Yang told CCTV another anti-semi flotilla involving the Roudong and the Zhongshan affiliated
with the pla eastern theater command
recently conducted comprehensive
anti-sea mine training in the east china
sea, a separate cctv report said last
week.
In addition to clearing different types
of sea mines including drifting and
moored mines the ships also conducted
live live-fire anti-aircraft exercises, the report said. Minesweepers can serve as trailblazers
and provide safe passage for other ships, analysts said.
Reuters reported last week that the u.s
is pushing an arms sale surge to taiwan
including smart underwater sea mines. taiwan has also been constructing mine
laying vessels. The first of which is
expected to be delivered by the end of
the year, report said in august.
Chinese mainland military experts
reached by the global times said that by
laying mines in the taiwan straits. The
island is attempting to slow down a
potential PLA amphibious landing on the
island, as the island wrongly believes
the PLA would need a long time to sweep
the mines and not launch a full-scale
amphibious assault before sea lanes are
cleared.
This way it thinks it could buy enough
time and wait for u.s reinforcements. The recent PLA drills showed that
taiwan's mine tactics will fail since
the pla has the ability to sweep sea
mines and open passages very fast.
Experts said noting that pla troops can
also carry out airborne landing
operations which will allow them to
avoid the sea mines. The deployment of sea mines will only
isolate the island from the rest of the
world but will not be able to stop a
potential amphibious landing by the PLA, experts said.
