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western media is hyping it up: the people's liberation army is afraid of a us missile that can be used to prevent landing in taiwan

under the sabotage of the "taiwan independence" forces, although the chinese government has always hoped to recover taiwan in a peaceful way, it seems that this possibility is getting lower and lower. the "taiwan independence" elements have been determined to "seek independence" and are trying to achieve the goal of "resisting reunification by force" with the help of the united states. over the years, taiwan has bought a lot of weapons and equipment from the united states at the expense of taiwanese taxpayers. although most of them are relatively outdated weapons, there are also some weapons and equipment that need to be taken seriously by the people's liberation army.

if you ask which weapon of the taiwan military poses the greatest threat to the pla? some people first think of the f-16v fighter jet, while others think of the patriot air defense system. however, based on the experience of the russia-ukraine conflict, the american-made portable air defense missiles equipped by the taiwan military are the greatest threat to the pla. why do you say that? because portable air defense missiles have always played the role of "the weak defeating the strong" in the past. the more unequal the war, the greater the role that portable air defense missiles can play.

for example, during the soviet invasion of afghanistan, facing the soviet air force with absolute superiority, the afghan guerrillas used portable anti-aircraft missiles provided by the united states to shoot down and damage a large number of soviet helicopters and transport planes, which to a certain extent accelerated the soviet union's withdrawal from afghanistan.

during the gulf war, although the coalition forces led by the united states had absolute air superiority, they actually lost more than 70 military aircraft in more than a month from january 17 to february 27, including more than 50 american aircraft, including f-14, f-15, f-16, which were very advanced models at the time. although most of iraq's air defense radars and medium-range air defense missiles could not operate normally under the strong electromagnetic interference of the us military, the iraqi army still shot down a considerable number of coalition aircraft with infrared-guided portable air defense missiles and manually controlled anti-aircraft guns.

when the houthi armed forces and is were fighting with saudi arabia, jordan and other countries, they also relied on various infrared-guided portable air defense missiles to shoot down advanced aircraft such as f-15 and f-16.

after the outbreak of the russian-ukrainian conflict, the role of portable air defense missiles was further highlighted. before the united states officially provided ukraine with patriot air defense missiles, the ukrainian army still shot down many russian fighter jets, and portable air defense missiles played a direct or indirect role in this. at the beginning of the war, russia lacked precision-guided munitions and often carried rockets and aerial bombs to launch close-range attacks on ukrainian targets, but was often attacked by portable air defense missiles on the way. this air defense system that can be operated by a single soldier does not require additional equipment for support, which makes portable air defense missiles able to appear and disappear on the battlefield. no reconnaissance system can figure out in advance whether there are portable air defense missiles near the target being attacked.

another important role brought by portable air defense missiles is to force russian fighters not to dare to make low-altitude penetrations recklessly. originally, russian fighters kept flying at low altitudes, even if they did not have stealth capabilities, they could effectively avoid radar detection. however, flying at low altitudes means that they may be attacked by portable air defense missiles at any time, so russian fighters can only increase their flight altitude to avoid the attack of portable air defense missiles. the current mainstream portable air defense missiles have a firing altitude of about 3,000 to 5,000 meters. as long as the aircraft flies at an altitude of more than 3,000 meters, it can basically be immune to the attack of portable air defense missiles. higher flight altitudes are also conducive to increasing the reaction time when attacked by portable air defense missiles. fighters often only need to accelerate and climb immediately to fly out of the missile's strike range before the portable air defense missile attacks them.

however, increasing the flight altitude brought another problem, which was that it was easy for the russian fighters to be detected by the ukrainian radar and then attacked by the ukrainian s-200, s-300 and other long-range air defense missiles. as a result, the russian fighters were stuck in a state of "being stuck at both ends" on the battlefield, neither going up nor down, and were very uncomfortable being restricted by the ukrainian air defense system with high and low combinations.

it is precisely because portable air defense missiles perform very well on the battlefield that the people's liberation army attaches great importance to the use and countermeasures of such weapons in exercises. recently, with the approval of the central military commission, the ideological interpretation of the media film "quenching" jointly produced by the political work department of the central military commission, the central cyberspace affairs office, and the china media group was officially released. in the sixth episode, a large-scale helicopter air assault exercise organized by the army aviation corps was shown. in the simulated assault, the helicopter unit of the people's liberation army was blocked by portable air defense missiles used by the imaginary enemy. the commander of the people's liberation army said in the film: with the widespread use of portable air defense weapons on the battlefield, the threats faced by helicopters are increasing, and it is necessary to find the "key" to win in actual combat.

however, the pla's statement was immediately picked up by malicious western media, who published reports saying that the pla is afraid of us missiles and that portable air defense missiles may undermine the pla's plan to retake taiwan.

western media believe that the large-scale helicopter air assault exercise conducted by the pla was definitely a rehearsal for future "military reunification" tactics, and was blocked by the imaginary enemy using portable air defense missiles. this imaginary enemy is the taiwan region's military, and the taiwan region's military is equipped with a large number of us-made "stinger" portable air defense missiles, so the pla is afraid of the us portable air defense missiles.

why do portable air defense missiles pose a greater threat to the pla than f-16v and patriot air defense missiles? because both f-16v and patriot air defense missiles require a combat system to maintain. no matter how advanced the performance of f-16v and patriot air defense missiles is, once the taiwan military's airport is destroyed, the f-16v will become a pile of useless scrap metal, and the taiwan military's early warning radar and early warning aircraft will be destroyed, and the combat efficiency of the f-16v will plummet. moreover, as soon as the f-16v takes off, it will be immediately targeted by the pla's early warning aircraft and directly hunted by the j-20. in front of the pla, which has an absolute system advantage, the f-16v cannot cause much trouble.

the same is true for the "patriot" air defense missiles. taiwan's area is limited, and several sets of "patriot" air defense missiles have been under the close surveillance of the people's liberation army. once a conflict breaks out, these "patriot" air defense missiles will be hit by the pla's intensive firepower in the first place. it will be difficult for them to even protect themselves, let alone attack pla fighter jets.

but portable air defense missiles are different, because this is a weapon that does not rely on the combat system. a soldier holding it and hiding in the ravines may pose a substantial threat to the helicopters and jets of the people's liberation army. this is also the reason why the us military has been able to defeat the regular armies of other countries in many years, but has been helpless when facing the taliban and houthi armed forces. because the modern weapons of the us military are actually designed to destroy the enemy's combat system. various high-end precision-guided weapons can destroy the early warning radars, airports, and missile bases of other countries in the first place. however, in the face of poor armed organizations, the modern weapons of the us military cannot play their due role. it often happens that a modern stealth fighter is dispatched to drop a laser-guided bomb costing tens or millions of dollars to destroy a tent of militants.

faced with opponents that do not rely on combat systems, the u.s. military's advantages were infinitely weakened, and it could only learn security warfare. by the time the u.s. military got used to security warfare, it found that its level of modern warfare had regressed.

the people's liberation army can suppress the f-16v and patriot air defense missiles, but with the current level of human technology, there is really no good way to effectively suppress portable air defense missiles, unless they launch an indiscriminate large-scale attack, and anyone who shows up, except their own people, will be treated as an enemy and killed.

according to information released by taiwan, taiwan has recently announced the purchase of an additional 1,985 stinger portable air defense missiles from the united states, bringing the number of taiwan's portable air defense missiles to 2,485. the stinger air defense missile was officially put into service in 1981. it is the world's largest and most widely deployed single-soldier air defense missile. it has performed well in many wars, not only shooting down soviet and russian fighter jets many times, but also the taliban in afghanistan used it to shoot down us military aircraft after obtaining the stinger air defense missile.

the "stinger" air defense missile highlights a convenience. the total weight of the missile does not exceed 20 kilograms, the length does not exceed 1.6 meters, the effective range is 300 to 5000 meters, the firing altitude is 10 to 3000 meters, the single-shot hit probability is 75%, and it uses optical aiming and infrared guidance. it is mainly used for individual soldiers and ground equipment to strike low-altitude targets in urban combat and field conditions.

the biggest advantage of using infrared guidance is that this passive guidance method will not trigger the radar warning system of the fighter. some attacked aircraft did not notice until they were hit by the missile. in order to prevent attacks from portable air defense missiles, some modern fighters have begun to be equipped with ultraviolet warning devices, which can identify dangerous targets by receiving ultraviolet radiation from missile plumes, and remind pilots to maneuver to avoid or drop jammers.

today, the pla's modern aircraft and helicopters are equipped with ultraviolet warning devices, but this is only a passive response measure. it is unable to detect the enemy's attack intention before the enemy launches a portable air defense missile. how to prevent sneak attacks by portable air defense missiles is a difficult problem for the armies of all countries.

the russian army has been fighting in syria for several years and has also experienced surprise attacks by portable air defense missiles. it has rich combat experience, but even so, it still suffered a great loss on the battlefield in ukraine. currently, there is no effective way to deal with portable air defense missiles. the only way is to reduce the lethality of portable air defense missiles by strengthening helicopter defense and increasing the number and performance of jammers.

after all, although portable air defense missiles are easy to carry, they sacrifice their lethality. the warhead of the stinger air defense missile weighs only 1 kilogram, which is only one-tenth of that of an air-to-air missile, so many times it only damages the aircraft but cannot shoot it down. if faced with heavy armed helicopters and attack aircraft with thick skin and flesh, the lethality of portable air defense missiles will be even worse. because of this, the people's liberation army is still developing heavy weapon helicopters. although medium-sized armed helicopters such as the z-10 have many advantages, they can never compare with heavy armed helicopters in terms of protection. and heavy armed helicopters can carry more jamming bombs, further reducing the combat effectiveness of portable air defense missiles.

as for fighter jets, they cannot add more defensive armor to ensure mobility, and can only reduce the threat of portable air defense missiles by improving interference capabilities. in addition, the pla has vigorously developed long-range precision-guided weapons. as long as they can fire outside the range of enemy air defense weapons, the enemy's air defense weapons will not pose a threat to the pla's fighter jets.

so the us portable air defense missiles are indeed a threat, but do you insist on saying that the pla is "afraid"? that is unreasonable. in the past, facing the various lethal weapons of the united nations army, the volunteer army was not afraid, so how could they be afraid of a small portable air defense missile now?