Indian colonel analyses Chinese PLAN invasion of Taiwan based on satellite images of war games
Taiwan News
Date: 2019/05/31
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer
(Col. Vinayak Bhat (Retd) photo)
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A retired Indian Army colonel has presented his analysis of what he believes are Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN’s) strategy for invading Taiwan based satellite photos of its war games on the Indian news site ThePrint.
In the article, Colonel Vinayak Bhat says that the PLAN appears to plan on using large Type 072 landing ships and Type 071 landing platform docks (LPD) to ferry its troops to landing zones on Taiwan’s beaches. Bhat says that observations of the maneuvers over the years have shown two distinct patterns of landing ship deployments.
First, Bhat said the ships are deployed with their bows and sides turned away from the shore to ensure faster debarkation of landing craft and to evade shore-based fire from Taiwanese forces. Second, he said the ships are deployed in a circular pattern, with the LPD “on one of the flanks with respect to the shore.”
He said that given the ships only have short-range air defenses and close-in weapons systems, this circular formation affords more safety from shore batteries and aerial strikes. [FULL STORY]