force-multiplier

Cruise Missile Employment Doctrine and Training
clude cruise missiles, occur regularly. 49 Some exercises involve “practice cruise missiles”
( 训 练 航 弹 ). In a possible reference to practicing using the DH-10 LACM, one aviation
division stationed opposite Taiwan in 2008 practiced precision “long-range air-to-ground
strikes” during nighttime “toward a distant sea area” using a “particular [new] type of
air-to-ground guided missile.” 50 That same year, a PLAAF aviation regiment “achieved
a hit rate of at least 87% in several dozen precise attacks on radar and missile sites and
[moving] ships at sea” despite electronic interference and attacks from opposition forces.
51 In sum, the potential for PLAAF and PLAN aircraft successfully striking U.S. CSG
forces at night from significant stand-off ranges is difficult to foresee in the near term.
Yet training seems to be underway to attain such a capability.
While cruise missiles remain tied to limitations in the platforms from which they
are fired, the PLA is moving toward an ability to coordinate and launch fairly complex
strikes against moving sea targets. The human element may still be a limiting factor and
remains difficult to assess, but the limitations are growing smaller by the day.
Cruise Missile Defenses
Despite progress in offensive cruise missile capabilities, China views itself as vulnerable
to cruise missile attack. The PLAAF also controls the majority of ground-based
air defenses, which operate under the 1999 concept of the new “Three Attacks” (against
stealth aircraft, cruise missiles, and armed helicopters) and “Three Defenses” (against
precision strikes, electronic jamming, and electronic reconnaissance and surveillance). 52
In addition to its seven military-region air forces, 13 deputy corps–level and division
leader–level command posts, and multiple academies and research institutes, the PLAAF
has a SAM and AAA corps and three airborne divisions assigned to 15 th Airborne Army. 53
According to DOD, the PLAAF “has continued expanding its inventory of long-range,
advanced SAM systems and now possesses one of the largest such forces in the world.” 54
It has also received multiple battalions of upgraded Russian S-300/SA-20 PMU-2 longrange
(200 km) SAM systems since 2006. Russia’s most modern SAM system available
for export, the SA-20 PMU-2, offers Taiwan Strait coverage and reportedly provides
limited ballistic- and cruise-missile defense capabilities. 55 China has also introduced the
indigenously designed HQ-9.
As with other areas of operational capabilities integration, critical uncertainties remain
regarding cruise missile defense. It is still unclear, for instance, how the PLAAF and
the PLAN deconflict the operations of aircraft and SAMs working in the same airspace,
how often they actually practice these operations, and how well deconfliction would
work during actual combat. PLAAF writings suggest that SAMs and aircraft conduct
“combined-arms training,” but this is actually what the U.S. military would call opposition
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