The PLA at Home and Abroad - Strategic Studies Institute - U.S. Army

partment and the State Information Center to improve
the “shore and ship integrated” political work platform
that integrates a land base information collection
and transmission system, an information integration
and distribution system, a shore-to-ship information
wireless transmission system, and an information terminal
receiving system. They also sent technical personnel
to Sanya to conduct satellite receiving equipment
debugging, system installation, and personnel
training on the three combat ships that were about to
set sail for escort operations. Moreover, they specially
developed and improved a total of seven information
processing software programs, which can send
text, images, as well as video and audio documents
quickly. 118 PLAN vessels support command and coordination
during escort missions by “releasing for use
high-frequency Chinese and English channels,” and
maintain constant communication with escorted vessels
“through emails and satellite faxes.” 119
Communicating more effectively at sea, in part
by increasing reliance on space-based assets, appears
to be a major step for the PLAN. This could allow a
PLAN task force commander to act more independently
of other navies in a tense political situation, in
part by receiving clear real time directions from civilian
authorities in Beijing.
Coordination with Other Militaries.
Most of the 14 nations that have sent ships to conduct
counterpiracy operations in the Gulf of Aden
region do so under five types of Combined Maritime
Forces (CMF): two multi-national ones, and those
from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
and the EU, which coordinate with their multina-
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