Evading, Suppressing, and Penetrating Enemy Air Defenses38

Chinese analysts contend that penetrating enemy air defenses to estab­lish corridors through which the main assault forces can reach their targets (kongzhong tufang, ЙФ^ІЙ) is one of the most difficult tasks of the offensive mission. But they also underscore the importance of this task to the success­ful execution of the overall mission.39 Their assessments are heavily influenced by their very high evaluation of the air defense systems of the countries of their most likely prospective adversaries (the United States, Taiwan, and prob­ably Japan), as well as by their concerns about the shortcomings of China’s own forces. Some argue that penetration will be extremely difficult because “presently our main operational targets are the established and tightly inte­grated long, medium, and short range, and high, medium, and low altitude air defense systems.” They also argue that the PLAAF should expect to encoun­ter enemy air defenses with advanced intelligence warning systems, continu­ous 360-degree monitoring of the battlespace, and other features that create an “unprecedented” level of battlespace transparency. All of these, they contend, will make the execution of penetration very difficult.40

In order to penetrate advanced air defenses, Chinese analysts have advo­cated using a combination of “stealth penetrations” and “storm penetrations.” Stealth assaults emphasize deception, concealment, flying at ultra-low levels and a variety of other radar avoidance techniques to avert detection and mislead enemy defenses. Storm assaults involve preceding and escorting the actual attack group with as many as five other groups assigned to such tasks as reconnaissance, electronic interference, air defense suppression, screening, and support.41

To maintain China’s initiative following the initial assault, Chinese ana­lysts urge preparations to launch quick follow-on attacks. They emphasize that this requires very rapid assessment of the damage inflicted by the first wave, which, in turn, places a heavy burden upon all surveillance and recon­naissance assets—air, space, naval, ground, and other assets—to quickly sup­ply data for follow-on assaults.42

Another aspect of the assault that Chinese analysts emphasize is the early and continuous preparation to defeat enemy counterattack operations. In addi­tion to defending the security of key war zone targets, these analysts stress that preparing to block counterattacks is critical to allowing Chinese forces to remain on the offensive and facilitate the overall “smooth progress” of the mission.43