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Amphibious Warfare Capabilities of the People's Liberation Army:
An Assessment on Recent Modernizations[1]

The PLA Special Forces are also expected to play a major role in pre-landing operations, sabotaging and disrupting ROC defenders inland in addition to performing real time reconnaissance. Road junctions and C3I nodes will be likely targets, however the discovery and capture of a Special Operations force may alert the defenders to the chosen landing area as it is unlikely a PLA Special Operation force would survive a determined ROC counter attack.

During the past amphibious operations, well-fortified defenders often survived massive bombardments and were able to man their stations once the fire stopped. The PLA’s tactics seem to focus on tempo rather than raw firepower in the landing phase of their amphibious operations; hoping that the armor with infantry support from AAPC can overcome the defenders in close quarter combat (CQB) as Taiwan beaches are surround by apartment buildings and residential areas. The CQB approach will reduce the effectiveness of the defenders' long-range artillery and bomblets-carrying rocket fire.

According to researchers at PLA’s Academy of Military Science [6], amphibious swimmers will require mobility and protection during the amphibious phase, however during the MOUT phase that follows wheeled fighting vehicle will be more suitable. Taiwan has an advanced highway and road system and heavy tracked tank will not be able to take full advantage of the road and require more oil thus put additional stress on the logistic support system. The more expensive tracked tank with heavy protection should be assign to an frontal assault role with the lighter and more mobile wheeled fighting vehicle as in a flank support and recon. The researchers also call for greater usage of specialized engineering vehicles as well.

This type of high tempo operation requires a great deal of joint service training and strong C3I capabilities, and this is the goal that PLA is progressing toward.

It is still questionable that a high tempo, high speed operation can overcome a world-class defender equipped with modern weapon systems such as portable Anti-tank Guided Missiles (ATGM) and other precision guided warheads, in light of the fact that PLA AAPC and ALT carry only limited smoke grenades and are lightly armored. Nor does the PLA possess any large number of super high speed and armored Air Cushion Vehicles (ACV) such as the Russian Type 1232-1, Pomornik class or US’s Landing Craft Air Cushion (LCAC).

Only limited numbers of small LCACs are in service with the PLA.
Four of them are normally carried by one LST.