As the situation on the Sino-Indian border became sensitive again, the Chinese military exposed live ammunition shooting with new equipment by the artillery units of the Xinjiang Military Region for two consecutive days. Two kinds of new equipment, the People’s Liberation Army’s PHL-03 300mm rocket launcher and PHL-11 122mm rocket launcher, appeared in the lens and attracted attention.
On July 11, the Chinese state media CCTV National Defense Military Morning Post reported that a certain regiment of the Xinjiang Military Region organized a firing detachment in the Karakorum hinterland at an altitude of more than 4,500 meters to conduct a live ammunition firing assessment of multiple types of ammunition. Targets of different nature and different distances are used to implement multiple bomb types of combined firepower strikes.
According to a CCTV military official Weibo report on July 9th, a brigade of the Xinjiang Military Region, stationed in a snow-covered plateau, organized long-range fire equipment to conduct live-fire drills with multiple types of ammunition and multiple ranges. During the exercise, the long-range fire detachment conducted effective fire damage to more than 10 important military targets in 7 categories, including simulated “enemy” armored clusters and artillery positions.
When the situation on the Sino-Indian border became sensitive again, the Chinese military exposed live ammunition shots of new equipment in the artillery units of the Xinjiang Military Region for two consecutive days, causing concern. In the above two exercises, the People’s Liberation Army PHL-03 300mm rocket launcher and PHL-11 122mm rocket launcher appeared.
According to data, the PHL-03 300mm rocket launcher is a new generation of multiple rocket launchers developed by China, and is often referred to as the “Type 03 remote fire”. This type of rocket vehicle has 12 launch tubes, which are arranged in three rows of upper, middle and lower, arranged in the shape of “田”. The launch vehicle uses an 8×8 off-road chassis. With its excellent high maneuverability, the gun can be maneuvered on highways, dirt roads, coastal beaches, and plateaus and other high-altitude areas. It only takes 3 minutes for the launch vehicle to transition from the traveling state to the combat ready state, and it can automatically complete a series of operations such as terrain positioning, rocket trajectory positioning, and launch elevation confirmation.
The Type 03 rocket has a total length of 7.3 meters, a diameter of 0.3 meters, a take-off mass of 840 kilograms, a warhead mass of 235 kilograms, and a maximum range of more than 150 kilometers. The rocket adopts an advanced single-shot armor-piercing, killing dual-purpose sub-munition warhead, with an effective killing radius of not less than 7 meters, and a bullet dispersion radius of 100 ± 40 meters. It only takes 38 seconds to complete a salvo of 12 rockets.
The other PHL-11 122mm rocket system is equipped with 122mm box launchers, which is called “steel storm” due to its powerful and fast firepower. It has the characteristics of fierce firepower, long range, high precision, good maneuverability, and strong information capabilities. It was reported that this medium- and long-range fire suppression equipment can pour dozens of rockets into the forward position of the target in just ten seconds, and the large-area strike effect is amazing.
The PHL-11 122mm rocket launcher adopts a box-type design, allowing the integration of storage, storage and firing of rockets. This type of rocket launcher can launch multiple types of bombs, such as killing blasting bombs, cloud bombs, and sub-munitions. The caliber can be changed according to actual combat needs, and the combat efficiency is high. It can fire 40 rockets in one salvo, with a maximum range of up to 40 kilometers, and high firepower. It can be mainly used for firepower to suppress the enemy’s position, destroy the enemy’s armored target, and annihilate the enemy’s active force.
After the phased withdrawal of troops on the border between China and India, the situation eased for a while, but tensions seem to have rekindled recently. The US media “Wall Street Journal” quoted Indian military officials on July 3 as saying that both China and India deployed tens of thousands of soldiers and advanced weapons to the disputed border. The front-line deployment of the two armies has reached the highest level in a decade.
