White paper outlines China's air defense

China said in its latest national defense white paper published on Tuesday that it has established an air defense force integrating reconnaissance and early warning systems, resistance, counterattack and protection.

According to military experts, China's vast territory and complications concerning airspace over neighboring countries means the nation faces an increasingly serious threat to its air security. So its armed forces have an arduous task in safeguarding Chinese airspace.

Hou Xiaohe, an associate professor from the National Defense University, the top military academy in China, said conflicts after the Cold War period have showed that air strike and anti-air strike measures have become an important form of operations amid the rapid development of high-tech offensive air power.

Therefore, after over six decades of development, the People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) is emphasizing both offensive and defensive capabilities, rather than only defending homeland air territory.

As the white paper notes, the PLAAF is the mainstay of national territorial air defense. In peacetime, the chain of command of China's air defense runs from the PLAAF headquarters through the air commands of the military area commands to air defense units.

The PLAAF exercises unified command over all air defense components in accordance with the Central Military Commission's intent. The country's air defense system is composed of six sub-systems of reconnaissance and surveillance, command and control, aerial defense, ground air defense, integrated support and civil air defense.

Hou said the six sub-systems form an organic entity with reconnaissance and early warning, resistance, counterattack and protection. The reconnaissance and early-warning sub-system is tasked with finding, identifying and tracking the enemy's air raid weapons, and sending accurate, timely information about air targets to the command and control sub-system.

Composed of command organs at all levels and radars under their control, computers as well as communication facilities, the command and control sub-system is responsible for collecting and processing air intelligence, mastering development of air situations, judging the nature of targets, selecting operation plans, and commanding and guiding air combat.

The aerial defense and ground air defense sub-systems are tasked with intercepting and interfering with the enemy's air raid weapons based on the operation plans and data provided by the command and control sub-system.

The integrated support sub-system is responsible for ensuring the survival and completion of the aforementioned sub-systems and missions, while the civil air defense sub-system organizes personnel and materials for protection, firefighting, medical care and other work.

The white paper made public the Chinese army's combat readiness for the first time, saying that combat readiness refers to preparations of the armed forces for undertaking operational tasks and military operations other than war (MOOTW), and it is the general, comprehensive and regular work of the armed forces.

Based on different tasks, troops assume different levels of readiness (Level III, Level II and Level I, from the lowest degree of alertness to the highest).

The white paper said the PLAAF focuses its daily combat readiness on territorial air defense. It follows the principles of applicability in both peacetime and wartime, all-dimension response and full territorial reach, and maintains a vigilant and efficient combat readiness.

PLAAF organizes air alert patrols on a regular basis to verify abnormal and unidentified air situations promptly. The PLAAF command alert system takes PLAAF command posts as the core, field command posts as the basis, and aviation and ground air defense forces on combat duty as the pillar.

Hou said command organs and armed forces at all levels of the PLAAF maintain combat readiness duties 24 hours a day, year round and are ready for orders for operations. In case of any situation, command organs at all levels, aircraft on combat readiness duties and ground air defense weapons can make up their mind to take actions.

Hou added that the PLAAF's command, warning and combat readiness systems are connected as a network with cable, wireless, satellite and other communications facilities, forming a command and warning network with PLAAF command posts as the core, field command posts as the basis, and technical surveillance, ground radars, electronic countermeasures, air units, surface-to-air missiles and antiaircraft guns in combat readiness duties as the pillar.

The network can quickly exchange information with superior and subordinate organs, take actions as a whole, mainly adapting the rapid, sudden and quickly-changing air combats.

In recent years, air units, most of them based in coastal areas, have scrambled more than 1,000 sorties annually, and ground air defense units have exercised maneuvers hundreds of times, in a bid to identify abnormal air situations, or carry out air patrols and reconnaissance missions.