"CMSI Note 13: PLA Navy Enhances Realistic Combat Training: Observation" by K. Tristan Tang
 

K. Tristan Tang

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Description

Key Takeaways

  • Chinese activities around Taiwan in the first two months of 2025 indicate that the PLA is strengthening realistic combat training around the island. This trend aligns closely with the PLA’s emphasis in recent years on using peacetime interactions with foreign forces to achieve training outcomes, a practice it calls “using the enemy to train the troops.”
  • The PLA has exhibited a noticeable increase in the daily number of naval vessels operating around Taiwan, as well as increased frequency and scale of joint combat readiness patrols and maritime-aerial training exercises, when comparing January and February of this year to the same period in previous years.
  • Noteworthy among these PLA Navy activities was an exercise conducted by a Type 075 (LHD) task force in the vicinity of Taiwan in February 2025. This episode was remarkable for the size of the task force (the largest publicly disclosed LHD task force ever to have operated near Taiwan), the location of the exercise (southwest of Jia Lu Tang Beach), and its occurrence very early in the annual training cycle.
  • This acceleration of realistic combat training near Taiwan likely reflects efforts by the PLA to develop the capabilities needed to achieve “national unification” before its centenary in 2027.

Publication Date

3-2025

Publisher

China Maritime Studies Institute, U.S Naval War College

City

Newport, Rhode Island

Keywords

China, China Maritime Studies Institute, CMSI, People’s Liberation Army, People’s Liberation Army Navy, PLAN, Training, Taiwan

CMSI Note 13: PLA Navy Enhances Realistic Combat Training: Observations of PLA Navy Operations Around Taiwan

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