In order to carry out large-scale military operations, US President Bush announced Operation Desert Shield, which is expected to transport more than half a million US soldiers into the Gulf region within five months. Similarly, China's Central Military Commission also announced its mass deployment to the Middle East, but neither the Central Military Commission nor the Ministry of National Defense announced the specific number and units to be dispatched.
Regarding the matter of sending troops into this area, the military and Qi Yiming held many meetings. In fact, the military is not very sure about the scale of the war to be carried out and the extent to which it needs to be fought.
Qi Yiming stood in the conference room and proposed his plan to everyone: "The Gwadar base will serve as our most important transit base for dispatching forces to the Gulf region. It will also be our second line position in normal wars. We The follow-up reserve force needs to be deployed in Gwadar. When there is a shortage of troops or other situations on the front line, the reserve force in Gwadar can be reinforced as quickly as possible. "
Gwadar Port is a contract signed by China from Pakistan a few years ago. In addition to building a large-scale civilian commercial port, it will also open up a land and harbor for the Chinese navy to establish a military port. After several years of efficient construction, it has the mooring and supply capabilities of a domestic second-tier military port.
Minister Qin, the Minister of Defense, nodded and said: "At the end of last year, we said that the construction of naval and air force facilities in Gwadar has been basically completed. It has the ability to park at least one of our amphibious battle groups and station an aviation division."
Navy Commander Li Jing continued: "Our navy plans to dispatch two amphibious assault ships this time, namely the Shangri-La attack group and the Fujian attack group. We will maintain at least two powerful attack aircraft that can be used in air-to-ground strikes against Iraq. , while also maintaining sufficient amphibious landing capabilities to cooperate with other allied forces to retake Kuwait. In terms of escort ships, we intend to dispatch a cruiser to lead, with four destroyers and three frigates, two nuclear submarines and two conventional ships, cruisers and destroyers. It will carry a relatively large number of land attack cruise missiles, as another main means of our attack. In addition to the fleet, HNA will also dispatch a fleet of sufficient size to participate in this operation. There will be two B14 Tomcat fighter groups and a strong maintenance team. The strike group will be stationed in Saudi Arabia or Gwadar to coordinate the mission."
Not to be outdone, Air Force Commander Wang Hai said: "The Air Force will also dispatch a certain size of force to this area. Our preliminary plan mainly includes the establishment of two fighter divisions transferred from various ministries, mainly J- and J-10 fighters. , In addition, we will dispatch a bombing regiment to Gwadar, mainly H-6K and H-H, to provide the strongest air support for the army and navy. "
It seems that the Air Force is also slightly dissatisfied with why Hainan Airlines sends its land-based aviation forces to the war zone. This is obviously taking the Air Force's job, but Wang Hai can't say anything wrong. If it is indeed fighting in the air and sea, Some pilots are prone to air-sea inversions and are really not good at it without special training.
Chief of General Staff Chi Haotian held up his military cap and said: "Actually, it is easy to say how much the navy and air force are deployed. As expected, the US military will have to cover these tasks, and the Iraqi army does not have the strength to threaten our navy and air force. What matters is how many ground troops we send into the Middle East. If we send less, the significance of participating in this operation will not be obvious. If we send more, it will be a waste of time. Second, it will make some countries think that our country is determined to establish military hegemony. Americans wake up."
Qi Yiming interjected: "The U.S. military planned to send 500,000 troops to participate in the war. (In the early days, Bush sent more than 200,000 troops to scare Saddam, but Uncle Saddam didn't buy it. Bush was furious and sent another 200,000 troops. tens of thousands), other countries are at most the leaders of the US military, and together they are estimated to be at most one-third of the US military. We don¡¯t need to compare the number and scale of the US. It is very unrealistic and meaningless. I think the total number of dispatches is tens of thousands. With a navy, land and air force of 20,000, we are the country that contributes the most troops after the United States. Our strength is much smaller than that of the United States, but it is far more than that of other countries. With a thousand people, as long as we fight one or two amazing battles, we won¡¯t be able to lose sight of everyone.¡±
Minister Qin thought about it and said: "Then let's allocate three or four elite infantry divisions, and the Marine Corps will also come to a brigade, and then supplement it with other coordination troops to form the main force of the Army to participate in the operation. This will be almost 100,000 people. Around 20,000 plus the navy and air force.¡±
pL After many rounds of dismantling, reorganization and innovation, the Army is now a master system. Each Army division has a staff of at least 20,000 people, most of which are between 24,000 and 28,000. The construction model was established in 1986. Sanpei, which won the battle on the border, has now basically completed all army divisions that have been heavily armed and informatized. Their combat effectiveness is definitely not comparable to that of ordinary troops in this era. Qi Yiming firmly believed that even the legendary 1st Cavalry Division and 4th Mechanized Division of the US military would never be a match for any PL Army Division in a duel.
Who to send the four army divisions is still a big problem. Qi Yiming believes that the leaders here must have something in their pockets.Then the person below handed over the note. Even if it is not for the sense of honor or other reasons that can be explained, going to fight thousands of miles away and then achieving military exploits will obviously have endless benefits for future promotions. In addition, the situation of the army has improved greatly in recent years, and many army leaders The officer had great confidence in the strength of his team and did not believe that those Iraqi chickens and dogs could pose any threat.
However, the Military Commission and the General Staff were more cautious in their selections. They selected the best of the best, including the 113th Infantry Division of the 3rd Group Army, the 2nd Infantry Division of the 54th Group Army, the 10th Blue Army Infantry Division of the 6th Group Army, and Qi Yiming. Selected red alert rapid response brigade.
The L13 Infantry Division fought with the Americans in the Korean battlefield, but this time it had to fight side by side with the Americans in the Middle East. It was really a turn of events. However, even American military scholars were deeply impressed by the L13 Division's moral courage and ability to fight on the peninsula. 2 Pei also has a long tradition. Its predecessor can be traced back to Sun Wen's armored convoy during the Northern Expedition and the subsequent Ye Ting Independent Regiment. In 1979, it also achieved fruitful results in the war to punish Vietnam.
The only unit with no real war experience is the Blue Army-10th Division. In order to enhance the combat capability of pLAR, the Military Commission previously expanded the -10th Division into the 6th Group Army with three divisions and two brigades. However, the -10th Division, which was first established, is still the most combat-effective unit. It is undeniable that the -10th Division has never really seen a bloody battle, but in previous red-blue confrontation exercises, the -10th Division has performed well, and its average winning rate is higher than that of ordinary Red Army troops.
Of course, this may also be because the -10 Division uses all NATO standard weapons, and its behavior is basically completely beautified, making ordinary troops very uncomfortable fighting such unfamiliar troops, especially when both sides have a good hand. , you need to rely on better tactics and deployment.
The reason why the -10th Division was chosen to appear this time was that the military also had other considerations. First of all, the equipment and logistics of the -10th Division are basically the same as those of the United States and NATO countries. This way, when operating with these allied forces, there will be more choices. The ugly point is that it is convenient to use things. Furthermore, the military also hopes to use this time to let the Blue Army learn the tactics of a real imaginary enemy, and cooperate and communicate more with the US military and NATO forces, so that the Blue Army can become closer to them.
As for the 86-man Red Alert Rapid Reaction Force dispatched by Qi Yiming, they will not actually fight on any frontal battlefields. The tasks they are responsible for will be more complex, including maintaining order in the occupied area, ensuring communications, guarding prisoners, etc. things.
In such a real war, Qi Yiming thought carefully but still did not send a large number of red police soldiers to participate, because he could predict the outcome. If China was included, the United Nations army would be estimated to be 800,000 troops. Saddam would mobilize There may be more, but their combat effectiveness is far from that of the United Nations, which has the two giants China and the United States. Even the morale of the Iraqi army is not very good. Some pilots even defected to Iran when the war started.
In another dimension, less than 60 of the hundreds of thousands of United Nations troops were killed. If the Chinese PLA appeared, the casualty rate would be lower than this. Therefore, Qi Yiming believes that compared with the experience and other gains gained, some Minor casualties should also be bearable.
However, even if such a large-scale force projection is to be completed, the cost is unimaginably huge. Even though China has received military payment commitments from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and other countries, it still has to invest a huge amount of military expenditures to fight this war. The three heavy infantry divisions will need to transport thousands of main battle tanks alone, plus infantry fighting vehicles, self-propelled artillery, self-propelled rocket launchers, military off-road vehicles, engineering vehicles, etc. Not only the navy's landing ships will need It was used in large quantities, and ordinary civilian transport ships had to be rented in large numbers to carry out this huge operation.
Qi Yiming does have the ability to transfer from frozen space, but the nearest base is in Afghanistan. He cannot easily get a large amount of Chinese equipment of unknown origin from a foreign country. Moreover, a lot of equipment is not produced in the base, so This means that it cannot be transmitted at all. So in the end, he still had to dig out his pocket and bring a large amount of heavy equipment by sea.
In another dimension, the U.S. military often sells some equipment with low unit value and low technological content directly on the spot during wars. In many cases, they can even take it away for nothing just by paying the freight. Some people say that this is an attempt by black-hearted arms dealers to make money. The US military keeps buying new ones. Qi Yiming now understands that if equipment such as a Hummer is really brought back and used again, it may not be as cost-effective as building another one. It's a pity that most of the equipment Qi Yiming sent over cannot be leaked. Even if he doesn't plan to use it, he still has to recycle it, and the shipping cost will be borne by him.