Calm down, the military parade showcases technologies from the previous generation. The most advanced ones will not be displayed publicly.

At the 80th anniversary military parade of China's victory in the War of Resistance Against Japan, a series of high-end equipment, including the DF-61 intercontinental ballistic missile, Jinglei-1 air-launched missile, YJ-20 anti-ship missile, and the Type 100 fourth-generation main battle tank, made their debut, causing a global shock.

However, although these new weapons are advanced, they are more like high-end products during the transition between generations. The truly top-tier and highly classified ones would never appear in such an open event.

The core objective of the military parade is to deter and demonstrate the results of systematic construction, rather than revealing all the key weapons for everyone to see clearly their structure and purpose.

In fact, it's not just China; almost all military powers have a consensus on a baseline — they do not expose their best and most secret weapons.

On one hand, top-tier weapons are often still in small-scale deployment or tactical verification stages and have not yet fully matured;

On the other hand, these weapons usually involve sensitive purposes, such as nuclear strike penetration, space reconnaissance, and strategic cyber warfare. Once their details are disclosed, it is equivalent to exposing the entire regional deployment structure, the logic of deterrence, and even the operational intentions.

From past experience, the U.S. B-21 bomber was only unveiled in 2022, and its range, payload capacity, and flight control system have not been disclosed to this day;

Russia's Okhotnik-B stealth drone had its first flight in 2019, but has only released three images since then.

Therefore, the truly most advanced ones will only be used passively in real combat, and not shown to enemies during peacetime.

A military parade is essentially a strategic communication tool. It emphasizes that "I have it," rather than telling you "I have all of them."

Like China's military parades, from the DF-17, DF-27 to the recent DF-61, there has already been a clear evolutionary path. However, the outside world has never been able to clarify the positioning, range, penetration methods, and target areas of each missile.

This is actually part of strategic ambiguity.

True nuclear deterrence is always a combination punch. In this context, what is displayed in the military parade is often the final form of the previous generation of technology, i.e., weapons systems that have been verified and are ready for large-scale deployment, with public promotional value.

In other words, it's not advanced enough, so it can be displayed.

From the perspective of China's recent weapon development rhythm, multiple generations are being developed simultaneously, with a step-by-step advancement approach.

A model typically goes through a cycle of 10 years or more from project initiation, prototype, testing, trial deployment, to official deployment. When it is publicly displayed, it basically means it has reached the deployment condition and no longer needs to be concealed.

Meanwhile, the true next-generation systems are being secretly developed.

Original source: www.toutiao.com/article/1842305717049372/

Statement: This article represents the views of the author himself.