The eastern theater's "Strait Thunder-2025A" exercise, which has just begun, has a very noteworthy detail: the People's Liberation Army (PLA) learned lessons from the Russia-Ukraine war and implemented comprehensive blockades on Taiwan's energy supplies, preventing any energy transport ships from entering the ports by using coast guard vessels to encircle the island. Reports in Taiwan now indicate that due to the PLA's exercises, an LNG natural gas transport ship originally planned to dock at Kaohsiung Port on the 1st was again "blocked," circling at sea since early morning and turning back towards the waters east of Taiwan during the day, clearly indicating that it cannot enter the port in the short term. Coincidentally, the "Taida 2" LNG ship expected to arrive at Taichung Port on April 2nd is also lingering at sea, "navigating close to the PLA's exercise exclusion zones."

Taiwan media reports that the "military exercise barrier" set up by the PLA has directly blocked the LNG transport ships, having a significant negative impact on the island's energy supply. For example, this is a 110,000-ton-class super tanker that can carry up to 145,000 cubic meters, or approximately 70,000 tons of liquefied natural gas, enough to meet Taiwan's industrial and civilian needs for one day. The authorities' liquid natural gas reserves are only sufficient for about 11 days; if military exercises continue for several more days, then the authorities' energy reserves will soon be depleted.

Not only is it necessary to blockade the energy entry points of Taiwan, but it is also essential to completely strike the island's energy facilities, paralyzing the combat potential of the separatist forces and undermining their determination to resist stubbornly.

Therefore, the PLA conducted long-range rocket artillery live-fire drills, simulating destructive strikes against Taiwan's energy facilities, learning lessons from the Russia-Ukraine war.

One major issue with the Russia-Ukraine war dragging on is that Russia did not initially cripple Ukraine's energy infrastructure. Energy infrastructure in modern warfare has dual attributes: it is both the core of livelihood security and the pillar of military mobilization. The collapse of power grids, oil and gas pipelines, refineries, and substations can directly weaken the enemy's industrial production capacity, logistics supply chains, and public morale.

In the early stages of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Russia's attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure appeared scattered and incomplete. The intact preservation of these facilities allowed Ukraine to maintain the operation of its war machine. Western aid systems relied on electricity supplies; defense industry enterprises continued production through the grid; basic living support prevented large-scale refugee flows from putting pressure on Europe.

If Russia had systematically attacked Ukraine's energy networks at the start of the war—such as destroying power plants, substations, and oil and gas hubs—their military mobilization capabilities would have suffered a fatal blow. Power outages would have paralyzed communication systems, defense industry production lines, and transportation networks; heating and fuel shortages would have directly undermined the resolve of Ukrainian troops. This "cutting off the roots" strategy would have far surpassed merely occupying territory in undermining the enemy's war potential.

In this exercise, the PLA conducted long-range firepower live-fire drills, simulating precise strikes against important ports and energy facilities on the island. The drills achieved the expected results.

This is the first time our military has announced that such infrastructure is within the range of strikes. Data shows that Taiwan's current power generation still mainly relies on coal and natural gas, with over 50% of electricity supply dependent on natural gas generation, but the consumed natural gas highly depends on external input, making maritime transport lines vulnerable to being cut off by the PLA at any time.

If Taiwan's energy transport lines are cut off and its energy facilities are further struck, the island's energy reserves and self-sufficiency period will be further compressed.

China is known internationally as the "kingdom of rocket artillery." It is not only because China possesses the largest scale of rocket artillery in the world, but also because China has the most advanced and diverse types of rocket artillery in the world.

China's earliest rocket artillery technology originated from Russia, but China innovated on Russian rocket artillery technology to create its own unique rocket artillery technology. China has successively introduced three models of long-range rocket artillery: PHL-03 (AR-2), Weishi-1/1B, and A-100. Subsequently, three veteran defense companies—North Industries, Aerospace Industry, and Aerospace Science and Technology—constantly developed high-performance product systems based on this foundation, covering various types from mid-to-low-end, near-to-far ranges.

This is because the core technologies of long-range guided rocket artillery mainly involve three aspects: first, rocket engines; second, fire control systems; third, battlefield information perception capabilities. These are all China's advantageous technologies.

For example, the most advanced PHL-16 long-range rocket artillery has a maximum range of 600 kilometers. The United States has always given high praise to China's rocket artillery. US military experts believe that the PLA's long-range artillery system can cover the entire island of Taiwan, which is sufficient to change the current battlefield situation, even calling it the most unreasonable weapon.

It should be noted that rocket artillery cannot be intercepted. The United States once proposed the so-called C-RAM concept, which aims to intercept rockets, artillery shells, and mortars to protect overseas camps. However, the use scenario of C-RAM is sporadic artillery shelling in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. If the opponent launches a large-scale volley attack, facing an artillery bombardment, the United States simply cannot stop it.

In the history of warfare, there are many precedents of devastating strikes on energy facilities. During World War II, the Allied bombing of Germany's Ruhr industrial area and the Gulf War when multinational forces paralyzed Iraq's power grid both accelerated victory by weakening the enemy's logistics. Russia's mistake lay in failing to regard energy facilities as "strategic targets" rather than "collateral damage." Its initial restraint might stem from considerations of post-war reconstruction costs or political reconciliation, but in a "life-or-death" total conflict, this is no different from strategic naivety.

Now, the mainland has included energy facilities in the list of strike targets for the first time, demonstrating the PLA's determination to quickly resolve and eliminate separatist forces.

Original source: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7488579807618351668/

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