China’s artillery is an absolute nightmare

The Chinese People's Liberation Army claims to have the largest artillery force in the world today. Open source intelligence estimates them to have 9,500 artillery pieces in its arsenal. But exactly how capable is their hardware and how well trained are their soldiers? And how badly will this video ruin my social credit score in Beijing?

The United States Defense Intelligence Agency in their 2019 China Military Power Report, mentions that artillery is the key to understanding the entire PLA Ground Force. This is because over one third of their force is based on arty. So it might be a good idea for us to check in and see what they’re up to. Call for fire on the like button then repeat on subscribe if you want to see two defense videos each week.

Written by: Chris Cappy and Tony
Edited by: Savvy Studios

When the PLA was first established in 1927 they had very limited artillery using what was called mountain guns or pack howitzers. They could be taken apart into smaller pieces to be transported over mountain terrain easier. Not much firepower. However, Right After World War 2 ended the CCP straight up issued a directive that all soldiers and citizens had to collect shells that had been left behind by the Japanese army. Hey are you busy on Saturday? No it’s awesome I’m just taking a me day, gonna chill so hard. Not anymore you’re not go pick up artillery shells until I get tired! This grass roots campaign if you want to call it that , collected 700 artillery pieces and 500,000 rounds that had been abandoned. During their 2nd civil war with the Koumintang the CCP captured more artillery giving them an odd hodgepodge of Japanese, German and American hardware. By this point they were very comfortable using other mens cannons.

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#ARTILLERY #ARMY #HISTORY

[xVMouseVx]

Fun fact: you can see the "made in china" on the shells after they land

[jimmytaco]

“Yo Vietnam now that we don’t want to support you how about you uh… give back all those guns we gave you?”
“Hmmm… No”

[nombinator]

The 155mm is not american. It was a work from France and Germany to develop a common shell format. It was better than alternatives at the time and was accepted as a NATO standard as well as adopted by the USA.

[johanmetreus]

11:42 "Nose bleed artillery"
You stuffed the gas-generator in the wrong end of the shell!
It is called *"base-bleed shell"* since the drag induced by the flat bottom of the shell is counter-acted by a small can of rocket fuel stuck in the *base* of the grenade.
This rocket fuel deliberately does not burn fast enough to create thrust, but does generate enough gasses to fill out the vacuum behind the shell that slows it down over distance.

It was designed by the Royal Artillery Bureau in Sweden in the 1960's to give the coastal artillery (fortified and mobile both) a longer reach, and came into active stocks in 1967.

[kurtwicklund]

62, 000 artillery pieces to Vietnam? That must include 82mm mortar tubes. Which is misleading in the context of the video.

[davidqin]

Chris said China is probably capable of producing a million heavy artillery shells annually. It shows that he had no idea of Chinese military industrial capacity.

[qiangwang]

1M/year? That even not reach firework's consumption. In 2024, Chinese new year fireworks consumed 0.8M tons explosives. And this data is already in restricted state (fireworks inside Cities are restricted).
I think a 155 shell won't heavier than 800kg. cause this mass can't be lifted by muscle.
We joke Ukraine-Russia war total explosives consumption is less than our fireworks consumption. And from this, China REALLY didn't support Russia like a lot of guys think. Things won't be such boring like now if we support Russia like US support Ukraine.

Seem like a lot of guys have no clue about Chinese heavy industry capacity. Currenty steel productivity is already in low capacity and still be asked to cut the capacity.

BTW, For bombarment Taiwan, Artillery or rocket artillery are poor efficiency. Best way is using UAV throw JDAM, energy provided by high-efficient and reusable engine, cost is only fuel and explosives. And no risk of losing pilot.

Chinese idiom: more sweat for less blood.

(hmmm, social credit score... hahahaha)

[Chiller]

My ex was too comfortable using other men’s cannons.

[cyberherbalist]

I think that the PLA is in love with arty because their original mentor, the Red Army of the USSR, was in love with arty.
ETA: It's been pointed out to me that the PLA grew its emphasis on artillery entirely on its own, _not_ due to Soviet influence.

[eloymiranda]

That is why the United States 🇺🇲 LOST to Vietnam 🇻🇳 and Afghanistan 🇦🇫 too two countries that didn't have weapons to defend themselves they won with sticks and rocks

[kqkeybk]

"Comfortable using other men's cannons" -- LOL

[seasonallyferal]

The US should say they're switching from 155mm to 157mm and cause China to switch all its artillery.

[BobJason]

"No matter how much I learn, I learn how little I've learned. You Humble me"

[stepup]

Glad they pointed out 233mm was bigger than 155mm otherwise I might have missed that.

[Cameron-po]

As I understand it, saying that "artillery is the key to understanding the Chinese ground forces" is more than a slight understatement. Their military even controls whole economic areas that are responsible for producing certain military goods and if I understand correctly, their military enjoys a bit more autonomy than most other militaries do when operating within their home country.

Really, China's military isn't just an artillery-launching machine... Their whole economy is also an artillery production machine. I think their philosophy seems to be that it's more important to have an unlimited supply of artillery than of anything else. It seems like they expect to lose a fairly significant chunk of their population in the event of a major war, and are designing their military in such a way that they can keep doing damage for a pretty long time regardless of the losses they take.

They seem to have realized that tanks are problematic because their crews are irreplaceable and tough tanks are not easy to design on the first try. But once you have artillery that tracks and fires almost entirely using a computer, it's not quite as hard to produce a lot of those and have them be fairly easy to use as long as the people operating them only need to know how to load them and press the button, and more specialized crews that locate targets are inputting the coordinates for strikes remotely and remaining mobile enough that they don't take unacceptable losses.

Although, I can't say I know how chinese artillery handles, so that last part is speculation. Tanks can be made to traverse the complex and varied terrain in China, but producing a lot of boom tubes is much easier and probably cheaper too - and China wants to become a capable military ASAP.

[HammerOn-bugx]

Your statement on who killed Bull is incorrect. Bull was killed by Mossad when he would not stop helping Saddam Hussein build his super gun. They tried to talk him out of it, but he was broke again and would not listen.

[grantcooper]

its gonna be real awkward when the ccp starts asking their civilians to start picking up any american artillery shells they can find

[hrishikeshgogoi]

The 200mm shell seems quite substantial, especially when considering that WW2 battleships had guns with a minimum caliber of 350mm and some even had shells upwards of 400mm.

[ctmetsfanmike]

“Only someone with my special kind of tism would get excited about “ 🤣🤣🤣🤣 had be rolling

[ebrian.deutsche]

"It's the kind document that only someone with my special kind of tism would get excited about"


This is pretty relatable