Guided by Xi Jinping's Thought on Strengthening the Military · Establishing and Practicing a Correct Outlook on Performance | The "Great Nation's Long Sword" Honed to a Sharper Edge
The "Great Nation's Long Sword" Honed to a Sharper Edge
— An Investigative Report from a Rocket Force Brigade
■ PLA Daily Special Correspondent Li Bingfeng, Special Correspondent Li Hongjie
Officers and soldiers of the brigade conduct missile operations training in the field. Photo by PLA Daily Special Correspondent Liu Mingsong
In front of the dormitory building of Launch Battalion One of a certain Rocket Force brigade, a countdown board stands erect, its display fixed on a single number: "0."
Every time he returns from leading a launch element through training, Master Sergeant First Class He Xianda habitually stops and stands before the countdown board for a moment. That conspicuous "0" reminds him at all times that only by treating every ordinary day as the day war arrives can he ensure the unit is ready to answer the call, ready to fight upon arrival, and certain to win when it fights.
One soldier's combat consciousness reflects the combat readiness posture of an entire unit. Confronting the real challenges of transformation and development, the brigade Party committee has trained its "performance sights" on winning battles, leading officers and soldiers to continuously study new equipment, new skills, and new methods of warfare. Toward the goal of every individual being battle-hardened, every launcher being capable of firing, and the entire brigade winning as a whole, they have pressed forward with all-out effort to overcome key difficulties, successfully completing a series of major tasks including live-fire launches and combat readiness duty shifts. The "Great Nation's Long Sword" has been honed to a sharper edge.
From "Live-Fire Launch" to "Combat Launch"——
Pressing the Attack: Closing the Distance of "One Word's Difference"
"Whether it was the configuration of crew positions or the operating procedures, the changes were comprehensive across the board." Reflecting on his experience when the unit first transitioned to new equipment, He Xianda—who has worked in the missile specialty for nearly 30 years—said that during that period he suddenly felt like a complete novice at the controls.
In years past, He Xianda had followed his unit into dense forests, onto snow-covered plains, and through the Gobi Desert, launching missiles skyward on multiple occasions, forging the hard skills of "crystal-clear recitation (一口清)," "single-keystroke precision (一键准)," and "unshakeable under questioning (问不倒)." Yet, faced with new equipment of ever-increasing informatization levels, and looking through the lens of the smoke and fire of wars in various parts of the world, he and his comrades felt an unprecedented sense of capability panic: Does being able to conduct a live-fire launch necessarily mean being able to win a battle? Does a successful launch in peacetime training equal a successful launch in wartime?
This was also a subject of deliberation for the brigade Party committee leadership. They came to a deep understanding that a servicemember's record of performance must be written on the future battlefield and must withstand the test of war. Closing the distance of "one word's difference"—from "live-fire launch" to "combat launch"—urgently required an all-out assault on key difficulties.
Pressing the attack first requires calibrating the target direction. The brigade used its mission tasks as the driving force, bearing down hard on combat readiness training from a starting point of difficulty, strictness, and combat realism, guiding officers and soldiers out of their training "comfort zone," and working to solidify the foundation of capabilities. Constructing environmental conditions that closely approximate actual combat, setting up complex enemy situations that might be encountered on the battlefield, and broadly conducting battalion-versus-battalion confrontations and launcher-sequencing activities… Reviewing the brigade's training summary reports from recent years, this reporter found that various difficult, complex, and dangerous situations are appearing on the exercise and training grounds with increasing frequency.
This change is inseparable from the exercise control group, the behind-the-scenes "operator." They discarded scripts that had been in use for many years, and with an eye toward the characteristics of modern warfare, upgraded and expanded the "special-situation library (特情库)," adding dozens of new special situations including intelligent jamming and deception and extreme-condition communications, making "catching officers and soldiers off guard" the norm.
"In the past, we acted on orders. Now we frequently have to independently assess the battlefield situation and determine a course of action. This demands that we forge the hard skills of zero reaction-time delay (反应零时差), zero operational errors (操作零差错), and zero data misjudgments (数据零误判)." Squad Leader Li, commander of a launch element, said that his comrades have come to understand that being proficient in operating weapons and equipment is far from sufficient—they must also improve their ability to read a situation, control a situation, and break out of a situation.
After one confrontation training exercise concluded, they promptly conducted an after-action review, and based on the problems exposed during training, designated equipment operations in complex electromagnetic environments and emergency situation handling as key areas for subsequent intensive and specialized drilling. The commander of a certain launch company introduced that the brigade organizes a weekly specialty spot-check examination, forcing officers and soldiers to accelerate their pace and achieve strong results.
Pressing the attack most clearly reveals how strong the shoulders of Party member cadres are. In this brigade, from the brigade leadership down to new platoons commanders, everyone has further clarified their combat position responsibilities according to combat standards: train intensively in whatever fighting requires, urgently fill in whatever one personally lacks, and go all-out to overcome whatever difficulties exist in combat capability development—taking the practical action of leading from the front and setting the example, striving to create a record of real achievements that can withstand the test of actual combat. During the interview, this reporter noted the following set of figures: more than ninety percent of launch sub-element political instructors across the entire brigade are capable of independently serving as launch rack commanders. The spirit of officers and soldiers pressing forward and overcoming difficulties can be glimpsed from this alone.
From "Fighting Alone" to "Modular Combination"——
Breaking Through: Accelerating the Enhancement of System-of-Systems Combat Capability
"To forge oneself into the 'blade tip' of a strategic force, one must put boldness first and action foremost, dare to take responsibility, and be skilled at getting things done." Sitting in the battalion command post, eyes fixed on the screen before him, Battalion Commander Li of a certain launch battalion in the brigade cannot forget that experience.
At the time, the battalion was participating in a confrontation exercise organized by a higher echelon. The entire battalion's officers and soldiers trained under intensified pressure at their posts, and their scores in several preliminary assessments were quite good. Battalion Commander Li was fully confident in defeating the opposing force.
The exercise proceeded at a tense pace. However, just as the battalion's officers and soldiers were preparing to enter the launch countdown, the exercise control group issued an on-the-spot directive requiring them to immediately maneuver to another area and complete a combat launch within a specified time.
Withdrawing equipment while simultaneously planning routes and coordinating with support sub-elements… All manner of unexpected situations arrived one after another, throwing officers and soldiers into momentary confusion. In the end, due to poor individual coordination and element synchronization, the launch zero-hour was delayed.
At the after-action critique, many backbone personnel attributed the failure to insufficient combat realism in training. But after the pain of reflection, Battalion Commander Li cut through the surface to identify the essence: "In day-to-day training, we only focused on our own 'one-third of an acre (一亩三分地),' thinking that as long as we could operate proficiently and troubleshoot faults, everything would be fine. We rarely proactively thought about how to coordinate with other support elements, always feeling that was someone else's business…" This profound reflection ultimately pointed its spearhead at the battalion Party committee's outlook on performance. The Party committee leadership turned the blade inward and conducted self-examination, anchoring the basis for improvement in exploring methods and approaches for system-of-systems integration——
Breaking down organizational barriers, strengthening cross-specialty training, conducting tactical coordination training, and progressively achieving the "clenching of all elements into a fist (攥指成拳)" across all elements; distinguishing categories such as command modules and technical modules, establishing more than 50 subjects with hundreds of training items, and embedding more than 200 special-situation variables; organizing mutually-conditioned training, and verifying and improving integration effectiveness through live-force confrontations with other services, branches, and sister units…
From "fighting alone" to "modular combination," accelerating the enhancement of system-of-systems combat capability quickly became a common action across the entire brigade.
Immediately after one combined-arms training exercise concluded, Company Commander Wang of a certain launch company led officers and soldiers in organizing all data and identifying problems and shortcomings. He said: "The subject configuration of this training emphasized randomness and continuity, the conditions were constructed to more closely approximate actual combat, and many situations were encountered for the first time. We must urgently formulate corrective measures. When it comes to matters of fighting, we cannot wait and cannot afford to drag our feet."
Battalion Commander Li and his comrades share this same sense of urgency. Today, as their system-of-systems combat capability has grown stronger, they have become increasingly composed on the exercise and training grounds. During one combat-realistic training exercise conducted under nighttime conditions, several launch elements of the battalion responded to orders, simultaneously handling all manner of exercise-control special situations in real time while closely coordinating with support elements. On the large screen, flowing alongside the tracks of the missile vehicles came information and data from every element. This reporter observed that in this brigade, a command "single chain (一条链)" and a support "single network (一张网)" are becoming reality.
From "Accompanying Support" to "Embedded Support"——
Building Capability: There Is No Primary or Secondary on the Battlefield
Deep in the mountains of southern China, a fine rain falls steadily.
"Tweet-tweet-tweet——" A burst of urgent whistle blasts suddenly rang out, and various types of combat vehicles of the brigade surged forward like the wind, advancing into the depths of the dense forest. Immediately, a fire assault training exercise commenced. Beneath the launch rack, Sergeant First Class Ke and his comrades prepared to erect the missile.
"The erection arm cannot be extended!" Faced with this sudden special situation, the launch element immediately organized to handle it. Unexpectedly, multiple additional special situations arrived in rapid succession: "crew member attacked and wounded," "equipment damaged," "fuel tank penetrated"… Although informed that a neighboring unit was rushing to provide support, Sergeant Ke still felt uncertain: whether they could effectively respond to these situations was a severe test of comprehensive support capability.
Shortly thereafter, the maintenance sub-element arrived on scene and began emergency repairs; the medical sub-element urgently treated and evacuated the "casualties"; the fuel sub-element calculated remaining travel mileage and urgently commenced equipment emergency repairs… The brigade's various support elements acted swiftly, each fulfilling its responsibilities according to the plan and division of labor. Before long, the special situations were resolved and training proceeded in an orderly manner.
Witnessing this scene, the brigade leadership reflected: "On the future battlefield, there will be no clear distinction between primary and secondary. Every element is an indispensable link in the combat chain." He explained to this reporter that in previous exercises and training, support elements always considered themselves "supporting actors," following behind the main combat sub-elements "step by step." Now, combat elements and support elements are mixed into combined groupings, clenched into a fist, and have long since ceased to distinguish between "yours" and "mine."
The shift from "accompanying support" to "embedded support" once went through an intense collision of ideas.
"Everyone understands the principle that support capability is combat capability. But for a period of time, support units were not built as combat units." During the study and education campaign on establishing and practicing a correct outlook on performance (树立和践行正确政绩观), a brigade leader raised this old matter again, demanding that each unit plan its development against the standard of actual combat while also conducting in-depth analysis of its own existing problems.
"Take the evaluation of merits and awards, for example. The brigade Party committee leadership used to always look more favorably upon and show more affection for launch sub-elements, not realizing that a missile's flight into the sky depends on the combined lifting force of every element. The spotlight cannot always be on the soldiers who press the launch button." This leader reflected with feeling: "Future warfare is fought as a system; peacetime troop training trains as a system. So why, when it comes to year-end commendations and awards, must we distinguish between those who are close and those who are distant?"
Correct action originates from corrected thinking. The brigade Party committee promptly adjusted the direction and volume of resource allocation, convened a collective consultation on the development approach for support sub-elements, simultaneously optimized the support model, implemented modular grouping, and drove support elements to organically integrate into the combat system. The brigade support department leadership introduced that in organizing combined-arms training today, launch sub-elements and support sub-elements plan together and operate in an integrated and linked manner—each present within the other—ensuring that any sudden situation can be handled immediately.
During the interview, the brigade happened to be organizing a comprehensive training exercise. Were it not for the conspicuous insignia on the officers' and soldiers' arms, this reporter would have had difficulty distinguishing which personnel came from support sub-elements. "Ready to respond at any moment, ready to deploy at any moment" has become their shining calling card.
"Crew members, take your positions!" Another resounding command rang out. Missile crew members moved out rapidly and operated with precision; combat vehicle after combat vehicle occupied its position; missile after missile stood poised and ready to launch… Bustling figures and resolute faces—a snapshot of this missile brigade's fine bearing as it prepares for war and builds its capabilities.