Beijing : The Chinese PLA has claimed that its artillery force rockets, capable of hitting targets at 150 kilometres, are far stronger in terms of automation and firepower than those of its US and Russian counterparts and can ‘inflict a metal storm’ on the enemy.
“The power of each of my battalion’s rocket launchers is equal to that of a whole battalion equipped with traditional artillery guns”, said Wang, political supervisor of the rocket artillery battalions of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), the world’s largest standing army. “To be specific, each rocket can cover and destroy a vast area equivalent to several football fields, while each launcher can fire more than 10 rockets within several minutes”, state-run China Daily quoted him as saying.
“Moreover, as the result of stringent training, we now boast accuracy rates that are almost as high as those of surface-to-surface missiles. All this means no enemy can survive our strike”, Wang said. The battalion’s long-range multiple rocket launcher made its public debut during the Tiananmen Square military parade in 2009. It was introduced as an effective complement to the PLA’s surface-to-surface strike arsenal, composed of tactical missiles and traditional artillery guns. The rocket launcher has a maximum firing range of 150 kms, according to battalion commanders. In comparison, Russia’s BM-30 Smerch has a maximum range of 90 kms and the American M270 Multiple Launch Rocket System has a top range of about 70 kms, the Daily report said.