Special report: Celebrating 60th Anniversary of Founding of PRC

April 23 marks the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). Setting off from the Yangtze River out into the uneven oceans, the PLAN has grown, and become stronger over six decades of development. The PLAN is a powerful maritime presence with surface, submarine and airborne forces, the marine corps, and the coastal defense force that enable it to deal with various threats and to carry out naval tasks.

The Surface Forces

At a military port in Qingdao, on glittering waters ranks of stately warships are anchored. This port records the history of China's Navy, and has seen the birth and growth of the country's first destroyer fleet.

Five years after its founding, the People's Republic of China (PRC) bought four destroyers from the Soviet Union in 1954. The destroyers, named Anshan, Fushun, Changchun, and Taiyuan, made up new China's first naval fleet. For the next 20 years, the destroyers were the country's most powerful fleet. They were honorably called by China's seamen the "Four King Kongs".

In the 1960s, the PLAN equipped the vessels with missile-launching capacities, making them medium-sized missile warships. This improved the navy's fighting capability, and served as examples for reorganizing later generations of frigates and for the research and manufacture of new warships.

China's first home-produced missile destroyer, Jinan, was launched in 1971. More than 10 warships of this type were built and integrated into the three fleets in the North China Sea, the East China Sea, and the South China Sea. They became the country's major maritime combatant forces. In 1992, the Anshan, the last of the "Four King Kongs", stopped military operations after almost 40years of service, and was anchored at the Qingdao Naval Museum. In1994, China's second generation of destroyers, the Harbin and Qingdao, started service. The 21st Century has seen the country's third generation of destroyers, the Shenyang, Shijiazhuang, Haikou, and Wuhan, have carried on the service. China's naval forces have been strengthened.

From importing and imitating, the PRC in over half a century had managed to produce itself and develop three generations and seven types of destroyers that have realized overall systematic automation. Meanwhile the frigate fleet has also been expanding. China has developed three generations and 10 types of frigates. In60 years of development and construction, the surface fleet of the PLAN has transformed into a maritime force with destroyers and frigates as the leading combat power, supported by escort ships, speedboats, gunboats, supply ships, and minesweepers.

PLAN personnel have also undergone profound changes with the updated modern weaponry. Warship commanders and pilots are highly trained and educated with doctoral or master degrees and sophisticated knowledge in naval sciences, technologies, and information. They have created new training methods and new tactics in response to the increasingly complicated electromagnetic environment. They have completed hundreds of exercises, cruises, scientific research projects and experiments, and overseas visits, which contributed to the informationization of the PLAN.

On May 20, 2002, China's Qingdao Destroyer and Taicang Supply Ship set sail from Qingdao and started their first global tour. This tour had the longest duration and the longest voyage; visited the most countries and passed the most new waters, sea-routes and ports in the history of the country's naval outbound visits. The PLAN has left a wake across the world.

On Dec. 26, 2008, the Haikou and Wuhan destroyers, and Weishanhu Supply Ship set off from Sanya to carry out escort missions in the Gulf of Aden, in China's first-ever deployment of military forces to overseas territories to protect the country's national interests, and it was China's first deployment of maritime forces to help with international humanitarian tasks.

The Navy Submarines

Submarines are an important part of the navy's fighting capacity. A naval power will inevitably develop submarines. China's seamen had called for purchases of submarines as early as the late Qing Dynasty. During the Republic of China period (1912-1949), the government planned to order submarines from abroad, but due the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan, they failed to materialize. After the founding the PRC, the country had great difficulties in building submarines due to military technology embargoes by foreign countries.

After five years of construction, China's first submarine fleet was created in June 1954. This fleet contained two old-fashioned and small submarines, the New China 11 and the New China 12. But they were China's first submarine fleet in 200 years since the vessels were invented. In the 1950s, China imported two mid-sized torpedo submarines from the former Soviet Union. By the 1960s, China already was building her own submarines using domestically produced materials, and was improving its existing submarines and accumulating knowledge to develop the next generation.

China's independently-built Type 035 Submarine was launched in 1971. Its speed, controllability, navigation, duration of submersion, and noise control were all greatly improved. China rolled out its third generation of submarines that began service in 1996.

China was also increasing efforts to develop nuclear-powered subs while building conventional diesel-electric submarines. On Jan. 17, 1955, the United States put to sea its first nuclear submarine, the Nautilus, in the state of Connecticut. Its massive power inspired China at the other end of the Pacific. With no knowledge and experience, China's path of building nuclear-powered subs was full of trial and error. All the Chinese designers had at that time were two fuzzy photographs of a nuclear-powered submarine, and their only source of inspiration came from a submarine toy brought back from abroad. But in less than 20 years, China put to sea its first nuclear sub on Aug. 1, 1974, and in August 1983, its first ballistic-missile submarine.

In 1985, China's nuclear submarine, Long March, started its maiden underwater voyage to test the submarine, its endurance, perseverance, and capability of the crew. Since 1960 when the United States launched the USS Triton, the first nuclear submarine for a submerged circumnavigation of the Earth, the vessel had held the world record for longest underwater navigation after 84 days and nights. But the Chinese navy set a new record of 90 days in the Long March Submarine, challenging their extreme physical limits.

In over half a century, China's submarine fleet transformed from bulky mechanics to modern and advanced vessels in the information age. The fleet has also grown from singular to multiple types. Instead of quantity, quality and efficiency are the present-day standards for the submarines forces. China, possessing both conventional diesel-electric and nuclear subs, has made a statement with its great progress in its submarines fleet combat capacity. The newest generation of submarines is catching up with the world leaders in science and technologies. As China's modernizes its submarines, the PLAN is also changing its old-fashioned solo-sub training exercises. The Navy is now facilitating multiple submarines, and engaging service personnel of land, sea, and air to train together in more complicated situations, setting more challenges for and boosting the fleet's command, quick response, and coordinated attack capabilities.

The Navy Airborne Forces

Experience of modern warfare suggests a presence in the air goes hand in hand with control of the sea. As China's surface forces go further abroad, the Navy's airborne forces are developing long-distance combat capabilities.

In November 1980, a unit of the Navy Airborne Forces finished its first ever tour when it returned from the Nansha Islands. It demonstrated the PLAN Airborne Forces' capability to carry out long-distance operations. On May 22, 1986, two land-based fighters took off over the East China Sea. After two hours, the fighters had flown over the first island chain (a series of islands that stretch from Japan in the north to Taiwan and the Philippines to the south) and hovered above the Navy's surface fleet in the Pacific, in their first-ever rendezvous with a fleet at sea. They together put on a show of coordinated military exercise. In recent years, China has formed a new generation of fighter aircraft, called the Flying Leopard, that are capable of initiating military operations at any time in all weathers. The PLAN Airborne Forces also realized airborne refueling of fighter aircraft, extending their capability to implement long-distance military operations.

But the PLAN Airborne Forces were limited without an aircraft carrier, which could enable the force to move military operations further beyond the coastal waters. To make up for this, the PLAN formed its first mobile-airbase troop in 1975.

On Jan. 3, 1980, Navy pilot Guo Wencai successfully landed his helicopter at the mobile airbase for the first time, marking the official establishment of China's mobile-airbase troop. Over the next 20 years, the troops went with the country's fleet to more than 40 countries and regions to participate in about 20 joint military exercises. China's mobile-airbase troops are capable of all-weather operations.

Over more than 50 years of development, the PLAN Airborne Forces, led by a series of jet fighters, like the Su-30, Flying Leopard, Hong-6 and Jian-8, and supported by fleet auxiliaries such as the new corvettes, FACs (Fast Attack Craft), refueling and surveillance aircraft, has been well prepared to take control of the air during a sea battle and to take the upper-hand in the electromagnetic warfare.

The PLAN Marine Corps

"Surprise raids, decisive strike", is the characteristic of the PLAN Marine Corps' military action, Chen Changfeng, a brigadier of China Marine Corps summarized.

China's first marine corps was founded on Dec. 9, 1954. Four days later, they went into battle in the liberation of Yijiangshan Island from the Kuomintang. After the Korean War, some of the Chinese troops on the Korean Peninsula was formed into the marine corps, 110,000 strong with 8 divisions. But during military reforms in 1957, the marine corps was disbanded and all its personnel and equipment merged with Chinese Army.

In the battle of Xisha Islands in 1974, the troops could not acclimatize to the marine environment, so the Military Commission of the Central Committee of Communist Party of China decided to rebuild the marine corps. On May 5, 1980, the new Chinese Marine Corps was set up at Anding County, Hainan Province. Over the next 29 years, the Chinese Marine Corps successfully accomplished transformations from land to sea, from motorization to mechanization and from mechanization to informationization.

In August 2005, the PLAN Marine Corps took part in the Sino-Russian Joint Military Exercise on the Jiaodong Peninsula. Though it was the first time the Marine Corps had participated in multi-national joint exercises, they perfectly accomplished their mission. "You're one of the best marine corps in the world," a Russian counterpart said after the exercise.

The same year, Chinese mariners Su Ronglian and Ruan Changming, on behalf of the PLAN, took part in the "ERAN.ATTACK" International Scout Competition, which is the ultimate arena for scouts from all over the world. During the competition, which lasted 5 days and 4 nights, they completed more than 20 courses, including landing operations, a jungle march with full pack, all-weather battlefield medic services, and reconnaissance, together with six Chinese partners. They finally won the top prize among all the foreign contenders.

Due to the excellent work of the Chinese Marine Corps, such as the fight against the 1999 Yangtze River Flood, the underwater security for the Boao Forum and the Olympic sailing competitions, and the earthquake relief in May 2008, they are praised as "Tigers on land, Dragons at sea".

The PLAN Coastal Defenses

The PLAN Coastal Defenses, located at important areas and islands, operate shore-based weapons. They have played a critical role in coastal defense, inshore traffic and fishery security. With new coast-to-ship missiles, the Chinese Coastal Defenses have become a mighty long-range strike force.

The first coastal artillery positions were established on Nov. 27, 1950, at Qingdao. By the end of 1955, the PLAN had 19 coastal artillery regiments. And the first cruise missile battalion was introduced from the former Soviet Union in 1958. With more than 20coast-to-ship missile units, the Coastal Defenses boasts both coastal artillery and coast-to-ship missile units, providing multi-level defenses.

Growing out of nothing, the Chinese Coastal Defenses always attempted to be stronger.

In August 1985, with the help of both observatories and helicopter navigation, one coast-to-ship missile battalion successfully hit all the long-range targets during an over-the-horizon firing exercise. Afterward, the same battalion hit a remote-controlled target ship sailing at a speed of 24 knots. The success meant the missiles were no longer limited by the position's altitude and radar performance, which improved the missile's mobility and survivability.

With the application of new technologies like solid fuel, radio altimeters and anti-jamming terminal-guidance radars, the C series of coastal defense missiles, developed in the 1980s, can fly supersonically and as close as possible to surface, bringing mass destruction and precise guidance.

In the summer of 1987, all three improved extended-range missiles hit targets over 120 km away. This meant the PLAN Coastal Defenses had increased fire coverage of coast-to-ship missiles by a third. It enhanced the quality and power of the force.

In 2004, the PLAN set up a new coast-to-ship missile regiment. After years of development, they have comprehensive combat effectiveness and have greatly improved Coastal Defenses performance.

Thoroughly tempered and equipped with advanced weapons, the Chinese Coastal Defenses is rapidly growing into firm security force along China's meandering coastlines. The Coastal Defenses, with the other forces of the PLAN, are truly the Great Wall of Steel.

Special report: Celebrating 60th Anniversary of Founding of PRC