UNDERGROUND FACILITIES
The PLA maintains a robust and technologically advanced underground facility (UGF) program to conceal and protect all aspects of its military forces, including C2, weapons of mass destruction, logistics, and modernized missile, ground, air, and naval forces. The PRC has thousands of UGFs and constructs more each year. These UGFs are central to The PRC’s counter-intervention and power projection efforts, enabling the PLA to protect valuable assets from the effects of missile strikes and to conceal military operations from adversaries. The PRC’s emphasis on strategic deterrence has also contributed to the construction of UGFs for the country’s nuclear forces, which aims to survive an initial nuclear first-strike by an adversary.
The PRC began to update and expand its military UGF program in the mid- to late-1980s. This modernization effort took on renewed urgency following the PRC’s observation of U.S. and Coalition air operations during the 1991 Gulf War and their use in OPERATION ALLIED FORCE. These military campaigns convinced China it needs to build more survivable, deeply buried facilities to protect military assets from the effects of penetrating conventional munition and nuclear strikes. Since the 2015-2016 military reforms, the PRC has expanded their UGF program to support survivable and redundant nodes for its wartime contingency planning. These nodes aim to enable continuous C2, communications, sustainment, and counterstrike capabilities across all PLA services and domains, as well as its joint forces. The PRC will likely continue to develop and expand its UGF program to support its expanding forces and military modernization.
JOINT CAPABILITIES FOR COUNTERINTERVENTION
The PRC’s counter-intervention strategy aims to restrict the United States from having a presence in the PRC’s immediate periphery and limit U.S. access in the broader Indo-Pacific region. The PLA’s A2/AD—otherwise known as “counterintervention”—capabilities are, to date, the most robust within the FIC, although the PLA is increasingly able to project power into the Philippine Sea and the PRC seeks to strengthen its capabilities to reach farther into the Pacific Ocean.
Long-Range Precision Strike and Supporting ISR. PLA texts state that precision attack in all warfare domains is critical in modern war. The PLA further notes that small elite forces using advanced weapons or capabilities can attain military effects that previously required large armies and much higher levels of damage and cost. Therefore, PLA writings state that precision weapons are not only force multipliers, but also a means of “war control” to prevent escalation. PLA documents further state that the range of vital political, economic, and military targets has grown as the advanced globalized economy develops, implying that growing PLA strike capabilities will attack an increasing array of targets, and, thereby, attain international strategic effects by striking critical nodes of the global economy during a future conflict.
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OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE
Annual Report to Congress: Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China
