Hainan island shelters PLA Chinese Navy only air defense brigade


China Navy's only land-based air defense brigade is based on Hainan island. While smaller independent air defense units provide air defense for naval installations elsewhere, this is the only mobile unit in the entire province of Hainan, the island that shelters Navy's HQ of the Chinese Southern Theater Command.
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HQ-9 long-range air defense missile (Picture source: China MoD/China Defense Blog)


Judging from the military office photos published here, this air defense brigade operates HQ-9 long-range SAMs, HQ-6A short-medium-range SAM, LD2000 land-based 30mm CIWS system and HN-6 MANPADS.

The People's Liberation Army Navy is composed of five branches: the Submarine Force, the Surface Force, the Coastal Defense Force, the Marine Corps and the Naval Air Force. With a personnel strength of 240,000 personnel, including 15,000 marines and 26,000 naval air force personnel, it is the second-largest navy in the world in terms of tonnage, only behind the United States Navy, and has the largest number of major combatants of any navy.

The PLAN Coastal Defence Force is a land-based fighting force and a branch of the PLAN with a strength of around 25,000 personnel. Also known as the coastal defense troops, they serve to defend China's coastal areas from invasion via amphibious landings or air-attack. Throughout the 1960s to 1980s, the Coastal Defense Force was focused on defending China's coast from a possible Soviet sea-borne invasion. With the fall of the Soviet Union, the threat of an amphibious invasion of China has diminished and therefore the branch is often considered to no-longer to be a vital component of the PLAN, especially as the surface warships of the PLAN continue to improve in terms of anti-ship and air-defense capabilities. Today the primary weapons of the coastal defense troops are the HY-2, YJ-82, and C-602 anti-ship missiles.


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Transfer of an HQ-9 air defense missile for reloading a launcher (Picture source: China MoD/China Defense Blog)


Army Recognition Global Defense and Security news
Live-fire test of an HQ-6A short-range air defense missile (Picture source: China MoD/China Defense Blog)


Army Recognition Global Defense and Security news
Firing of an HN-6 MANPAD (Picture source: China MoD/China Defense Blog)


Army Recognition Global Defense and Security news
LD2000 land-based 30mm CIWS system (Picture source: China MoD/China Defense Blog)