Lt Gen H S Panag (retd)
On 30 January, the UK’s Financial Times reported that China is building the world’s largest military command centre in Beijing. Spanning 1,500 acres—at least 10 times the size of the Pentagon—the underground complex is designed to protect China’s military leadership, including President Xi Jinping, who also chairs the Central Military Commission, during conflicts, including nuclear war.
The command centre is in tune with the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) doctrine of subterranean warfare, which prioritises underground protection for vital command, operational, and logistical installations. It goes without saying that these installations will also be protected with anti aircraft, missile, drone, electronic warfare and cyber warfare shields.
The hostage-prisoner exchange following the 15 January ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas once again highlighted the advantages of subterranean warfare against a technologically superior adversary. Israel, with its unlimited supply of precision-guided munitions (PGMs) and conventional munitions delivered by aircraft, missiles, drones and ground operations, could not destroy or defeat the Hamas fighting from its network of underground tunnels. In footage from the exchanges, substantial number of Hamas fighters dressed in immaculate battle gear were seen orchestrating (for propaganda purposes) the handover of small groups of hostages to the international Red Cross.
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