China’s new super-heavy artillery cannons, which can destroy even the hardest field defences and subterranean tunnels, might lay siege to Taiwan’s frontline islands, giving any invasion scenario a new firepower dimension.

The People’s Liberation Army-Strategic Support Force (PLA-SSF) of China has received a contract for the production of 203-millimeter artillery guns, which is larger than any such weapon in known US or Chinese arsenals, according to a report by Defence One published last month.

The Nanjing University of Science and Technology (NUST), China’s top organisation for creating modern artillery, was given the contract, according to the article.

The project is being developed by the PLA-SSF Northwest Institute of Nuclear Technology (NINT) in Xian, and according to a Defence One article, it may be able to fire tactical nuclear rounds.

According to the same source, China may employ 203-millimeter artillery to terrorise civilian populations, pierce enemy defences, stop enemy advances, hit strategic targets far beyond enemy lines, and much more.

According to the research, it might play a transitional function between 155 mm and longer-range rocket artillery.

The new 203-millimeter cannons from China will also have the same drawbacks that all heavy artillery does, such as sluggish rate of fire, restricted mobility, and challenging logistics.
Prior until recently, China’s efforts to construct 203-millimeter artillery had halted. China had to create artillery that could outrange and outgun the most potent Soviet 203-millimeter artillery pieces because to Cold War border concerns between the Soviet Union and China, according to Global Security.

The source states that the VSP-203/W90 203 self-propelled gun, which was initially tested in 1995, was created through collaboration between China and Western businesses under the direction of renowned supergun designer Gerald Bull.

The end of the Cold War, however, decreased border tensions between China and Russia, making advancements in China’s 155 mm cannons, rocket artillery, and super-heavy artillery like the VSP-203/W90 203 look redundant. It also implies that China’s supergun research programme may have come to a stop as a result of Bull’s murder in March 1990.

Global Security points out that China’s economy is expanding quickly, so if the necessity arises, it could simply restart the construction of super-heavy artillery like the VSP-203/W90 203.

The Los Angeles Times said in a story from June 2022 that 80–90% of losses in the Ukraine war were caused by artillery, with the remaining casualties coming from bullets, reiterating the importance of heavy artillery.

In the ongoing fight in Ukraine, conventional artillery has so far been more effective than high-tech weapons. Michael Peck writes in a December 2022 piece for Business Insider that mass artillery fire, not the anti-tank guided missiles (ATGM) lauded in foreign media, was what turned back Russian tanks’ advance on Kiev last year.

Harry Lye points out in an essay for Global Defence Technology that artillery is more cost-effective at dispersing enemy formations than precision-guided weapons since it is less expensive to field.

In addition to expense, Lye points out that cargo restrictions and weather issues can make it difficult for aeroplanes to deliver firepower on a broad scale, much like a focused artillery bombardment can.

New technology can increase the artillery’s response, accuracy, and dependability. For instance, Dominika Kunertova notes in a peer-reviewed article published this March in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists that small drones have significantly changed the artillery capability in the ongoing Ukraine war, with their tactical reconnaissance reducing blind shelling incidents and cutting time-critical targeting and firing cycles from half an hour to three to five minutes.

China has been developing AI-driven laser-guided artillery rounds, according to a report from Asia Times published last month. These rounds have the ability to pinpoint targets more quickly than conventional mathematical models. According to reports, the AI-guided weapons avoid complex calculations by using information from firing tests or real-world situations. They also purportedly increase accuracy with AI applications that handle complex trajectory corrections while in flight.

On the contemporary battlefield, the dependability of artillery has also been greatly increased by space-based assets. For instance, in a March story, Defence One highlighted that Starlink had evolved into the key component in a kill chain for Ukrainian artillerymen that included drones and video chat software to connect them to Russian targets.

Successful artillery strikes would be impossible without Starlink, it was stated, as phone networks in battle zones are frequently down or unstable.
In a war situation, China would try to replicate the bloody artillery battles between China and Taiwan over Kinmen and Matsu in the 1950s and 1960s by trying to breach Taiwan’s frontline islands’ defences.

The strategic importance of these islands was underlined by Asia Times in July 2022. By establishing a layered defence designed to cause significant fatalities to a Chinese invading force, theoretically forcing them to retreat, these islands can be crucial to Taiwan’s strategy of deterrence by protraction.

Three kilometres from the Chinese mainland, Kinmen is home to Taiwan’s Kinmen Defence Command (KDC), the self-governing island’s frontline army against a Chinese invasion, as well as a number of 240-millimeter M1 guns from World War II that are housed in hardened bunkers.

Similar field fortifications and underground tunnels exist in Matsu. Anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons are used for coastal defence, and the 1,100-strong Dongyin Area Command there employs Hsiung Feng II anti-ship missiles and Sky Bow II surface-to-air missiles. These defences give overlapping arcs of fire against mainland China and neighbouring islands.

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