US report points out glaring weakness shared by Chinese and Russian militaries

A report by the US National Defense University has identified a potential weakness shared by the Chinese and Russian militaries.

According to the report, the top officers across the five services, i.e., army, navy, air force, rocket force and strategic support force of both the countries lack operational experience in any branch other than the one they started their careers from.

Meaning, the soldiers of China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) stay as soldiers, sailors remain sailors, and airmen stay airmen. They are not given cross-training unlike the the US military, where, since 1986, their forces are trained in other combat modes.

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It further states that a lack of cross-training can emerge as a possible Achilles' Heel within the People's Liberation Army (PLA), CNN reported, however analysts are wary of underestimating China's capabilities.

The 73-page report states this might be the reason why Russia is facing setbacks in Ukraine, and why China might share a similar fate if it wages a war like Russia.

"Operational commanders who never needed to gain a high level of understanding of logistics or maintenance might fail to use those forces optimally, paralleling another Russian failure in 2022," report's author Joel Wuthnow has said, according to CNN.

Making a comparison of four-star rank commanders in 2021, such as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs or the head of Indo-Pacific Command in the United States or leaders of the Central Military Commission or theater commands in China, the report found that all of the 40 US officers had joint-service experience compared to 77 per cent of their 31 Chinese equivalents.

It pointed out another key difference, while almost all the four-star commanders in the US had operational experience, in China, only half were "professional political commissars."

(With inputs from agencies)

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