Although China has a huge army of about 2 million personnel that it can arm on its own, Beijing secretly bought from russia a set of airborne equipment sized to equip an enhanced airborne battalion, and also trained a full complement of Chinese troops to operate it.
The procurement deal was signed in 2023 and became known after leaked correspondence obtained by the hacker group Black Moon; the analysis of roughly 800 pages of material was carried out by the British Royal United Services Institute(RUSI).
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According to that information, China purchased:
- 37 BMD-4M infantry fighting vehicles (airborne);
- 11 Sprut-SDM1 light amphibious tanks;
- 11 BTR-MDM Rakushka armored personnel carriers;
- several command-and-staff vehicles produced by NPP Rubin;
- several mobile artillery command posts Reostat;
- a number of Orlan-10 UAVs;
- parachute systems Dalnolyot.
All the equipment is to be fitted with Chinese communications gear. Technical documentation for independent maintenance and modernization of the weapons and equipment is being transferred as well in other words, China will have more than enough information to reverse-engineer and copy the hardware if it chooses.
That raises the obvious question: why would China need to buy equipment from russia? As Defense Express noted RUSI's material notes the structure of the People's Liberation Army Airborne Corps: five airborne brigades, one air-assault brigade, one special-forces brigade, plus a transport (helicopter) brigade, an attack-helicopter regiment and a support brigade.
However, the inventory of dedicated tracked airborne vehicles is relatively small only about 180 ZBD-03 airborne IFVs and some quantity of CS/VN3 wheeled vehicles. China's airborne troops are even lighter than russia's VDV, with an emphasis on helicopter insertion.
By contrast, the BMD-4M is armed with a 100 mm gun paired with a 30 mm cannon, and the Sprut is effectively a light tank with a 125 mm gun. That represents a significant increase in firepower. The mention of the Dalnolyot parachute is also notable this is a winged parachute designed for special-operations units that, in favorable conditions, can glide up to some 60 km.
All the purchased russian equipment is intended to be air-dropped from Il-76 transport aircraft. China has roughly 75 strategic transport aircraft in this class (about 20 Il-76 plus 55 Y-20s). RUSI estimates that deploying this package by air would require some 35 Il-76-class sorties about half of China's available fleet.
Taken together, this can reasonably be viewed as a noteworthy enhancement of China's airborne assault capabilities a capability that is integral to vertical maneuver operations, where seaborne forces conduct a landing while airborne troops seize key rear objectives and fix or disrupt the enemy. By training Chinese troops in russia, Beijing also obtained operational know-how for using airborne formations and the tools needed to employ them. In effect, russia sold China a ready-made turnkey airborne capability.
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