China — PLA Special Operations Forces (english version)

Train­ing

Selec­tion – PLA SOF are com­posed of high­ly-trained, skilled and moti­vat­ed pro­fes­sion­al sol­diers, who are care­ful­ly select­ed from offi­cers and non-com­mis­sion offi­cers (NCO) serv­ing in active ser­vice. These mem­bers must pass high­ly strict and demand­ing mul­ti-phase selec­tion and screen process before they are accepted.

PLA SOF Train­ing: PLA SOF, like their coun­ter­parts around the world,
empha­sizes supe­ri­or phys­i­cal fit­ness and small-arms pro­fi­cien­cy in their sol­diers
(Source: Chi­nese Internet)

Basic Train­ing – PLA SOF, like their coun­ter­parts around the world, empha­sise supe­ri­or phys­i­cal fit­ness and small-arms pro­fi­cien­cy in their mem­bers. All SOF mem­bers are trained in mar­tial arts and field sur­vival skills.

Spe­cialised Train­ing – Depend­ing their spe­cif­ic roles, PLA SOF mem­bers have spe­cialised train­ing in one or more of the fol­low­ing areas: urban war­fare, sniper tac­tics, amphibi­ous oper­a­tions, demo­li­tions, com­mu­ni­ca­tions, com­put­ers, or for­eign languages.

Infil­tra­tion – The abil­i­ty to infil­trate unde­tect­ed behind the ene­my lines is one of the most essen­tial skills required for PLA SOF. Mem­bers of PLA SOF are said to under­go “high­ly inten­sive and com­pre­hen­sive mul­ti-course train­ing in com­plex ter­rain, includ­ing in-depth infil­tra­tion and cov­ered recon­nais­sance behind the ene­my line.”

PLA SOF adopts a “three-dimen­sion­al, all-weath­er” infil­tra­tion approach, using sea (sub­ma­rine, high-speed boat, open-water swim­ming and scu­ba div­ing), air (air­borne, pow­ered para­chute and heli­copter) and land (long-dis­tance move­ment and rock climb­ing). Chi­nese media has report­ed that PLA SOF were able to pen­e­trate through defen­sive posi­tions that use night-vision equip­ment, anti-infantry radar, and oth­er hi-tech sur­veil­lance equipments.

Sea infil­tra­tion Train­ing:
PLA SOF sol­diers using high-speed boat for sea
infil­tra­tion train­ing (Source: Chi­nese Internet)

Moun­tain Train­ing – The poten­tial oper­at­ing the­atres of PLA SOF includ­ing Tai­wan, Tibet and cen­tral Asia all fea­ture moun­tain­ous ter­rains. There­fore, PLA SOF are rou­tine­ly trained in some high moun­tain areas in West­ern Chi­na that offer extreme­ly harsh weath­er conditions.

Field Sur­vival Train­ing – Chi­nese media fre­quent­ly report var­i­ous field sur­vival skills train­ing for PLA SOF, car­ried out on small islands, in jun­gle or moun­tain­ous regions. Some­times these train­ing cours­es were also car­ried out in harsh weath­er con­di­tions. Stu­dents will learn to catch wild ani­mals; to iden­ti­fy and gath­er edi­ble plants; to find, extract and puri­fy water; to make fires by any means; to make shel­ters and resist rain and insects; etc.