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Russia is helping to train and equip Chinese airborne forces in assault tactics and hybrid warfare, according to leaked documents that point to a deepening Sino-Russian military partnership.
A cache of internal papers describes the transfer of enough Russian hardware to equip a People’s Liberation Army airborne battalion, along with command and control systems and training to take place both in Russia and China.
The detailed arrangements, taken from Russian servers, provide a rare glimpse of the inner workings of an ever-closer military relationship that some experts describe as a quasi alliance, despite the lack of a mutual defence treaty.
The documents were posted online several weeks ago by the hacker group Black Moon and include contracts, meeting protocols and equipment manifests dating from 2023 to late 2024. The Center for Defence Reforms in Kyiv and the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi) in London have since vetted the papers.
Oleksandr Danylyuk, an Associate Fellow at Rusi, said the training mirrors operations Russia used during its lightning seizure of Crimea in 2014. He speculated that one of the objectives of the training could be preparing for potential future operations against Taiwan.
“We have seen pretty extensive and growing collaboration between the PLA and the Russians in other areas, so this is very much on trend,” said Jack Watling from Rusi. He added that the Chinese military was “pursuing a fairly systemic approach to expand their options”.
China had been sending officers to Russian military academies since the 1990s and Russia was long China’s main supplier of advanced arms until Beijing became increasingly capable of making its own.
But over the past decade, the two militaries have deepened their co-operation in more substantive ways, including a command system with codes and signals that both Chinese and Russian forces can read, exchange intelligence frequently and regularly hold consultations.
Some of the Russian hardware under discussion — including 37 BMD-4M amphibious assault vehicles, 11 Sprut-SDM1 self-propelled anti-tank guns, 11 BTR-MDM troop carriers — are arguably less advanced than existing Chinese systems. Moscow also suffered a spectacular failure when it attempted an airborne assault of Hostomel airport in Kyiv in 2022, after troops landed well within artillery range of Ukrainian batteries.
But military analysts said the leaked documents reflected the PLA’s keenness to test and operate a broad array of equipment as it tries to develop what it calls an “intelligentised” force. One contract details training for three groups of 20 Chinese specialists on a Russian command system.
“When it comes to understanding what systems the Russians are using for command and control of complex military operations like airborne operations, the Chinese are probably willing to pay quite a lot to get that kind of information or that kind of a system,” said Joshua Arostegui, chair of the China Landpower Studies Center at the US Army War College.
The documents discuss using heavy transport aircraft fitted with special “train-drop” systems that allow armoured vehicles to be landed in sequence along a runway before the planes quickly depart and training for Chinese crews in these operations.
Similar tactics were employed during Russia’s covert Crimea operation in 2014, when unmarked paratroopers secured key airfields such as Belbek in Sevastopol before reinforcements arrived by air.
The files also detail plans to train PLA units in airborne operations designed to camouflage invasion forces, and describe covert parachute insertions of special forces using long-range “Dalnolyot” systems, which were developed for clandestine high-altitude drops.
Once on the ground, these teams could sabotage air defences and disrupt logistics, paving the way for massed airborne and naval landings. Cyber and electronic warfare, drone swarms and decoys would be employed to overwhelm defenders.
The training of vehicle crews was planned at Russian facilities including Kurganmashzavod, the BMD manufacturer, and at Rubin in Penza for command and anti-tank units.
Given Taiwan’s complex topography with few beaches suitable for amphibious landing, military officials there expect air assault to play an important role if China ever attacks the country. But most of those operations are expected to be conducted by PLA aviation units that operate out of helicopters with armed helicopters for fire support.
The Airborne Corps, whose big and relatively slow transport planes would be much more vulnerable in contested airspace, has so far played a secondary role in the PLA’s strategy for what it calls a Joint Island Landing Campaign.
Analysts said the hardware equipment listed in the documents amounted to gear suitable for equipping one mechanised battalion. That is in line with recent evidence that the Airborne Corps is shifting from light infantry to a heavier footprint.
One Taiwanese military official said the Russian equipment could be for one of the two Airborne Corps battalions that do not have mechanised forces.
China’s defence ministry did not respond to a request for comment.
