China had an “indigenous” heavy ATGM in the form of the HJ-8 Red Arrow, reportedly reverse engineered from the TOW tripod, MILAN TU and Tracker, and the Swingfire missile round. They also fielded a copy of the Sagger that was upgraded to SACLOS guidance.
The war hits the PLA ground forces at an interesting time. In the late 80s the PRC doctrine was beginning to move away from light infantry/militia centric area defense focus and adopt combined arms group armies optimized for counterattacks in NBC environments (that was the idea anyway). Part of this move involved leveraging improved relationships with the west or western aligned states to aid in the purchase/development and fielding of more modern equipment including the type 8x series tanks, wz5xx series IFVs (BMP), and licensed production of select western equipment like the gazelle/HOT helicopter.
The question for T2K is how much of this planned re-equipment was actually completed. It’s a safe bet that significant domestic production comes to a halt soon after hostilities commence. Chinese group army units would need the western style equipment like TOWs, M113s, M48s, and RR rounds to continue implementing their doctrine. Cannon gives us a evidence that they stay effective until the initiation of tactical nuclear warfare by referencing the destruction of Chinese mechanized forces.
By this time OTL, WARPAC spec small arms ammo and infantry support weapons ammo were in regular manufacture in western client states (Egypt, Pakistan, etc). So, keeping the Chinese in WARPAC spec gat fodder is pretty doable, and as others have posted there’s plenty of RR ammo for the US spec stuff out there as well from US stocks and western (Belgian, Singaporean, etc) production. And the US can always retool factories as well (we made some of the ammo already) and probably will once the money starts flowing.
That said, I’m with the majority- once things kick off in Europe, demand is going to skyrocket. And once strategic warfare starts your supply lines are going to dry up rather quickly. Imagine the look when your characters are issued Molotovs, box mines and pole charges for an anti-armor ambush!
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