Training, not hardware is key to military preparedness, Chinese military veteran cautions PLA

China's air force and navy may be undergoing massive expansion with most modern aircraft and ships, but a Chinese military veteran has warned that lack of rigorous training of the PLA troops with new weapons could prove costly in real battle conditions.

Training, not hardware is key to military preparations and size is not everything in modern warfare, Chinese naval officer (retd.) Wang Yunfei said in a rare public appraisal of the levels of training of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) navy and air force which, he termed, inadequate compared to Japanese troops.

Comparing the skill training put in by Japanese pilots flying new generation aircraft, Wang said he saw them training even murky and overcast conditions.

"In China, (our military planes) would not have taken off (for training) if the cloud was lower than 400 metres above ground," he told Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post on Tuesday.

"Such conditions are dangerous (for military aircraft to take off) but they (Japanese pilots) were able to carry on training despite the weather," he said.

The Chinese military which has now annual budget of over USD 175 billion is investing heavily in modernisation of navy and air force.

As China expands its military might with new aircraft carriers, advanced fighter jets and other world-class weaponry, questions have been raised about whether the PLA can compete with other advanced forces, the Post said.

Wang, now a naval armament expert, pointed out that size was only one determining factor in modern warfare, and hardware could only answer part of the question as China raced to catch up with leading powers like the US and its top allies, including Japan.

"Doubling the number of our warships would not make our military twice as strong strategically," he said.

"It is the people who use these weapons that count, and that essentially boils down to our level of training.

"Some people hold the view that our military planes are more advanced than others. But if we look at the level of training of our forces...We are not at the same level (as others) yet."