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Approximately 5 hours until the start of #China’s big October 1 military parade. (Will start at 10 p.m. ET for fellow East Coasters.)
Nice. 
There’s a lot here.
Stealth UAV/UCAV, baby.
Didn’t catch a screenshot, but the UUV is set for a showing.
Quite the setting here.
Not the clearest day in Beijing, as anticipated. Shouldn’t be too bad for high-res photography though.
Here’s the squad. Jiang Zemin needs an assist.
Hu Jintao’s looking visibly older. I guess I haven’t seen him in a while.
AH. The clapping audio is totally out of sync on the CCTV live-stream.
Xi Jinping looks bored as hell.
The synchronized artillery reloads are pretty impressive.
172,000+ live-viewers on the YouTube CCTV livestream, which is pretty impressive, I think.
Xi steps up to speak.
@ArmsControlWonk is also live-tweeting here.
@ArmsControlWonk Enough with the Xi Jinping Thought. Let’s see the hardware.
@ArmsControlWonk Based cameraman hooking me up with Sharp Sword shots while Xi drones on. (Get it?)
@ArmsControlWonk @dafengcao Xi bears the title of commander-in-chief now. He’s not in military fatigues (like below), but he’s out here to inspect and guide. The Party is Xi’s and the PLA is the Party’s armed force.
@ArmsControlWonk @dafengcao This is a *LOT* of hardware for a single parade. Pretty incredible celebration of the national armed forces & more modernized capabilities shown off in one go than I remember in previous Chinese parades.
@ArmsControlWonk @dafengcao Camera quickly shows a few DF-41s (in a worse camo job than the Hwasong-14/KN08, IMO), but quickly pans away.
@ArmsControlWonk @dafengcao Xi, if you really want to impress me, SHOW US THE ALBM. ALBMS for the ALBM gods.
@ArmsControlWonk @dafengcao Pretty remarkable how similar the actual, real DF-41 looks to the April 2017 #NorthKorean canister-on-a-WS51200 ICBM mockup. (Similarities expected, but it’s striking.)
@ArmsControlWonk @dafengcao On a more serious note: the new ALBM (designated CH-AS-X-13 by the USIC) is the sole nuclear capability for the PLAAF. If this will be China’s triad ‘coming out’ party, it’d make sense to include the ALBM alongside the JL-2 and the DF-31AG/DF-41/DF-5/DF-26.
@ArmsControlWonk @dafengcao Important and sobering reminder from @EBKania. This is barely four months on from the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre.
@ArmsControlWonk @dafengcao @EBKania This whole spectacle is quite over-the-top. Huge emphasis on the PLA’s discipline, modernity, and allegiance to the Party. Ominous if you’re sitting in Taiwan (or Hong Kong).
@ArmsControlWonk @dafengcao @EBKania Lots of interesting mixed units marching here. Increased focus on jointness being conveyed, I suppose.
@ArmsControlWonk @dafengcao @EBKania Poor optics here just a few months after the 30th anniversary of June 4, 1989.
@ArmsControlWonk @dafengcao @EBKania SAMs, MLRS, NLOS ATGMs, and SPGs rolling through now. We’re getting to the big stuff soon.
@ArmsControlWonk @dafengcao @EBKania Autogyros are a ... little bit discordant with the rest of this. But sure. You do you, PLA.
@ArmsControlWonk @dafengcao @EBKania PLA SSF really getting its due. (Also, electronic warfare/satcom equipment galore.)
@ArmsControlWonk @dafengcao @EBKania It’s just weird that both these UAVs & the autogyro are in the same parade, minutes apart. (This may be carrier-borne eventually.)
@ArmsControlWonk @dafengcao @EBKania This looks like a UUV with a focus on sensing & warning. Might be useful in the shallow waters of the South China Sea to monitor for enemy SSN/SSKs to protect the SSBN bastion in wartime. I want to learn a lot more about this.
@ArmsControlWonk @dafengcao @EBKania One more of the DF-17 crew. The HGV really does look like the earlier wind-tunnel HGV object leaks from China, just much larger. Exactly as I’d expected this system to appear in my head.
@ArmsControlWonk @dafengcao @EBKania DF-5B. (MIRVed, liquid-propellant ICBM.) Silo-launched and so big that they’re carried across two vehicles.
@ArmsControlWonk @dafengcao @EBKania And the crescendo of the parade: the grand unveiling of the DF-41 solid-propellant, MIRV-capable, road-mobile ICBM. (The ‘LM’ logo on the cab is intriguing.)
@ArmsControlWonk @dafengcao @EBKania It’s really hard to make out anything for this aerial component. Sorry, PLAAF.
@ArmsControlWonk @dafengcao @EBKania Smog’s really hurting the image quality on all the aerial camerawork.
@ArmsControlWonk @dafengcao @EBKania So, I guess this won’t be the triad ‘coming out’ party. PLAAF & its nuclear-capable ALBM (the sole nuclear system for the PLAAF) will have to wait for another day. (Maybe when we get an H-20 reveal too.)
@ArmsControlWonk @dafengcao @EBKania Alright, folks. I think that’s a wrap for this thread. Thanks for following along. Apologies for mistakes, typos, and misidentified systems (screenshots in particular may have ended up with the wrong tweets).
