What defensive posture does the PLA prepare in response to a deliberate US attack?

• A. Mobile defense with flexible maneuver and no fixed fortifications.
• B. Naval denial operations.
• C. Positional Defense with Key Decisive Points (KDPs), deep fortifications, and a depth defense group ready for counterattack at culmination; reconnaissance and security are targeted hard to deny US prep advantage.
• D. Purely offensive counterattack to envelop the attacker.

Answer: (C)

Defensive depth in combination with fortified positions and a planned counterattack at culmination is the PLA’s approach to counter a deliberate strike. Holding Key Decisive Points structues the defense around a few critical nodes whose control significantly influences the broader battle, so denying or degrading those points disrupts the attacker’s tempo and shorten their advantages. Building deep fortifications and multiple defense belts creates layers the attacker must breach, slowing them, wearing them down, and forcing mistakes as resources get stretched.

Having a depth defense group ready to counterattack at culmination means reserves are held back to strike when the attacker’s momentum wanes—when their logistics are strained, their tempo falters, and they’re most vulnerable to a decisive rally by the defender. This timing leverages the natural fatigue and overextension the attacker experiences after pushing through earlier lines.

Reconnaissance and security being targeted hard to deny the US prep advantage emphasizes disrupting the enemy’s ability to observe, plan, and preposition. By degrading intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities, the defender narrows the attacker’s window for forcing decisive actions and reduces the likelihood that the attacker can exploit superior prewar planning.

This approach contrasts with a purely mobile defense (which relies on maneuver rather than fixed fortifications) or a purely offensive counterattack, and it aligns with a strategy of delaying, degrading, and then striking at a moment when the attacker is least prepared to respond.