SPA Field Exercises (2)
Since its "official" formation in 2020, the international community has had few opportunities to observe the Songun People's Army (SPA) in actual "hot" conflicts. The relatively bloodless incursion into Mongolia during the fall of 2015 saw the successful overthrow of the democratically-elected and pre-western government. However, this operation was conducted almost completely by Chinese troops controlled by Beijing, with only cursory liaison officers from the other nationalities in the Songun union representing their own governments. Select special operations forces and "little green men" were deployed in very limited number to support Yugoslav and other pro-communist partisans in the Second Eastern European War, but the vast majority of Hanoi's massive military structure stayed home in their barracks. Ironically, the last time either the Chinese or Vietnamese armies fought a large-scale conflict was against one another in the late 1970s. Thus, the main body of the SPA remains untested to this day, despite Hanoi's willingness to deploy their ground and naval forces worldwide to back up friendly regimes.
In these photos released from an SPA training event, Songun infantry dismount from a ZFB-07 scout car and practice clearing a number of decrepit buildings. Until a section of the simmering cold war goes hot, glimpses of exercises like this will remain all we have regarding the secretive nature of the Songun People's Army.
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Another joint upload with Matt, showing off our SPA troops. And huge props to Magnus for letting us borrow his larger MLS dio for a few minutes!
SPA Field Exercises (2)
Since its "official" formation in 2020, the international community has had few opportunities to observe the Songun People's Army (SPA) in actual "hot" conflicts. The relatively bloodless incursion into Mongolia during the fall of 2015 saw the successful overthrow of the democratically-elected and pre-western government. However, this operation was conducted almost completely by Chinese troops controlled by Beijing, with only cursory liaison officers from the other nationalities in the Songun union representing their own governments. Select special operations forces and "little green men" were deployed in very limited number to support Yugoslav and other pro-communist partisans in the Second Eastern European War, but the vast majority of Hanoi's massive military structure stayed home in their barracks. Ironically, the last time either the Chinese or Vietnamese armies fought a large-scale conflict was against one another in the late 1970s. Thus, the main body of the SPA remains untested to this day, despite Hanoi's willingness to deploy their ground and naval forces worldwide to back up friendly regimes.
In these photos released from an SPA training event, Songun infantry dismount from a ZFB-07 scout car and practice clearing a number of decrepit buildings. Until a section of the simmering cold war goes hot, glimpses of exercises like this will remain all we have regarding the secretive nature of the Songun People's Army.
---
Another joint upload with Matt, showing off our SPA troops. And huge props to Magnus for letting us borrow his larger MLS dio for a few minutes!