PLA marines improvement topic

this is a mirror thread of the "prc improvement thread"(http://www.sinodefenceforum.com/showthread.php?p=17821#post17821) posted in the professional forum, for all non profs.

posters here should routinely read the professional thread, and base your ideas for improvement off of them. do not post unrealistic crap such as giving the marines stealth bombers. thank you.

I or one would like to see the marines get their own dedicated airwing, as mention in the proffesional forum. China is currently developing a 6000kg medium utility helicopter, and the marine divisions should be equiped with the heli once it comes out. it can provide quick transportation from future transports to shore, and can carery marine equipeny. it can helivac injured troops.

as a temporary measure, mi-17s can be used until the larger helicopter comes out.

as with the jsf, the wz-10 should be made in several different modes to suite different branches of the armed forces. along wth having an army varient for close support, a marine version should be built. it mission should be to provide dedicated close support for marines, whether on the beach, in the city, or in the forest.

no airwing is complete without fighters. seeing how marine airwings are often divided into the categories of air cover and ground attack, two planes are needed. the su-27 is simply not designed for such a mission. i think the marines should get some brand new j-8s, perhaps the h or f varient carrying sd-10s.

perhaps weve just found the perfect role for fc-1!! a light, agile fighter capable of closely protecting troops and it can carry different ordanances for ground attack. quite a decent packeage if u think about it. it might even beat j-8.

of course, a good supply of training aircraft are needed to raise marine airmen, but we can get into that later...

your thoughts?

well, Before you start your imaginary buid ups, try to focus on the organisational aspect of marines. Lot of depends on the strategy of how china would like to deploy its forces. Is it aiming for global expendtory force like US have or simply a strong nough troop to give the spreahead against Taiwan? To my understanding china isent going for global military dominance in next few decades but simply improving its military to face all the current threads and task appointed to it.
A 'normal' navalinfantry, with strategical, not geo-srtategical reach dont need seperate airwings, nor they are any use before China could field flatt topers to haul them. by this i mean fighters and FGAs, but helicopters are different things. Thougth to have them seperated from normal navy controll, i dont know, would it be cost effective? Every branch needs a buerecracy and bureycrats needs budgets, and thats mean money...Sure you can divide all operational aspects of Chinese military aviation to individual organisations each subordinating directly to high command, but would it be neccesery?

I would like to see more hovercrafts and those LPDs to enter service, as well as the carrier and then we can start fielding dreams of semi-indepenent branch status over PLAN

so the marines can have a carrier and not helicopters?oh my...

personally feel the marines have many uses for helicopters, as they are the first step to aquireing an independent af. the marines simply cant function well if they depend on the navy and af for support, cause you know how well different military branches get along...

helicopters to my knowledge arnt very expensive, especially transport copters that can even be purchased on the civilian market for a couplr hundred thousand $. remember, the 6000 kg helicopter was made for both military and civilian roles.

chinas marines are a spearhead military, although i think they should be stationed in eastern manchuria as well, and the south china seas, as well as taiwan straight.this is to ensure japan, taiwan, and indochina are covered by the marines.

A nation's marine is the key to an amphibious assault. This is required when we invade Taiwan. But right now, the number of our marine and their equipment is too outdated. Even if we tries to improve it, i would take about 40-50 years to make par with the West.

40-50 years!!! ur joking right? outdated equipment? china is one of the only nations that operates a modern amphibious assault tank. and 55000 marines is not a small number, although it can get a bit bigger.

MIGleader said:

40-50 years!!! ur joking right? outdated equipment? china is one of the only nations that operates a modern amphibious assault tank. and 55000 marines is not a small number, although it can get a bit bigger.

Click to expand...

Well, China is the only country who operate a modern amphibious assault tank. Instead, the US Marines Corps use modified M1A1 Abrams, I think that it will be preferable if the Chinese Marines Corps use some modified MBT.

The Chinese Marines Corps only have 2 brigades of 6,000 men now... It's not very big.. The US Marines Corps have 176,000 men in active duty and 40,000 reserve....

What i mean by outdated is that only a relative small amount of our marine equipment is new and modern. Most of it is from the 60s, 70s. You ever wonder why the number of our marine is so small these days. It's cuz we were in a process to getting rid of our old equipment and replace them with new ones. Since there isn't many new equipment, we have to cut the size of the marine:china:

Wait a second, the size of the Chinese Marines Corps have been incresing, not decreasing... So what are you talking about ?? The Chinese Marines also have some of the best equipment that the PLA can give them... I think that the Chinese don't have enough heavy weapon, they are focusing on some specialize equipment like the Type 63A Amphibious Assault Tank, which cannot survive long on a modern battlefield...

BTW, Mig, chopper are not cheap, for example, a Bell 212 (civilian version of the UH-1 Huey) cost around 2 millions to buy each...

I know they receive the best equipment from the army but the number of the equipment is really small and it's not fit for an amphibious assault:china:

Well, the Marines Corps was disbanded in 1957, and only reformed in the 70's. In this time (the 70's) there was only 1 brigade. And in 2001, the PLAN formed an second brigad of 6,000 men.

Well, their have amphibious equipment that are fit for amphibious assault, but, this equipment is light and don't have much firepower I mean. for exemple ,the poor armor of the Type 63A Amphibious Tank is nothing compared to the heavy armor of the M1A1 used by the US Marines Corps. Maybe they should used some modified Type 96 for amphibious assault... Which will provide much better fire support and better battle survivability... So they need to not necessarly find some very specialize equipment, but something that have punch and will be able to survive.