PLA Organization & Structure discussion

pla101prc

Senior Member
as we all know PLA is divided into CAT A and CAT B armies. the consensus used to be that CAT A has better of everything. but that doesnt seem to be the case for Nanking military region. cuz i hear a lot about the 31st GA, which is a CAT B unit, but since they are right across from Taiwan they get the best of everything. and i also read somewhere that they have really hard training as well compared to other GA's. the next most well-known GA in Nanking MR is the 12th...which is also a CAT B. and the least well-known seem to be the 10th which is a CAT A. so why dont they simply change 31st into CAT A if they like it so much? is this bureaucracy at work or are they trying to avoid somehow angering Taiwan? i dont know much about the rest of the PLA but Nanking MR is one place where CAT A and CAT B variation doesnt really hold out.
 

szbd

Junior Member
There are no CAT A and CAT B any more. In fact you can say all CAT B are dissolved.
 

FORBIN

Lieutenant General
Registered Member
PLA doubles size of Amphibious Mechanized Infantry Division

The People's Liberation Army has doubled the size of its Amphibious Mechanized Infantry Division (AMID) to boost its combat capabilities in the event of a conflict with Taiwan or in the East or South China seas, reports our Chinese-language sister paper Want Daily.
The PLA originally had two AMIDs — one in the Nanjing Military Region and another in the Guangzhou Military Region — comprising a total of 26,000-30,000 soldiers. Between 2007 and 2012, Nanjing's 31st Army Group's 86th Motorized Infantry Division and Guangzhou's 41st Army Group's 123rd Mechanized Infantry Division were both reformed into AMIDs, doubling the total personnel to 52,000-60,000.
The four AMIDs will reportedly strengthen China's combat power as they can cooperate with the 20,000 troops from the PLA Marine Corps to conduct landing assault operations. Each AMID has three battle groups and can carry up to 300 amphibious transport vehicles.
The PLA appears to be looking to diversify the capabilities of its amphibious ground forces as opposed to simply fortifying its Marine Corps as a means to strengthen its authority in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea, where it is embroiled in a number of territorial disputes.
A Pentagon report on the Chinese military from 2008 noted that the PLA has been increasing the mobility of its troops in the event of a conflict with Taiwan. The idea of boosting amphibious battle capability was raised in the 2014 version of the report, which said that one of the PLA's strategy options is to quickly take over Taiwan before other countries can intervene.
However, not everyone is convinced that the doubling of AMIDs will necessarily pose a bigger concern to Taiwan. Former Republic of China Marine Corps colonel, Yi-Jia Shiah, said AMIDs are fundamentally different to marines and that the threat is not as serious as publicized, though increased cooperation between the two units will have to be closely monitored.
The PLA's AMIDs and Marine Corps have not yet established a joint command system, he said, adding that in a potential conflict with Taiwan, command of the AMID will still belong to its military region to as opposed to the PLA Navy, which controls the Marine Corps.
The AMIDs also have insufficient battle experience on the seas and cannot simply rely on their ZBD-05 amphibious assault vehicles to cut cross the Taiwan Strait, he said, adding that the PLA will still need its Navy's Type 071 Yuzhao class amphibious transport dock and Type 081 landing helicopter dock or amphibious assault ships to carry out a proper landing assault.
The AMID's development is based on "coast-to-coast" warfare such as crossing rivers, lakes and difficult terrain while still maintaining its combat power, he said, while the Marine Corps is focused on "sea-to-land" warfare, which is more concerned with how to project the military's combat power across the seas.
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Very interesting
The PLA originally had two AMIDs — one in the Nanjing Military Region and another in the Guangzhou Military Region

1st and 124 th AMID depends 1th and 42th Army Group.
She use mainly ZBD-05 and ZTD-05 in two IR with 3 ZBD-05 Mech bat and a light tank Rgt with 3 ZTD-05 bat and 1 ZBD-05 Mech bat in more each Rgt have one Art bat.
Divisions have for support also 3 others Art bat with others units, engineers, ATK etc...

Each Mech bat get 41 AIFV in 4 company of 10 each and Tank bat 31 in 3 sqn's same organisation as Russian Army, there are small batalions about 600 h max.
A China Army Group as Soviet Army is equivalent to a Western Army Corps in fact.

Nanjing's 31st Army Group's 86th Motorized Infantry Division and Guangzhou's 41st Army Group's 123rd Mechanized Infantry Division were both reformed into AMIDs
For the two new about one year they were still equipped with Type-96, ZBD-04, ZBD-86 if now get new ZBD-05 and ZTD-05 i don' t know but sure entrained for Amphibious operations.

ZTD-05 with a 105 mm gun and ZBD-05 with a 30 mm, carry 9 men .


ZBD-05.jpg ZTD-05.jpg
 

Totoro

Major
VIP Professional
So why such emphasis on tanks within PLA? Like the russian army, they seem to use tanks in every division, sans the very light infantry ones.

It's almost like the US organization back in the cold war, when even the infantry divisions had similar number of tank battallions to infantry batallions; doesn't matter if most were older m60 (some very few even had m48 back in 1989!).

PLA seems to follow similar logic - using old type59 wherever it can for fire support, even in most of its infantry divisions. Such heavy machinery surely impacts logistics quite a bit.

On the other hand, i get that PLAAF is nowhere near yet to being able to provide fire support as USAF is, nor does PLA have nearly enough combat helicopters. Still, with proliferation of javelin like personal weapons and NLOS precision fire support systems like hj-10 could one expect downsizing of the tank numbers within the PLA in the near future? (that's not counting any possible downsizing of number of PLA divisions overall)
 
So why such emphasis on tanks within PLA? Like the russian army, they seem to use tanks in every division, sans the very light infantry ones.

It's almost like the US organization back in the cold war, when even the infantry divisions had similar number of tank battallions to infantry batallions; doesn't matter if most were older m60 (some very few even had m48 back in 1989!).

PLA seems to follow similar logic - using old type59 wherever it can for fire support, even in most of its infantry divisions. Such heavy machinery surely impacts logistics quite a bit.

On the other hand, i get that PLAAF is nowhere near yet to being able to provide fire support as USAF is, nor does PLA have nearly enough combat helicopters. Still, with proliferation of javelin like personal weapons and NLOS precision fire support systems like hj-10 could one expect downsizing of the tank numbers within the PLA in the near future? (that's not counting any possible downsizing of number of PLA divisions overall)

That's a good point. They need to prioritize quality over quantity in materiel as well as personnel to improve combat effectiveness. That has certainly been the case in the PLAN, then PLAAF, now it should spread to the largest and lowest priority branch of the PLA.
 

nicky

Junior Member
ha-ha!
read dod's annual for 2016: modernized 123 id missing completely.
whata shame :(
 

FORBIN

Lieutenant General
Registered Member
Maazing yeah ! i post very large for guys look better eventualy Mods if it is a problem i udapte the size

CH A Terre OOB.png
 

FORBIN

Lieutenant General
Registered Member
For have a beter idea for size, power :

An Army group ~ 30 - 50000 personnals

A Armored Bde : 4000 pers 124 tanks in 4 bat and 82 AIFV or APC in 2 bat + Art bat 18 guns + Air Def Bat guns + SAM short range

A Mechanised Bde : about 5000 pers it's the opposite for tanks and AIFV or APC bat with 62 tanks and 164 82 AIFV or APC + support units

SOF Bde : about 2000 pers in 3 bat

Artillery Bde : about 5 bat of 18 guns, SPGs etc... one by Army group

Heavy LRM bde have PHL-03, 12 x 300 mm lauchers in general 2 bat of 18

Air Def Bde : about 4 - 5 bat with HQ-7,16, 17, Thor/SA-15, guns

Engineer Bde : 3 bat

Unique Armored Division 6th have 3 Armored Rgts with 3 Arm bat and a mech bat : total 273 tanks 2/3 Arm Rgts with Type 99 other Type 88 and 123 ZBD-86 in more support units

Mechanized Divisions : 2 Mech Rgts 1 Armored szome have 3 Mech Rgts in more support units

Infantry Dvisions : 3 Inf Rgts and a Arm rgts with often less modern tanks in more support units

Aviation brigades : more difficult Sqns with 1 helo type 12 for Attack helos about 14 for Trp helos about 5 Sqns by Bde total 10 bde exist also Rgt mainly for training with especialy Z-11
 
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