Long thread about Chinese People's Liberation Army Ground Forces. Not going into all the details, just basics. There are some exceptions to some points here, check link in last tweet for more info.
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#orbat #osint
Chinese military follows a Theatre Command (TC) structure with 5 TCs, Northern, Southern, Central, Eastern and Western. Each TC has 2-3 Group Armies (GAs) which are roughly equivalent to a traditional Corps. Each GA in turn has:
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1. 5-6 Combined Arms Brigades (CAB)
2. 1 brigade each of Artillery, Air Defence, Army Aviation, Special Operations, Engineer & Service Support.
3. Some extra support battalions/companies
CABs can be Heavy, Medium, Light or Amphibious depending
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upon their equipment and Area Of Operations (AOR). Typical composition for a Heavy CAB:
1. 4 Combined Arms Battalions each with 2 tank companies, 2 mechanised infantry companies, 1 artillery company each. This is a basic self contained fighting unit.
2. 1 Battalion each of Artillery, Air Defence, Combat Support, Logistics Support, Recon.
3. Company each of Guard and HQ
Heavy CABs usually have tracked ICVs for infantry.
Medium CABs have 4 Mech Inf battalions in wheeled ICVs and may have wheeled assault guns.
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They usually have 2 tank battalions with 35-40 tanks each and artillery has 18 122mm SP Howitzers.
Light CABs have lightly armoured vehicles or trucks for infantry. These also have 1 High Mobility battalion on 4x4 Humvee copies, like seen in Laddakh.
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Amphibious CABs are different from PLA Marines. (Latter is a rapidly expanding force which will need its own thread.) There are a few in their Eastern and Southern TCs, mostly oriented against Taiwan & South China sea islands.
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Composition of most Artillery Brigades with CABs. It may differ in few due to ongoing upgrades:
1. 1 heavy rocket battalion. 300 mm, 3 batteries with 4 launchers each.
2. 1-2 light rocket battalion. 122 mm, 3 batteries with 9 launchers each.
3. 2 towed or
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self-propelled 122 mm or 155 mm howitzer battalions. 3 batteries with 4-6 guns.
4. 1 HQ unit.
5. 1 Company each for Support & UAV
6. 1 target acquisition unit.
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Air Defence Brigades:
1. 1 medium range SAM battalion. 3 batteries with 1 radar section and 3 launcher sections
2. 2 SHORAD battalions. 3 batteries of 6-8 AA guns and 4-6 short-ranged SAM each.
3. 1 HQ unit.
4. 1 support company
5. 1 EW battalion.
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Army Aviation Brigade
1 attack battalion. 16 helicopters in 2 battalions, mostly WZ-10
4 transport battalions. 8-12 medium helicopters in each battalion.
1 reconnaissance battalion. 8 recon or light attack helicopters.
1 support battalion.
Their actual numbers maybe less.
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One easy way to identify military units from vehicle markings.
First 4 characters denote the type of unit (Land, Air, Naval), Theatre Command and the army and brigade numbers.
L: Land unit
D: Eastern Theatre Command
13: 1st Group Army of TC, 3rd brigade of CAB .
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So LD13 is 160th CAB of 72nd Group Army under Eastern Theatre command. Next 4 digits identify the battalion, company and number of vehicle,
6402: 6th battalion, 4th company, 02nd vehicle.
Following alphabets identify the affiliation of vehicles.
L Land
B North
D East
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N South
X Western
Z Central
S Tibet MD
J Xinjiang MD
For Marines, 1st Digit in a 4 digit number will be Brigade number, 2nd digit will be Battalion. 3rd and 4th are the Company details & vehicle no.
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Ending this thread here as it's too much to post on twitter. Check this link for more information including Battalion, Company and Squad level composition with weapons loadout.
Feedback & corrections welcome.
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