Chinese Armed Forces ORBAT

[jamwal]

Information and analysis of data points related to Chinese armed forces units, deployment and organisational structure.

Starting here from PLA Rocket Forces:

Whole post is, too long and unwieldy to post here. So just something to start with

Chinese Armed Forces ORBAT Part 4: Rocket Forces
http://jjamwal.in/yayavar/chinese-armed-forces-orbat-part-4-rocket-forces/

612 Brigade HQ

Base 62 Technical Support Regiment

Heiping Uranium Enrichment Facility 1

3rd Engineering Regiment, Luoyang

Sundian ICBM Complex. Huge place with a lot of interesting sites. Will need a few days to analyse fully.

One of many huge tunnel storages

624 Brigade, one of newer units with base still under construction

One possible UAV station for Base 61

 

[jamwal]

Some of Chinese Border Defense Regiments. Each has 3 battalions with 3 companies each + regimental HQ.

Locations of units belonging to Chinese 52nd and 53rd mountain infantry brigades under Tibet MD. Each has 3-4 infantry battalions supported by one artillery regiment and perhaps 1-2 engineering & other support units.
Green lines are G-219 & S-306 highways

1st draft of Chinese SAM site ORBAT
They probably have more air defence installations than Soviets, most of them on eastern sector.

Chinese Marine Corps ORBAT.
They have used their existing forces to raise a few new units and army has kept atleast 5 combined arms brigade with itself for amphibious roles. Lots of troops for South China sea, Taiwan and others.

1s Image: PLA Air Force #ORBAT and Structure till 2011 . It's fighters and ground attack aircraft were allotted to 14 divisions under 4 military regions and had 7 levels from PLAAF till Flight Squadron.

Image 2 and 3, Starting from 2017, Divisions were abolished & 94? Air Brigades created. Separate brigades were created for special mission aircrafts, UAVs, heavy bombers and transport. Fighters are under Theater Commands while rest are under administrative control of PLAAF HQ

 

[jamwal]

Chinese Armed Forces ORBAT Part 3: Ground Forces ORBAT

Chinese Armed Forces ORBAT Part 3: Ground Forces

Chinese Ground Forces ORBATFollowing is the list of PLA ground forces divided among five different Theater Commands. Some of these TCs command a few independent brigades, divisions and even regimen…

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Following is the list of PLA ground forces divided among five different Theater Commands. Some of these TCs command a few independent brigades, divisions and even regiments in addition to regular Combined Arms Brigades. The data is collected from multiple sources which will be presented in the last post of this series.
In addition to regular PLA Army units, there are a few Border Defence Regiment units which usually form the first line of defence on borders during peacetime. They are lightly armed and meant for border patrols, marine patrols, reconnaissance, law & order, guard duty etc. Central TC has no such BDRs assigned to it.


This data is incomplete but as accurate as it can be at the time of writing (Jan 2021) and I’ll be adding updates and improving formatting whenever possible.

 

[jamwal]

Chinese Air Force Orbat

In December 2011, PLAAF started creation of Air Brigade structure by upgrading 14 existing Air Regiment (AR) HQs and abolished 4 existing Air Division HQs. All the brigades were assigned to one of four Bases

New Command Structure for fighter and ground attack aircraft is as following:

PLAAF HQ
MRAF HQ
Base
Air Brigade
Flight Group
Flight Squadron

On the other hand, heavy bombers, transport and most of special mission aircraft (like refuellers?) air divisions are attached to PLAAF HQ, but tactical control most likely lies with the theater commander. As far as fighters and ground attack jets are concerned, new system puts them in independent brigade unit structure with no divisional HQ control.

Each combat air Brigade has 24 aircraft plus trainers in three to five battalion level flight groups, though most seem to have only three. There are five to six airframes as spares and reserves. But brigades comprising of foreign aircraft like Su-27 may not have such reserves. Chinese manufacturers produce aircraft in batches of ten, of which eight are operationally inducted while remaining two are considered reserves.

14 subordinate training brigades were created from former training regiments and control of flight college was given to PLAAF HQ from MRAF HQ. In 2017, more changes were implemented and are probably still going on. 23 Air Division HQs were abolished, most of remaining regiments were converted to brigades or were dissolved completely.

AIR COMBAT BRIGADE STRUCTURE
24 Aircraft + Trainers + 6 spares divided in 3-5 battalion grade flight groups (FG). Most brigades have 3 rather than 5 FGs.
Some air brigades with foreign aircraft like Su-27 don’t have any spares.
Training and some specialised brigades may have different structures.

AWACS and other EW Aircraft in Chenggu

One of 3 known airbases belonging to Chinese Airborne Corps

Rest of the data is in tables and google maps which can't be pasted here.

Chinese Armed Forces ORBAT Part 5: Air Force - अरे यायावर रहेगा याद?

PLA AIR FORCE ORBAT & STRUCTURE In December 2011, PLAAF started creation of Air Brigade structure by upgrading 14 existing Air Regiment (AR) HQs and abolished 4 existing Air Division HQs. All the brigades were assigned to one of four Bases New Command Structure for fighter and ground attack...

jjamwal.in

 

[jamwal]

Added some new data to Chinese Air Force page and made it a bit more readable. It's still difficult to include all information on a webpage, so left out a bit. Scroll down for map. Airbases are now coloured & classified by the the Command and types. Details about airstrips added in map entries.
Data is a bit more readable now on the webpage. http://jjamwal.in/yayavar/chinese-armed-forces-orbat-part-5-air-force/

Central TC
Location	Units	LAT	LONG	AIRCRAFT
Dangyang	39th Air Regiment Xiongfeng Aircraft Overhaul Factory	30°47'50.87"N	111°48'34.96"E	IL-76
Dingxing	3rd Training Brigade	39°15'17.88"N	115°49'46.27"E	JL-8
Huairen	43rd Air Brigade	39°42'59.10"N	113° 8'19.77"E	J-10A, J-10SY
Jining	55th Air Brigade	35°17'45.68"N	116°21'25.89"E	J-11, Su-27
Kaifeng	13th Transport Div 37th Air Regiment	34°45'13.96"N	114°20'28.64"E	Y-8, Y-20A
Lintong	107th/108th Air Regiment	34°22'24.93"N	109° 7'17.62"E	H-6M/6K
Paozhuwan	38th Air Regiment	30°40'43.29"N	114°37'56.76"E	Il-76, Il-78
Qizhou	45th Air Regiment	38°35'58.81"N	112°58'37.25"E
Shangqiu	57th Air Brigade	34°26'42.30"N	115°27'28.28"E	J-11B, Su-27SK
Shijiazhuang	1st Training Brigade Factory 5721	38° 5'0.03"N	114°24'50.06"E	JL-10
Tangguantun	4th Training Brigade	38°47'17.14"N	117° 3'57.54"E
Tangshan	20th Air Regiment	39°43'10.09"N	117°59'47.09"E	J-7, JJ-7
Wudangshan	53rd Air Regiment	32°23'27.22"N	111°41'43.02"E	J-7, JJ-7
Wugong	108th Air Regiment Factory 5702	34°16'21.76"N	108°15'28.88"E	H-6
Xishanbeixiang	71st Air Regiment	39° 9'17.74"N	115°17'38.56"E	J-7, JJ-7
Yangcun	72nd Air Brigade 1st August Aerial Demonstration Team	39° 9'17.74"N	115°17'38.56"E	J-10C, J-10SY.
Yongji	2nd Training Brigade	34°52'13.73"N	110°21'37.47"E	JL-8
Yongning	21st Air Brigade	40°30'30.96"N	116° 6'55.70"E	J-7, JJ-7
Zhangjiakou	19th Air Brigade	40°44'11.96"N	114°56'10.07"E	J-11
Zhengzhou	56th Air Brigade	34°51'40.43"N	113°43'39.78"E	J-10B, J-10SY
Zhouzhou		39°27'29.63"N	115°59'46.12"E	Y-5, Z-8, Z-9
Zunhua	70th Air Brigade	40° 6'8.19"N	117°52'54.47"E	J-10A, J-10SY
Chenggu	Aerial Survey Regiment Shaanxi Aircraft Corp.	33° 8'4.53"N	107°12'4.74"E	An-30, Y-8, Y-1 AWACS

 

[jamwal]

Locations of most of PLA units including some battalions belonging to 52nd, 53rd & 54th CABs under Tibet MD, Western Theater Command. Not many soldiers spread thin over a huge area.

Lhasa is such a target rich environment for an Indian offensive. So many bases so close to each other which is very much unlike PLA in rest of their controlled territory. There is atleast 1 more base which I have not identified yet.

55th Light CAB of 77 GA, meant for mountain warfare is the closest CAB HQ, located 173 km from Bhutan border. Rest are all 100s to 1000s km away.

77th Special Operations Brigade

17th Heavy CAB Xixia District, Yinchuan City, 76th GA. Its equipped with GSL-130 Combat Engineer Vehicles, ZBD04A ICVs and ZTZ99 tanks. Pretty strong on paper.

149th Medium CAB, Litong District, Wuzhong City, Ningxia Hui of 76th GA. It was a Motr Inf Div earlier.

150th Light CAB, Dongpo District, Meishan City, Sichuan of 77th GA.

77th Army Aviation Brigade, Nyingzhi

Locations of all known units of Chinese PLA's 78th Group Army, Northern Theater Command

 

[jamwal]

202nd Heavy CA and 78th Artillery Brigades are neighbours(?)

204th Heavy CAB

78th Special Ops Brigade. Getting some new toys & facilities.

78th GA HQ & 8th Heavy CAB. Airbase 2km west.

78th Air Defence Brigade

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EvENEaYVEAQrK2h?format=jpg&name=large

8th Heavy CA Brigade

78th Chemical Engg Brigade

 

[jamwal]

A longish thread about locations of Chinese PLA, ground forces Brigade (and a few battalion) HQs.
Theater Command - TC
Group Army - GA
MR - Military Region
Combined Arms Brigade - CAB
CABs can be Heavy, Medium, Light or Amphibious & are comprised of battalions plus a few support units.

Starting with Western TC which is the largest & will be involved in any war with India. Its different from other 4 TCs & has 2 GAs, 2 MRs plus few indp units.
76th GA

1. Overview

2. 12th Heavy CAB

3. 76th AD

4. 76th Army Aviation


77th GA

1. Overview

2. 139th Heavy CAB & 77th SO Brig.

3. 77th Artillery Brig

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Eviu7k0VcAkq0dw?format=png&name=900x900

4. 77th Air Defence Brig
76 and 77 GAs are perhaps primary offensive units for PLA on Indo-Tibet border. Well equipped & are being trained regularly in Tibet.


Tibet MR
It has 3 CABs plus a bunch of other units including lightly equipped Border Defence Regiments. Most of the visuals of Indian and Chinese soldiers in past 2-3 years involve BDRs, not regular PLA.

1. Overview

2. BDRs

3. 351st BDR. smaller HQs with fewer facilities.

1. 353 BDR HQ

2. 52nd CAB. Compare size of Light CAB HQ with BDR HQ.

3 & 4. HQs of 2 battalions belonging to 52nd and 53rd.
These are some of few such HQs I've managed to locate. Hard to find any information about the rest.

 

[jamwal]

Xinjiang MR.
It still uses Division and Regiments unlike most of PLA & has no CABs.

1. Covers a huge area including Laddakh.

2. 6th Mech Inf Div HQ

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Evi1FcWVcAgzSnS?format=jpg&name=large

3. Field Artillery Reg, 6th Div

4. 18th Mech Inf Reg, 6th Div
Lots of expansion still going on.

1. 6th Mech Inf Div

2. 11th Motor Inf Regiment.

3. 8th Motor Inf Div

4. 11th Art Reg
These hve not been mechanised, perhaps because of their AOR of CAR borders

That's it for now. Will edit blogpost to add all this information in a few days.

 

[jamwal]

Finally almost finished detailed ORBAT and locations of Chinese ground forces including Army, Marines and Airborne corps HQs. Haven't added some data like weapons and MUCD due to formatting issues. Corrections welcome.

Chinese Armed Forces ORBAT Part 3: Ground Forces - अरे यायावर रहेगा याद?

UPDATE 1: July 2022. During the rewrite, I’ve found a number of mistakes in the geo-location. The units are mostly correct, but a few have errors with the published address and corresponding coordinates. The process of corrections is going on. UPDATE 2: Sep 2022. Updated data of ground forces of...

jjamwal.in

 

[jamwal]

Some information about PLA numbering. See this interesting MBRL system with LD13-6402 number.
L: Land
D: East
13: 1st Army, 3rd brigade.
So 160th CAB of 72nd Group Army under Eastern Theater command
6402: 6th battalion, 4th company, 02nd vehicle

The tank has marking: LN12 2309.
L: Land unit
N: Southern Theater Command
12: 1st Group Army of TC, 2nd brigade of CAB
So LN12 is 16th CAB of 74th GA belonging to Eastern TC.
Moving on to next digits, 2309: 2nd battalion, 3rd company, 09th vehicle.

Above two tweets are basic format for all PLA Combined Arms Brigades. It may differ for older units like Tibet Military Region. L-Land B-North D-East N-South X-Western Z-Central S-Tibet MR? ?- Xinjiang MR? Use this for getting CAB and GA numbers.

https://jjamwal.in/yayavar/chinese-armed-forces-orbat-part-3-ground-forces/

 

[jamwal]

Trying my hand in creating Chinese #ORBAT graphics. This one is for PLA Heavy Combined Arms Brigades with vehicle codes. May not be 100% accurate.

 

[jamwal]

PLA Northern Theatre Command has 3 Group Armies, 78, 79 and 80th. These forces used to be among the most well equipped due to Sino-Soviet antagonism. Still plenty of well equipped units. Perhaps against Japan now.

 

[jamwal]

Chinese troops involved in Galwan clash were not from regular army, but 363rd Border Defence Regiment (BDR). Somewhat like our BSF/ITBP but supposedly better equipped. China has 3 regiments 361, 362 and 363 deployed near Laddakh. Each BDR has 3 Inf Coys + 1 Support Coy.

Orange marks are Coys & some of bases of these 3 BDRs. Many other posts not shown. Other units are troops from Xinjiang Military Region and from better equipped 76th and 77th Group Armies. Type-99 tanks at Pangong were from 62nd CAB of 76 GA & T-88s from XMR's 6h Div.
The spot of clash is ~40km as crow flies from nearest major supply base (under 363 Reg BDR). Also the much hyped drone delivery service used by Chinese troops has reportedly failed and mules/porters are being used for transporting supplies.

 

[jamwal]

Something about Chinese Missiles: They are controlled by PLA Rocket Force. It has 9 bases, 2 of which are support. Rest have 7 missile brigades each and a few support units. Each missile brigade has 4-6 launch battalions with 2 companies. ICBM brigades have 6-12 launchers, 12-24 for MRBM, 18-36 for IRBM and 36-48 for Cruise Missiles and SRBMs 1st image is bulk of their support, training and manufacturing facilities. 2nd is most of their sites for warhead & missile storage and testing.

Near final draft of chapter covering PLA Rocket Forces with locations of Chinese Missile Brigades, support units, storage sites, factories & some labs is available for early access
on: https://patreon.com/posts/69374920
Will be free to read in a few days on my website

 

[jamwal]

Chinese Rocket Forces #ORBAT with ~200 unit locations marked on Google Earth. Download the article in PDF format and a separate KMZ file. Both are still work in progress. Feedback, corrections welcome.

Chinese Armed Forces ORBAT Part 4: Rocket Forces - अरे यायावर रहेगा याद?

Ebook format with other branches included: https://amzn.to/3RR59Zi. Early access & some extras on Patreon. Formerly 2nd Artillery Corps, PLA Rocket Force is now considered a separate service branch in itself with 90,000 to 1,20,000 personnel. Its HQ is located at the Qinghe Compound in Beijing...

jjamwal.in

 

[jamwal]

Some permanent radar sites in Tibet along border with India. Few not visible on Google Earth yet. Doesn't include SAM and other portable radars.

 

[jamwal]

These marks on map should be 80% of all the permanent Chinese radars and quite a few of their EW sites. Doesn't include SAM sites and their radars, that's for later. There are a few I'm missing, but a bit bored of searching for them right now.

 

[jamwal]

Chinese long ranged SAM and radars

 

[jamwal]

480 Chinese radar sites and units with partial #Orbat