Thread about Chinese PLA's Western Theatre Command (WTC) ground forces in Tibet, Indo-Tibet border to be more specific. Covers most of ground troops in the sector which could see action against India. More details with geographical coordinates in last tweet of this thread.
Read overview of basic structure and
#orbat of Chinese ground forces here:
https://twitter.com/JaidevJamwal/status/1603979631446462464… Not necessary, but will help you understand some data if you are not familiar with Chinese military structure.
WTC is the military formation oriented against India. It also covers Tibet's borders with Pakistan, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan. It's the largest among all Army TCs & has following units:
1. 76th Group Army (GA)
2. 77th Group Army
3. Xinjiang Military Region (XMR)
4. Tibet Military Region (TMR)
5. Border Defence Regiments (BDRs, equivalent to Indian BSF and ITBP) BDR and People Armed Police (PAP) units are deployed for border and internal security
GAs have their HQs in Xinin and Chengdu and a few units are deployed on Indo-Tibet border every now and then. XMR is the formation deployed in Laddakh and their troops were involved in Galwan. TMR is deployed towards Uttrakhand till Arunachal borders of India.
As some of you might have guessed by now, XMR and TMR have different orbat and unit composition compared to rest of PLA ground forces. Some of XMR recruits are from Xinjiang and parts of Tibet. According to some sources, their CO reports directly to CMC instead of TC HQs.
As explained earlier in linked tweet, both GAs have 6 Combined Arms Brigades (CABs) plus various support units. There are 5 Heavy, 3 Medium, 3 Light and 1 Mountain (probably Light) CABs in total. Of these, atleast 1 Heavy CAB has been disbanded or reorganised recently. 62nd Heavy CAB deployed Type-99A tanks In Pangong & Spangur area in 2020. It was after India deployments outmatched XMR and BDR troops. Other units have been deployed at other locations and different occasions.
Most Air Defence Brigades have HQ-16 MRSAM, HQ-7 SAM, PG-99 twin 35mm AA. Artillery brigades have a mix of 122 mm and 155 mm guns and MBRLs. Aviation brigades are equipped with Z-8G, Z-10, Z-19 & Mi-17 helicopters. Z-10 was evaluated for purchase by Pakistan and rejected due to poor performance. Special Operations brigades have roughly 500 troops. XMR had 4 traditional divisions (4, 6, 8 & 11th) plus some independent units. It was reorganised into a Combined Arms structure after a number of shortcomings were noticed during a sustained deployment against India.
Each of those 4 Divs now have 3 or 4 CA Regs/Brigades, 1 Firepower Reg and 1 Support Regs. Heavy regs are equipped with Type-99A tanks & Type-86A ICVs. Firepower regs usually have 35mm and 57 mm AA, HQ-7 SAMs 122mm MBRL and PCL-181 SPH. Pakis have ought 236 of these howitzers too. TMR has 2 Mountain(52 & 53) CABs and 1 Heavy (54) CAB plus some independent units. Mountain brigades have 4 Infantry regiments & 1 artillery regiment/brigade plus Support units. 54th CAB has 3 Mech Inf Battalions, 1 tank battalion with Type-15 light tank and 1 artillery reg with PCL-181 SPH. Most Chinese patrols on the Indo-Tibet border are by comparatively lightly armed BDRs. There are 20-25 BDRs with the whole WTC, each having 3 companies.
All this data with more details like geographical locations, history, maps and more linked here:
https://twitter.com/JaidevJamwal/status/1593118609270009859… Feedback & corrections welcome.
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...
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