Chinese Armed Forces ORBAT

jamwal

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A list of ~490 Radar and ~280 SAM sites and units in China with details about their #ORBAT and locations. Read on website or download in PDF or e-book format. It's not complete, but good enough for now.


 

jamwal

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Orbat and locations of ground troops of PLA Western Theatre Command. These are nearly all of Army units that China can deploy in Tibet against India.

 

jamwal

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Orbat and locations of PLA Army units belonging to Eastern Theatre Command. Most of them are meant for invasion of Taiwan.
Will release more data in next few days, hopefully.

 

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A less glamorous military topic, yet very important nevertheless. List of ~190 Chinese military factories, ~110 geo-located. Few more still unidentified. They manufacture ships, aircraft, engines, ordnance as well as basics such as uniforms.

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Although not a big surprise, notice how locations with most factories (red) also have most defences (white, long range SAM sites).

 

jamwal

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Chinese People's Armed Police is one of largest security forces responsible for internal security, counter-terrorism, coast guard & more. It's now under CCP command with no provincial oversight. Pretty well armed with APCs, choppers & more. Some of known units #orbat

 

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JLSF is meant to provide all arms of PLA with logistics support of all kinds including but not limited to transport, medical, inventory, storage, construction and procurement.



PLA Strategic Support Force is a theatre level force and an independent service arm under control of CMC, but not a full service branch like PLARF. It is responsible for PLA’s electronic, space, psychological and electronic warfare missions.


Military Factories


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jamwal

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Order Of Battle (ORBAT) of Chinese Armed Forces for Ground Forces. The posts on websites have details like composition, roles and locations of PLA Army, Rocket Force, PAP, JLSF, SSF, Radars, SAM sites, Badges & some more. Will post more whenever more data becomes available

For people who prefer E-book format plus some details which couldn't be posted on website due to formatting issues:

I'll appreciate any feedback and corrections.
 

jamwal

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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.
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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
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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.

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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.

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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.

 

jamwal

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All Chinese PLA Army bases of all 5 Theatre Commands located and marked. There are ~1800 locations in total including air bases & others, so page may load slow. As far any hypothetical war with India is concerned, following is a rough estimate of deployment:
1. WTC >1 Group Army (GA) + 1 Reserve
2. Tibet MR > 2 Combined Arms Brigades (CAB) + 1 Reserve
3. Xinjiang MR > 2 Combined Arms Divisions (CAD) + 2 Reserve Independent units are extra.

Seems like #India has an edge in ground forces apart from

 

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Short thread on Chinese Airborne (former 15th Airborne Corps). All of their bases are in Henan and Hubei, which are part of Central Theatre Command. Under command of PLA Air Force, they're supposed to be tip of the spear troops with focus on mobility & fast deployment. Weapons include 122 mm howitzers, 82 mm mortars, Type-15 light tanks, ZBD-03 APCs, MANPADS and 22 mm AAA. Fixed wing air transport includes Y-7, Y-8 & Y-20 and helicopter fleet includes Z-8, Z-9 & Mi-17. Apart from that there are various types of small weapons & transports.

Current #orbat has 7 Airborne brigades, although only 6 are confirmed. Each such brigade has 4-6 infantry battalions supported by specialised units such as artillery, recon, EW, chemical defence and logistics. Induction of Y-20 is expected to improve their deployment speed and reach considerably. Closest Indian equivalent would be the Parachute Regiment with 15+3 battalions. It is comparatively smaller and lightly equipped.
 

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Chinese military #orbat map: Long range Surface to Air Missile (SAM) sites added again. Includes command HQs as well as deployment sites. Will be updated in some time again


 

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