Order of Battle

People's Liberation Army Order of Battle

• General Overview
• Military Regions
• CMC Direct Command Units
• Beijing MR
• Shenyang MR
• Nanjing MR
• Jinan MR
• Guangdong MR
• Lanzhou MR
• Xingjing Field Combat Formation
• Xinjing Production and Construction Corp
• Chengdu MR
• Tibet Field Combat Formation
• PLA Marine Corps
• Disbanded Divisions

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People's Liberation Army
Order of Battle

by Xinhui

Military Region ( Da Junqu ):

Military Regions (MR) only handles day-to-day peacetime management of the PLA. In time of war, a WarZone Operational command will be setup to take control of all aspect of the military operation in that area, including all service branch such as the militia, reserve, People’s Military Police (PAP), Air force, navy, second artillery (Tactical nuclear weapons), Special Operations, etc.

China is currently divided into seven Military Regions (MR). MRs are administrative headquarters, responsible for the army, air, and naval forces located in several provinces. Each MR is intended to be commanded by a Lieutenant General, though some are commanded by full Generals. MR commanders ( siling yuan ) are assisted by several deputy commanders (fu siling yuan), including the regional air force commander and naval commander, if naval forces are present within the MR; a political commissar ( zhengzhi weiyuan or zhengwei ); and a number of deputy political commissars (fu zhengwei) . MR staffs parallel, but are smaller than, the organization of the four General Departments and are overseen by an MR Chief of Staff ( canmou zhang ). Each MR has a headquarters, political department, joint logistics department, and equipment department. The presence of a “joint logistics department” (lian qin bu) indicates that this element is intended to provide support to army, naval, and air forces assigned to the region. -- >From Dennis Blasko "PLA Ground Force: Moving Toward a Smaller, More Rapidly Deployable, Modern Combined Arms Force"

In addition to the Military District (MD) listed above, there are several garrisons that are equivalent to MD. Those include the Beijing, TianJin, Shanghai, Chongqing garrisons. Also note: The PLA 5 digit identification number I used in this document is dated; PLA apparently implemented a new five-digit system during October 2000. Military units assign directly to MD, are consider having the lowest level readiness, and have little military value. They generally referred to as Cat C formations, most of those units already converted into PAP and reserve formations, but some in the boarder regions remain (43rd divisions for example) boarder guards. While garrison of Beijing and TianJin, Shanghai, and Chongqing are consider to be elite troops. Not all MD created equal.

Red Army and PLA Major Reorganizations:

Adopted from The PLA As Organization by Kenneth W. Allen

A note on our formation naming/numbering convention :
"Unidentified Armor Brigade" means we do not know its number; 4 Motorized Division refers to the Fourth Motorized Division. The unit HQ’s hometown is next to the unit number. (2) means 2nd formation bears the same name, for example 7 infantry divisions 7th and 9th division were combined as 3rd division in 1952, in 1969, a new 7th infantry division was formed in Xinjing in 1969. PLA Cavalry frontier defense units are horse based, not Helicopter based as that of the US/NATO.

CMC = Central Military Commission, ID = Infantry Division, FA = Field Army, older PLA army, pre-1985 reform. GA = Group Army, post 1985 Army organization.

Coy = company, Btn = Battalion, Regt =Regiment, Bgd = brigade, AAA = Anti-Aircraft Artillery. Arty = Artillery, Inf=infantry, AD =Air Defense. SSM (Surface to Surface Missile), ATGM (Anti-Tank Guided Missile), SAM (Surface to Air missile) MR = Military Region, MD = Military District, MRAF =Military Region Air Force.

According to Rick Kamer, the following is a possbile Army Aviation (LH LuHang ) Aircraft number system breakdown:

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