PLA Ground Forces

Brigade Reform and
the Recent PLA Development

• Introduction
• The Brigades' Role in the PLA's WarZone Campaign Doctrine
• Rapid Reaction Units and Pockets Of Excellence:
• Training and Organization
• New Laws and Regulations
• The Brigades
• Table of Equipment
• Notes

China Defense.com
Image Archive DVD

42,000+ Images

find out about it here

Webhosting provided by:

Brigade Reform and the Recent PLA Development

by Xinhui

"We should have a strong sense of crisis, because we cannot concentrate on economic development without a consolidated national defense and a powerful army." Jiang Zemin Urges PLA Modernization [1]

Since 1997, the two events that have undoubtedly affected the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) Order of Battle (Orbat) the most were, the demobilization of half a million troops [2] and the large-scale conversion of divisions (shi, ) into smaller sized brigades (lu, )[3]. How do those reforms fit into the change of the PLA's doctrine? How will brigades operate as key fighting formations of the PLA? [4] While there are many reports covering the demobilization of troops, information related to the brigade reform has only surfaced in recent years. [5]

The PLA's conversion of divisions to brigades may reflect an organizational change that will be expanded to select units, the so-call Pockets of Excellence (POEs) in the future, thus they will then have greater flexibility and mobility to conduct future limited war. The POEs' creation is deemed a necessary step to address the many shortcomings of the PLA in conducting high-tech local war with limited funding. To outfit some two million troops who have long suffered from significantly obsolete equipment is simply too expensive [6]. This paper is an attempt to organize information from various sources and present a clearer picture of this important Orbat change and its role in the overall scheme of the PLA's reform program. From the available sources, the bridge reform appears to be an essential part of the PLA's WarZone Campaign (WZC or Zhanqu Zhanyi, ) doctrine, which demands a highly trained, rapid reaction and quick deployable force. The second goal maybe to downsize the overstaffed PLA divisions, as President Jiang Zemin stated, "PLA would build itself to be a lean, integrated and highly-efficient army". [7]