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Amphibious Warfare Capabilities of the People's Liberation Army:
An Assessment on Recent Modernizations[1]

Recently, the PLA has increased the number of dedicated amphibious units from one Marine brigade to two and added two newly converted AMID. While the PLA marine corps is under the command of the navy during peacetime, the AMID continue to report to the PLA (Army). In time of war, all assets and armed services would be placed under one unified War Zone Command.

The PLAN 1st Marine brigade (PLAM) has the responsibility for South China Sea patrol and garrison duties. A large percentages of its members are considered long-range recon and special operation types. Many articles from official publications such as the PLAdaily (www.pladaily.com.cn) and PLA Pictorial (www.plapic.com) portray a force that trains and prides itself in small unit roles with the focus on the South China Sea. The 1st Marine brigade has complete organic transportation at its command, including a naval aviation squadron of Z-8 medium transport helicopter and a naval transport squadron, thus enabling the 1st Marine brigade to project themselves rapidly in time of need as a complete package in the South China Sea. It is likely that they will not be operated as a single combat unit in time of war; their job would be to secure small islands in the Taiwan Strait.

To increase PLAM’s “ocean crossing” capability in a traditional amphibious assault role, the Central Military Commission (CMC) converted the PLA’s 164th Motorized Infantry Brigade of the 41st Group Army (GA) into the 2nd Marine Brigade in 1998. However, unlike the 1st Marine Brigade, the 2nd does not contain special operations assets, but retains its armor regiment structure. After the armor regiment was fully integrated with amphibious equipment such as the Type 63A ALT and Type 63C AAPC, it was renamed as marine amphibious armor regiment in 2001. (It does have a frogman unit, however.)

In 2000, two PLA Motorized (truck mounted) Infantry Divisions (MID) were converted into Amphibious Mechanized Infantry Divisions (AMID). They were 1st MID of 1st Group Army, Nanjing Military Region, and 124th MID of the 42nd Group Army, Guangzhou Military Region. Both are considered the PLA’s elite and earned honors from past wars, including the Chinese civil war, Korean War, Sino-Vietnam War of 1979, and the 2nd Sino-Vietnam war of 1984.

As with the Marine formations, the PLA AMID are also issued dedicated amphibious equipment and training. [7] As PLA units became heavier, so does their sea lift requirements. Since the PLA’s own transportation fleet only operates small size cargo ships and Landing Ship Mechanized (LSM), the PLA AMID are being trained closely with the PLAN’s heavy Landing Ship Tanks (LST).

The AMIDs maintain a traditional 3-1-1 format with the main combat formations listed as: three Amphibious Mechanized Infantry Regiments, one Amphibious Armor regiment, one Artillery regiment, one Engineering battalion, one Air Defense Regiment and one Recon Battalion. This allows troops to focus on amphibious warfare instead of suffering the pain of reorganization that other PLA units are witnessing now. The 3-1-1 format is a PLA traditional pattern that allows each regiment to act as the basis for an independent combat team during a tactical situation. While the new AMID force structure is identical to a traditional PLA Mechanized Infantry Division, they have dedicated amphibious equipment and training, and work closely with other service arms. However, PLA searchers does not call for max of formations between amphibious and the heavy tank regiment [8]. Heavy tank regiment should perform as a single unit and able to rush forward as a single unit the moment it is unloaded from their landing ships to perform a break thought.

It is reported by the mainland press that the 124th’s long-time sister formation the 123rd motorized infantry division will be converted as an AMID as well, although there is no confirmation so far and others suggest that the 123rd will be converted into a standard Mechanized Infantry Divisions instead as it has been newly issued with the Type 96 Main Battle Tank (MBT) instead of ALT.

In addition to the two AMID there are a number of formations that are equipped with some amphibious equipment, have focused their training in “cross ocean” warfare, and the exercises of which are often reported in the media. They are: the 91st Motorized Infantry Division and Armored Brigade of the 31st Group Army, the 36th “Huai Hai” Mechanized Infantry Brigade of 12th Group Army, the 10th armored division of the 1st Group Army, the 123rd Motorized Infantry Division of the 41st Group Army, and the 127th Light Mobile Mechanized Infantry Division of 54th Group Army. They will most likely serve as the 2nd echelon.

A number of inland formation also conduct amphibious training on ad hoc base, for example, members of the 38th Group army of Beijing Military region are often cited as taking part in large scale exercises near the coast. An armored division of the Shenyang Military Region conducted its training at an inland reservoir in 2001.