China’s Five Military Commands To Have Own Army, Air Force

[Zarvan]

Source : Our Bureau ~ Dated : Thursday, February 4, 2016 @ 09:29 AM
Views : 145 Global Times reported citing an unnamed insider as saying.

The new theatre commands are identified by their strategic locations in east, south, west, north and central China and will base their army headquarters in Fuzhou, Fujian Province; Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region; Lanzhou, Gansu Province; Jinan, Shandong Province and Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, the source said.

The joint command centers will be located in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, Shenyang, Liaoning Province and Beijing.

The new People's Liberation Army's (PLA) battle zone commands or theatre commands will replace the former seven military area commands which were based in Beijing, Nanjing, Chengdu, Ji'nan, Shenyang, Lanzhou and Guangzhou.

The locations of the headquarters are based on earlier infrastructure that includes communication facilities. The work on military reform could start soon, the source said.

Under this system, the Central Military Commission (CMC) is the top command, the theater commands will be able to deploy forces in the region in combat, and each branch of the military will focus on training their respective troops.

The new system separates the combat and construction or logistic missions. The theater commands will focus on engagement, while the PLA army, navy and air force will focus on developing their respective forces, said the source.

http://www.defenseworld.net/news/15...ands_To_Have_Own_Army__Air_Force#.VrNb6yNRXqB

 

[Deino]

Is there a reliable map already available ???

All I found so far are more than mixing information with variying borders ...

Deino

 

[Deino]

May I recommend this file !!! :thanks: :thanks:

The PLA’s New Organizational Structure: What is Known, Unknown and Speculation (Part 1) | The Jamestown Foundation

http://www.jamestown.org/uploads/media/The_PLA_s_New_Organizational_Structure_Part_1.pdf

Deino

 

[gambit]

The title is misleading.

The PLA is serious about reorganizing itself in the mold of the US military. What the PLA is doing is NOT adapting the American military architecture to suit PLA needs, but is actually doing the opposite: reorganizing the PLA along the lines of the US military and modify that architecture only where necessary.

The PLA theater combatant commanders do not have their own army and air force, rather, each theater commander have at his disposal all the local forces stationed in his theater.

If there is a PLA garrison, the PLA chief, not the theater commander, is responsible for training and readiness.

If there is a PLAAF base, the PLAAF chief, not the theater commander, is responsible for training and readiness.

Take Desert Storm, for example. US Army General Norman Schwarzkopf was the overall commander and under him are all the generals from the other services. The US Army was not responsible for Air Force pilots in terms of training and assignments. All Schwarzkopf wanted was as much Air Force pilots available for the theater as possible. Same for the US Navy.

 

[nang2]

The title is misleading.

The PLA is serious about reorganizing itself in the mold of the US military. What the PLA is doing is NOT adapting the American military architecture to suit PLA needs, but is actually doing the opposite: reorganizing the PLA along the lines of the US military and modify that architecture only where necessary.

The PLA theater combatant commanders do not have their own army and air force, rather, each theater commander have at his disposal all the local forces stationed in his theater.

If there is a PLA garrison, the PLA chief, not the theater commander, is responsible for training and readiness.

If there is a PLAAF base, the PLAAF chief, not the theater commander, is responsible for training and readiness.

Take Desert Storm, for example. US Army General Norman Schwarzkopf was the overall commander and under him are all the generals from the other services. The US Army was not responsible for Air Force pilots in terms of training and assignments. All Schwarzkopf wanted was as much Air Force pilots available for the theater as possible. Same for the US Navy.

Excuse my poor English. I don't understand "the opposite" part. Why modifying only where necessary is NOT adapting?

 

[gambit]

Excuse my poor English. I don't understand "the opposite" part. Why modifying only where necessary is NOT adapting?

The difference is in the degrees of changes you want.

Let us take something a lot of us love to modify -- the car. One of the most popular modifications is to change the body panels to make the car look like another brand.

One Of The Rarest American Cars Is A Counterfeit Ferrari 308

What the PLA did was not just installing an office here and there, or creating a new post and re-assigning a few generals/admirals around its military organizations, like changing body panels on a car.

Here is the original PLA organizational structure...

You can see the great differences between 'before' and 'after'.

In the US military, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), are NOT combatant commanders. It means while the three generals and one admiral of the JCS are the top leaders of their branch of services, they are prevented -- by law -- from having a single unit under their authority.

http://www.jcs.mil/About.aspx

...the Joint Chiefs of Staff have no executive authority to command combatant forces.

No 'executive authority' mean the Army Chief of Staff cannot walk into an army post and just take over. He cannot even call the post commander on the phone and order the unit to battle. The JCS is a Presidential advisory body that assist the President on knowing what the US military can do, as in capabilities, strategies, and tactics, then the chiefs tells the combatant commanders on what the President want and work with those commanders on how to achieve what the President want.

If the new PLA organizational structure have this new office it is more than just adaptation but wholesale construction of a new office, removal of existing authority lines, rerouting old ones, and creating new authority lines.