In the discussion of our military fans and friends, we often refer to some luxuriously equipped units in the army as "local tyrant brigades".
Although our army equipment has made great progress in the past 10 years or so, the scale of our army is so large that many units have not been able to replace it with the latest equipment.
Therefore, according to the different operational positions of the troops and the different degrees of threats they are dealing with, the equipment level of the various group armies of our army is also different.
So which group army has the best equipment? Which group army has the strongest combat effectiveness, and which group army has the worst equipment?
1
There is no such thing as "the strongest"
Our 13 armies have different operational orientations among themselves, so the criteria for measuring their combat effectiveness cannot be generalized.
For example, the 83rd Army is the largest number of medium brigades in our army. What are the characteristics of medium-sized brigades? They are equipped with highly mobile eight-wheeled infantry combat vehicles and assault vehicles, which are very suitable for rapid maneuvering on the road network.
And they also have an air assault brigade with great vertical maneuverability. Therefore, the 83rd Group Army is the group army with the strongest strategic mobility capability in the whole army, which is also in line with the positioning of the 83rd Group Army as the general reserve of the whole army.
In contrast, our other group army, the 78th Army, is one of the largest number of heavy brigades, equipped with 96A tanks, 99A tanks and 99 tanks, and has extremely strong frontal offensive and defensive capabilities.
This is because the 78th Army's operational orientation is to deal with the direction of Northeast Asia, and it needs to consider fighting head-on battles with the US and ROK forces on the Korean Peninsula, and it is a force that will fight a tough battle.
So if you want to discuss which army group has the strongest frontal offensive and defensive capabilities, then there is no doubt about the 78th Army.
However, which group army's "local tyrant brigade" is most often mentioned? I believe that many friends think of the 82nd Group Army. The 82nd Army and its predecessor, the 38th Army, have long been the first units in our army to be equipped with new types of weapons.
The synthetic reform of our army was also piloted, explored, and popularized in the 82nd Group Army at the earliest. The first brigade to be called the "local tyrant brigade" is now a brigade of the 82nd Group Army.
Therefore, if you want to say which group army has the strongest comprehensive combat capability and the most advanced equipment, then I think it should be the 82nd Group Army.
But if we want to say which army group has the strongest amphibious combat capability, then the answer may be among the three armies: 72nd, 73rd, and 74th.
Because these three armies are subordinate to the army's amphibious composite brigade, which is often referred to as the "army naval corps".
These three armies are units facing the direction of the Taiwan Strait. Therefore, they have strengthened the construction of amphibious combat capabilities, and it is likely that they will be the first army combat units to land on Taiwan Island in the future.
It can be seen from this that if we want to discuss which of the 13 group armies has the strongest combat effectiveness, we will come up with different answers according to different angles and criteria.
So if we were to discuss which army group was the worst equipped, could we come up with a definite answer?
2
Why is the worst equipment?
Among the 13 armies of the army, if we want to say that the most poorly equipped group army, it is probably our 80th army.
Judging by the current open information, the equipment situation of the 80th Army is not optimistic.
According to reports, a certain unit of the 80th Army was even equipped with an old Type 59 tank, and it was a 100-mm rifled gun version of the Whiteboard Type 59 tank that had not been improved in armor and firepower, and only the radio telecommunications equipment had been upgraded.
Some units of the 80th Army are also using the Type 86 infantry fighting vehicle, which is the first generation of infantry fighting vehicles of our army, and the object of its imitation, the Soviet-made BMP1 infantry fighting vehicle, is a product of the fifties and sixties.
This is because the 80th Army is currently mainly responsible for the strategic direction of Mongolia and Russia, and the land threat in this direction is obviously not high.
Although the 80th Army was still tasked with combat readiness in the northeast, the 78th and 79th armies were in front, and the pressure on the 80th Army was much lighter.
Given the large scale of our army and the relatively limited funds for armament, it is obvious that priority should be given to equipping units with relatively high pressure on combat readiness and relatively large threats to strategic directions.
Units like the 80th Army, their equipment priority will be slightly lower, so they retain a lot of old equipment that has not been replaced. Therefore, the 80th Army can be called the poorly equipped group army of our army at present.
However, we should also note that even though their equipment is relatively poor, the performance of the 80th Army in the exercise Xi is not bad, which shows that their training level is very good and they have given full play to the performance of their existing equipment.
So we don't need to worry about the combat effectiveness of the 80th Army because of their poor level of equipment.
As other group armies of our army have completed the replacement of new equipment one after another, the pressure on the army to change equipment has been somewhat reduced. We estimate that in a few years, the 80th Group Army will also be able to obtain new advanced equipment, thus completely solving the problem of poor equipment.
3
The combat strength of the army group is diversified
Our Army's positioning is territorial defense operations, and China's vast land area, complex and diverse terrain, and many operational environments need to be faced.
In eastern China, it fought on the Great Plains, in western China it fought in the mountains and plateaus, in southern China it faced a dense network of water and rice fields, and in northern China it was a forest and snow field.
The complex operational environment has set extremely high demands on our troops' ability to adapt to the region.
A heavily armed mechanized unit can operate smoothly in the northern plains, but it will be difficult to move in the terrain of the rice fields of the southern water network. A unit that is adapted to fighting in the mountains of the plateau may lack the ability to attack and defend head-on on the plains.
Therefore, the 13 group armies of our army have built and developed different types of units in accordance with their respective strategic orientations and operational orientations to meet the needs of operations in different regions.
Therefore, it is difficult for us to say which army has the strongest combat effectiveness, and the 78th Army has a strong combat effectiveness in frontal attack and defense in the Northeast Plain, but if you let them carry out amphibious landing operations, it may not be as good as the 72nd Army.
The difference in equipment between the various army groups of the army is due to the fact that we have developed very rapidly in recent years, and a lot of equipment that needs time to accumulate has not yet been fully rolled out.
These problems are not difficult to solve, they only need to accumulate over a period of time.
It is estimated that in another five or 10 years, our army will no longer have any units that are poorly equipped, and all units will be able to use advanced equipment. At that time, it is believed that the combat capability of our army will be raised to a higher level.