After the reform of the PLA in 2016, the army has taken on a new look, and some people even feel that they don't recognize the PLA anymore, so it is not surprising that such a situation will occur.
【People's Liberation Army】
After all, after this military reform, almost all the familiar numbers of the Chinese people in the past have been canceled, and they have instead become 13 modern group armies newly organized from 71 to 83, and the military construction of the PLA has entered a new era.
The number change has a deep meaning
The reason why our army will cancel those numbers that have a long history and glorious traditions is actually not complicated, that is, it is necessary to level the bowl of water and promote the smooth implementation of military reform.
【People's Liberation Army】
In the process of military reform, it is inevitable that some numbers will be abolished and some numbers will be retained, and the personnel of the units that have been abolished will also be merged into the new units, and this practice has been used in our army for a long time.
For example, the 127th Division, a product of the cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, has been used to this day, and was subordinate to the establishment of the 54th Group Army before the military reform, but after the military reform, the 127th Division was reduced to the 127th Composite Brigade, and was also incorporated into the 82nd Group Army, and the original 54th Group Army was reorganized into the 83rd Group Army.
You must know that the 127th Division is the trump card of the 54th Group Army, and the predecessor of the new 82nd Group Army is the 38th Group Army, which is equivalent to the 38th Army "swallowing" one of the ace divisions of the 54th Army.
[127th Division]
It is true that the 38th Army is a long-lived army, but the 54th Army is also the elite of the mainland army, and there is no distinction between high and low in terms of historical merits; if the original name is used, it is very easy to arouse the emotions of the officers and men of the troops, and in order to safeguard the honor and history of the 54th Army, it will be difficult to carry out the reorganization work.
However, if both armies have new numbers after the military reform, the past history will be written off, and it will be much easier to adjust.
During the Korean War, the 45th Army and the 44th Army of the People's Liberation Army were mixed into one army and went to the battlefield, but there were irreconcilable contradictions between the two armies on the issue of numbers.
【Anti-Beauty Morning】
The 44th Army wanted to call the new number the 44th Army of the Volunteer Army, and the 45th Army also wanted to keep its own number, but the matter finally went to Premier Zhou, and the Prime Minister personally decided to call the new number the 54th Army, which resolved the number dispute.
Compared with the wartime merger of troops, the changes in the troops during the military reform in 2016 were greater, and if you want to deepen the military reform, you can only completely jump out of the original number system.
The numbers of our army's previous 1-70 armies have been occupied, and they can only start from 71 and end with 83 to form a new number system. This is why there are 13 newly organized group armies on the mainland after the military reform.
【People's Liberation Army】
Of course, not all numbers of the People's Liberation Army have been cancelled after the military reform, and some of the small numbers that have been assessed by the Central Military Commission have still been retained, such as the 127 Composite Brigade mentioned above, whose number is inherited from the original 127 Division.
The reason why these numbers are retained is that for a unit with excellent traditions, the number is equivalent to the historical honor of the unit, and such an honor can inspire officers and soldiers.
For example, the officers and men of a trump card unit will inevitably have a sense of collective honor and pride in their own unit, and this kind of spiritual strength will also be brought into daily life training and even operations, and will have a positive effect on the combat effectiveness and cohesion of the unit.
【People's Liberation Army】
Moreover, in terms of military level, the transformation of the 127th Division into the 127th Composite Brigade is a downsizing, and in fact, its combat capability has grown considerably, and this heroic unit with a long history has gained a new evolution.
The People's Liberation Army after the military reform
If it is said that the PLA Army was already the second army in the world before the military reform, the army after the military reform already has the qualifications and strength to compete with the US Army for the world's first army.
In 2016, there are three key words in the military reform: informatization, systematization, and synthesis, and throughout the world, only China and the United States have achieved these three points in the army, and even Russia is far from China and the United States.
【Synthesis Camp】
Let's talk about informationization construction first, to put it simply, from weaponry to combat units, our army has a stronger situational awareness and precision strike capability than in the past, and this has brought earth-shaking changes in the lethality of weapons and the combat effectiveness of troops.
Informationized units have absolute battlefield superiority in the face of opponents who have not completed informationization construction, and the Gulf War is a clear proof of this, and a much smaller US military unit can defeat a large-scale cluster of Iraqi troops.
Systematization is a concept put forward after the development of information construction to a certain extent, and the army's large and small combat units are no longer independent individuals, but are nodes in a unified battlefield information system.
【Synthesis Camp】
With this system, the situational awareness of each information node can be connected in series, forming a one-way transparency on the battlefield. In large-scale ground operations, systematic combat capabilities are very important, which can greatly improve our military's situational awareness and make accurate responses to actual combat situations.
Compared with informatization and systematization, synthesis has been proposed for a long time, but it is the most difficult to realize synthesis, because it requires sufficient national and financial resources as support to realize the real synthesis construction.
Synthesis means that the different arms of the armed forces in the past are integrated into an independent combat collective, which has extremely strong independent combat capabilities.
【Synthetic Brigade】
For example, in the past, the PLA's ground aviation units and ground combat units of the PLA were separated, and although they could also cooperate in operations, they actually had independent command structures and military systems.
However, the composite unit is different, and the army aviation unit is directly attached to the unit, accepting unified command and leadership, and the two sides serve the same tactical target, which greatly enhances the independent combat capability of the combat unit.
In the past, a group army of our army may only be able to complete traditional ground mobile operations, but the combined group army can also carry out various modes of military power projection such as air assault, and its combat capability is extremely strong.
【Synthesis Camp】
Of course, in order to realize the construction of synthesis, it is necessary to sink combat equipment into the combat units at the grassroots level, and this means that it is difficult to estimate the military investment of the armed forces of a large country, and it is difficult to support the reform of synthesis without strong financial and national strength.
Sources:
[1] The Central Military Commission issued the "Opinions on Deepening the Reform of National Defense and the Army" .xinhuanet [Citation date:2004-09-10]
[2] Tian Liang. The Central Military Commission issued the "Opinions on Deepening the Reform of National Defense and the Army" - Military Reform: New Highlights of the New Military Branch, Global People, 2016