Officer of Engineers

Included are new photos of the Chinese People's Liberation Army experimental 155th Light Mechanized Regiment, this is the 1st time we've got somewhat a closer look at this new formation. This was quite a shock to PLA watchers since this is a regular Army Regiment which is a departure from the stated battalion-brigade-corps. Before this, we had assume all regts were legacy units.

Needless to say, this has caused a stir in PLA watching. I'm going to expand the field into asking you Gentlemen what are they learning, what kind of mistakes are they making, what are they getting right, what can the LMR do, and what can the LMR not do?

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Chimo

Officer of Engineers

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Officer of Engineers

Please note the blue AF BDU, the 1st indications that we have that a PLAAF birdbrain is working as ground control with the bellycrawlers.

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Officer of Engineers

Last set

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Officer of Engineers

The initial TOE, may change over time (from Xinhui)

Battalion HQ
medical
support
1x Fire Support Company
Company HQ jeeps and SUV
3xW99 82mm auto mortar
3x25mm/SAM
3xHeavy Machine Gun and Grenade launcher


Heavy Mech Infantry company
3 x Type 96 MBT
3 x Type86 IFV
3 x Type96 IFV



1x Artillery Company
company HQ
3x100mm mortar
3x105mm Wheeled Anti-tank Gun
3x107mm Multiple Rocket launcher


1 recon company.
1x command and communication jeep
2x armed recon jeeps
2x2 recon ATV.

sappersgt

Where or what province are these units from? They are not like any PLA units I ever saw but then it's been a while.

Officer of Engineers

The 155th Special Light Mechanized Regiment, Chengdu Military Region

Anon

At first glance it seems like a typical representation of a motor unit. Best suited to raiding, screening and reconaissance IMHO.

How effective it would be is as always a representation of a variety of factors- troop quality, tactics, equipment quality, ability to support with attatchments, air support/cover, fuel and supplies, etc, etc.
Also of key interest would be what kind of VSHORAD and SHORAD would this formation be able to expect in the field. The best AAA i saw above was a bunch of manual 23mm twin mounts. That is wholly inadequate against a 1st or 2nd tier opponent.

Anyway, if the troops are high quality and used properly, it could be a pretty effective force. Wouldn't want to commit it to a knock-down drag out brawl if you could help it though. Even a SAW would cut one of those unarmored jeeps to ribbons in a matter of seconds.

Literally....and from 600 meters plus.

Officer of Engineers

Part of our problem is trying to come to terms with the heavy mech inf coy. Contrary to the other coys within this regt, it is not air transportable, which

a) limits the distance this regt is supposed to employ
b) it must arrive via an airstrip

or

c) a place holder for equivelent firepower

In contrast also to the rest of the coys, the heavy coy are all old toys, all 1950 tech.
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Anoop C

Colonel,

Is this Light Mechanized Regiment one of the three in an Infantry Division?

I tried to compare this to an Indian Mechanized Infantry Battalion, but didn't find an TO for that.

My questions on the PLA's LMR are:

1. With the small number of tanks (am I reading it right that there are only 3 of each?), isn't there a limit to their effectiveness except as reinforcing in defence?

2. Why aren't there more IFVs or at least BMP-type vehicles that can offer a ride to more troops?

3. The organization seems to be a bit imbalanced. For example, due to lack of sufficient ICVs, won't the mobility of the dismounted infantry be mismatched with that of the tanks? Also, the heavy emphasis on the Artillery Coy (for a Mech. Inf. Bn.) seems to detract from the recce and raid functions one would associate with such a unit.

4. Why is the Fire Support Coy separate from the Artillery Coy? If it is to provide close support, my follow-on question is below - support to the (missing) Rifle Coys?

5. Where is the equivalent of the Rifle Coys that one expects in an Inf Bn - Mechanized or otherwise? Already, 4 Coys have been listed and none are Rifle Coys. What am I missing?

6. Given the large Artillery component, wouldn't you expect a larger Recce Coy to utilize that firepower?

Sorry about providing questions, instead of answers - but the latter are not my forte!

Thanks in advance.

Officer of Engineers

At this point, it is an independent regiment solely for the purpose of experimentation.

The heavy coy is perplexing. It cannot be helo inserted which the pics are suggesting for the regt. The rest of the regt can go alot further, alot faster, and to alot more places via helo insert that the heavy coy cannot. My immediate thoughts were that the AO was going to be small so that the heavy coy could be in play. However, further thinking about it, I dropped that idea since if the heavy coy could be in play, so could a real tank regt.

At this point, we don't have enough info.

Helo insert is a requirement.

Do note that this is an experimental formation. However, the concept is fire centric for a recee-by-force type of unit.

Xinhui (aka Andy Chan) reports from CCTV

Well, I am hesitating at this point to go further because we lack evidence but there is STRONG indication that the LMR fights at the company group/combat team and the battle group/task force level.

A rose by another name. The Chinese calls them infantry companies.

Again, this makes sense if company group and battle group are employed. However, this would be the 1st time in PLA history that they've embarked on this concept. We don't have any evidence that they're using company group and battle group ... but the suggestion is strongly there.

Anoop C

Colonel,

Thank you for the clarifications. I have some more questions:

How many helos would it take, if that were the primary source of mobility? In the IA, a medium lift helo like the Mi-17 transports either a jeep or a platoon worth of personnel at a time. It seems odd that they would depend on the helos (instead of investing in ICVs) for mobility, given the weather-dependence and MANPAD risks associated with it. It makes sense for a U.S./NATO force which is largely expeditionary in nature and hence needs high tactical mobility, and can achieve the kind of air dominance required for heliborne assault.

Actually, thinking more about this, a heliborne transport would be very useful in a Taiwan or an Indian scenario, given the terrain. However, there would have to be significant force protection, especially in a Taiwan scenario, I imagine.

I don't understand this. What would this translate to in Western terminology? A Task Force would be a Bde level, wouldn't it? What is the Company Group equivalent in Western armies?

But why aren't they listed in the ToO? I see only Support Coy, Artillery Coy, Heavy Mechanized Coy and Recon Coy. How many Infantry Coys to a LM Regiment?

Officer of Engineers

The PLA Army has stated that they can commit 400 helos to any operation. Whether overconfidence or actual ability remains to be seen. At this point, the LMR is still experimental, meaning that not everything the PLA tries is going to work. I can see the 8x8 buggy going in favour of the jeeps.

I'm going to answer this first in order to give you an understanding. A company group for intents and purposes is a bn(-), comprising of a manouver coy (inf or arm'd) and a cbt spt coy(-); usually a heavy weapons pltn and an engineers pltn.

Easiest way to explain a battle group/task force is you take an inf battalion and a tank bn and have them swap one manouver company each (ie, the inf trades an inf coy for a tank coy and vice versa) and you have two battle groups/task forces.

Of course, there are other elements such as brigade attached assets such as an engr troop but essentially, the above would suffice for this examination.

This being said, we have absolutely no evidence the PLA Army has gone to combat team/task force. Just looking at this thing and seeing the exercise points me in that thinking. Nothing more.

And here is where I run into problems thinking this through and M21Sniper points it out quite well, the lack of VSHORAD and SHORAD. The presence of the blue BDU (PLAAF or even 2nd Artillery Force) suggests a non-organic long range fire support ... but again, we have very little evidence that the services have reached this level of co-operation.

I don't think that they've reached that far in thinking just yet.

My mistake. There are two light mech inf coys centred on those jeeps but their exact TOE is unavailable. I should also point out that the above listed TOE is deduced and should be considered as such.

lemontree

Sir,
How many inf coys would such a battalion have? 2 or 3 coys.

__________________

Cheers!...on the rocks!!

Officer of Engineers

The entire regt would only have 2 light mech inf coys.