The Syrian airfield prepare for reception of military aircraft of China
The latest news about fast emergence in borders of Syria of navy of China encouraged Syrians and res[...]
Personnel Management System, Mobilization, and Reserve Forces
The PLAAF’s personnel management system (A#®l) consists of separate organizations for the officer (cadre) corps and the enlisted force. The Political Department’s Cadre Department down to the regiment level is responsible for managing officer records, promotions, and appointments.121 Meanwhile, the Headquarters Department’s Military Affairs Department is responsible for managing the enlisted force records and appointments, while the political officer system is responsible for gathering information on the enlisted personnel, and the Party Committee system is responsible for their promotions. One key point is that the PLAAF does not have a central promotions board. Instead, the Party Committee at the corps to regiment levels is responsible for promoting all officers and enlisted personnel at the next lower level.122 One of the reasons for this is that most personnel remain in the same unit most of their career.
The Air Force Encyclopedia has several entries for the PLAAF’s mobilization system (ййІФФО reserve forces (й^ЛИШ).123 The PLAAF’s mobilization system consists of an air force mobilization organization and reserve forces, which support the air force’s reserve power transition from peacetime to wartime, and for its personnel, materials, and financial power to serve operations.124 In the 1950s, the PLAAF created a Mobilization Division (^M&) within the Headquarters Department and a similar organization in each Headquarters Department down to the regiment level. In 1998, however, the PLAAF abolished all of these organizations and placed the mobilization responsibility under the Military Affairs Department within the Headquarters Department. In 2002, the Mobilization Department created an Air Force National Defense Mobilization Committee Comprehensive Office (^¥ВК^М©М#Іт^&&Й) to manage mobilization issues. This office coordinated with the air forces Military Affairs Departments, as well as local governments and army units from the military district level down.125 PLAAF mobilization includes expanding the size of units, as well as mobilizing troops and their equipment, furnishing logistics support, and providing technical service support.126 It is not clear how much the PLAAF has been involved in mobilization work. Shortly after a new National Defense Mobilization Law became effective in July 2010, however, the PLAAF conducted its first-ever mobilization exercise involving militia using construction equipment to repair a “damaged airfield following a surprise enemy attack.”127
The concept of PLAAF reserve forces is fairly new. The PLAAF translates the terms houbei (й#) andyubeiyi ffiWix) as “reserve,” causing confusion when using only the English term. Houbei is a generic term for reserve forces including personnel, equipment, technology, civilian aircraft, and materials. Various definitions imply that PLAAF yubeiyi reserve personnel are part of the houbei system.128 In 2004, the PLAAF began developing reserve forces in three particular areas: field station flight support personnel, surface-to-air missile regiments, and radar battalions. In January 2010, the PLAAF issued “Air Force Reserve Unit Work Regulations” codifying the changes in its organizational structure.129
Implications of the PLAAF Organizational Structure upon Its Future Development
As has been explicated, the PLAAF’s organizational structure has multiple components and layers, many of which overlap, generating redundancies. From an overall perspective, the structure has not changed appreciably over the past 30 years. While some organizations and departments have been abolished or merged as a result of force reductions, the remaining ones have stayed largely intact, serving the needs of the service even as the world around it has changed dramatically.
Perhaps because of this unchanging quality, it is invariably significant— and thus important to note—when a change does occur. For example, when the PLAAF downgraded all the corps leader-grade headquarters in 2004 to either corps deputy leader-grade or division leader-grade CPs, it altered the command structure vertically within the PLAAF and horizontally with the other services. Specifically, under the new structure, the division leader-grade CPs cannot command an air division, which is at the same level, or interact as an equal with a group army, which is a corps-level organization. Even the corps deputy leader-grade CPs are still not at the same level as the group armies. The PLAAF is still working out the mechanics of this major change.
Unsubstantiated reports out of Hong Kong have indicated the PLA may undergo a major restructuring to replace the seven MR Headquarters with four theater commands.130 In addition, since the PLA has already had 10 major force restructurings since the early 1950s, the last of which occurred in 2004, there is a good possibility another downsizing will occur before or shortly after the 18th Party Congress in 2012. Either or both of these events will most likely alter the PLAAF’s force structure, especially the MRAF Headquarters, with major implications for the PLAAF’s overall command and control structure.
In terms of its air order of battle, the PLAAF has reduced the number of air divisions from a high of 50 in the late 1980s to 29 today. This reduction occurred in conjunction with a drop in the total number of aircraft, the incorporation of newer models, and establishing a transition training base in each of the seven MRAFs in 1986. While some air divisions today field more than one type of combat aircraft, most regiments have only one type so as to simplify logistics and maintenance. The new units are still in the early stages of conducting dissimilar aircraft training, but the diverse organizational structure within each air division has made it easier to do. Given the current distribution of air divisions among the seven MRAFs, the number of divisions will probably remain the same over the next decade, but the composition and number of subordinate regiments will probably change as older aircraft are taken out of the inventory and replaced by a fewer number of modern multirole aircraft.
It is not clear how many SAM units, especially long-range SAMs, the PLAAF has, but the number is apparently growing and the units are being deployed in more MRAFs.
Another important example of change is that the PLAAF has gradually incorporated its electronic countermeasures mission and organizational structure with the radar forces. Significantly, the PLAAF Headquarters merged management of the two types of specialty forces into an Electronic Countermeasures and Radar Department subordinate to the Headquarters Depart
ment and combined research for them into the Air Force Radar and Electronic Countermeasures Research Institute under the Air
Force Equipment Research Academy. In addition, the Air Force Radar College has an Electronic Countermeasures Academic Department that provides
education and training for officers and NCOs assigned to operational unit electronic countermeasures billets. Besides merging radar and ECM administrative and research functions as noted above, the PLAAF began merging several radar regiments into brigades during the 2003-2004 force restructuring. Although it is now easier to command more company-level radar sites as a result of information technology, the PLAAF is still concerned about span of control from a geographic perspective. Restructuring of the Equipment Department in 1998 and creation of the Equipment Research Academy in 2004 have had important implications for consolidating and managing all of the PLAAF’s equipment and weapons systems. No significant organizational changes are anticipated to these two organizations in the next 5 years. That said, however, the biggest change within this system will be the inclusion of new officers and enlisted personnel who received their undergraduate education at civilian academic institutions rather than PLAAF institutions.
The education and training system will most likely undergo some more restructuring over the next decade. The Air Force Engineering University was created in 1999 and the Air Force Aviation University was created in 2004 with the goal of consolidating basic education for cadets in specific fields and then providing specialty training at subordinate colleges. In addition, the Guilin Air Force College, which had always trained AAA cadets, began educating and training the PLAAF’s airborne officer cadets in 1999. Given that the goal was to have 60 percent of all new PLAAF officers in 2010 graduate from civilian colleges, including from the Defense Student Program, and that the PLA most likely did not meet this goal, the PLAAF’s academic institutions will most likely undergo some more restructuring as the number of cadets is reduced to meet the 60 percent goal.131
Finally, the PLAAF does not have an extensive reserve program, a circumstance which most likely will not change over the next few years. However, following the implementation of the new National Defense Mobilization Law in July 2010, the PLAAF most likely will become more involved in mobilizing civilian organizations to support it. At the same time, however, the PLA has implemented some personnel changes that have allowed PLAAF flag officers to assume a few key national-level leadership positions as shown in table 4-7.
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Table 4-7. PLAAF Officers in Key Joint Billets During the 2000s
National Defense University NDU |
To put narrative to these data points, in 2003, the CMC appointed Lieutenant General Zheng Shenxia to become the first air force commandant of the PLA Academy of Military Science (AMS).132 He received his third star in 2004. Upon his retirement in 2007, another PLAAF flag officer, Lieutenant General Liu Chengjun, assumed his position, receiving his own third star in 2010. Since 2004, the commander of the PLAAF (along with the commander of the PLA Navy and Second Artillery) has been a member of the CMC—the national command authority for the PRC. General Qiao Qingchen was appointed in 2004 and was replaced by Xu Qiliang in 2007. Only two PLAAF officers, Liu Yalou (1956-1965) and Zhang Tingfa (1977-1982), had previously served as CMC members. Since 2006, the CMC has assigned the first PLAAF officers as commandant and political commissar at the National Defense University. In 2006, the CMC appointed Lieutenant General Ma Xiaotian as the first PLAAF officer to serve as commandant.133 In 2007, Ma became one of the Deputy Chiefs of the General Staff with the important portfolio of intelligence and foreign affairs for the entire PLA. He received his third star in 2010 and will most likely have to retire in 2012. In 2010, the CMC appointed Lieutenant General Liu Yazhou as the first PLAAF officer to serve as NDU political commissar. Prior to that, he was one of the PLAAF’s deputy political commissars.
Since 2006 (and as shown in table 4-7), the CMC has appointed PLAAF flag officers as one of the three or four deputy directors in the GPD and one of the four or five deputies in the GLD.134 As a result, the PLAAF is increasingly involved in developing PLA-wide policies to a greater degree than in the past; however, these do not appear to be permanent air force billets. For example, in 2006, Lieutenant General Li Maifu became the first PLAAF deputy director of the GLD. However, when he retired in late 2009 or early 2010, it does not appear that he was replaced by a PLAAF officer.135 No PLAAF (or PLAN) officers have served as a deputy in the GAD, which implies that the GAD is less “joint” than the other three general departments. Each MR Headquarters has an average of five deputy commanders. Since 1988, each MRAF commander and fleet commander has served concurrently as an MR deputy commander; however, no PLAAF officers have served as the director of an MR first-level department and only a few PLAAF personnel apparently hold positions in any of the departments.136
Based on this history, if the PLA does restructure its Military Region system into strategic theaters, there is a high probability army officers will still dominate the leadership positions in the Central Military Commission, General Departments, and Theater Headquarters, while PLAAF officers will rotate in and out as the head of the Adademy of Military Science and the National Defense University. The PLAAF will make its way onward into the 21st century, aided—and encumbered—by its unique and ever-fascinating organizational structure and culture.