PLA Second Artillery Corps
Last updated: 9 May 2008
The People’s Liberation Army Second Artillery Corps (SAC) is the strategic missile force of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The corps controls all of PRC’s land-based strategic (nuclear) missile assets and the majority of its land-based conventional theatre missile assets. The SAC is not an independent service branch (junzhong) of the PLA, on par with the Ground Force, Air Force and Navy, but a service arm (bingzhong), which is half level lower in PLA’s administrative hierarchy. This is reflected in the fact that SAC personnel do not have their own uniforms but wear the uniforms of the Army (ground forces).
The SAC is believed to be equipped with 110~140 nuclear-armed strategic missiles, including the DF-3/CSS-2 IRBM (15~20), DF-4/CSS-3 IRBM (15~20), DF-5/CSS-4 ICBM (~20), and DF-21/CSS-5 MRBM (60~80), all of which carry a single warhead. The new-generation DF-31/CSS-5 began deployment in 2007 and its improved variant DF-31A is close to operational deployment. Additionally, the SAC is equipped with 900~1,000 conventional theatre missiles, including the DF-15/CSS-6 and DF-11/CSS-7 SRBMs. The SAC is also deploying an unknown type of conventionally armed MRBM and a land-attack cruise missile (LACM), with a reported range of 3,000km.
History
The PLA formed its first surface-to-surface missile battalion in 1959 and the unit conducted the first launch of a Soviet-made R-2 (German V-2 derivative) ballistic missile in September 1960 from the Jiuquan (Shuang Cheng Tzu) missile test centre. Two month later, the unit successfully launched a Chinese-made R-2 missile designated DF-1. In 1965, the PRC successfully test launched its first indigenous SRBM DF-2 (NATO reporting name: CSS-1). In 1964, the five surface-to-surface missile battalions were expanded into regiments.
On 1 July 1966, the Central Military Commission (CMC) created the SAC as the country’s strategic missile force. The first nuclear missile weapon test took place on 27 October 1966, when a DF-2 SRBM carrying a 12kt nuclear (atomic) warhead was launched from Jiuquan and then detonated over the target zone in Lop Nor about 800km away. The test marked the beginning of the PRC’s nuclear deterrence capability.
In the 1970s, the SAC conducted a range of long-distance manoeuvre to test the force’s ability to launch missiles from mobile launchers. In 1980, the PRC conducted its first full-range DF-5/CSS-4 ICBM flight test. In the early 1980s, the SAC equipped with strategic missiles took part in the PLA’s joint-service campaign exercise for the first time. From 1984, the SAC began to carry out the duty of war preparedness, putting its nuclear strategic missiles on constant state of readiness for launch after a preemptive nuclear attack by the enemy. On 1 October 1984, the SAC demonstrated its strategic missiles to the public for the first time during the national day military parade on the Tiananmen Square.
Following the end of the Cold War, the PRC military planners decided to form short-range theatre missile units in the SAC to give the force both nuclear and conventional operation capabilities. During the 1995/96 Taiwan Strait Crisis, the SAC conducted two missile launches, firing a total of ten DF-15/CSS-6 SRBMs into the international waters near Taiwan. This was the first time that SAC demonstrated its operational capability publicly.
The SAC began to introduce its second-generation road-mobile, solid-propellant strategic missiles in the late 1990s. On 2 August 1999, the PRC state news agency announced that the country has successfully conducted a long-range surface-to-surface missile test, which was later identified as the first flight test of the DF-31/CSS-9 ICBM. According to the 2008 edition of the U.S. DoD report to congress on the military power of the PRC, the DF-31 and its improved variant DF-31A both entered operational service in 2007.
Strength
The SAC is estimated to have a total strength of 90,000~100,000 men, most of which are in engineering and construction units. Actual missile operators and guards are probably less than half of the total strength. As a strategic asset, SMC units across the country are not subordinated to the military regions they are stationed in. Instead, all SAC units are subject to strict command and control from the CMC. Orders are passed down to operational units via a four-level chain of command: CMC, missile bases, missile brigades, and launch battalions.
Organisation
See also: Second Artillery Corps Headquarters.
Bases are the next level beneath the headquarters in SAC’s administrative and operational structure. It is the largest operational unit of the SAC, each assigned with a specific target area. A base is normally headed by a Major General, who reports vertically to the SAC headquarters in Beijing. Although SAC bases receive logistic support from the military regions (MR) they are stationed in, they do not report to the MR headquarters.
Currently the SAC has six operational bases, which are numbered from 51st to 56th. Four of these bases (51st, 52nd, 55th and 56th) are “army level” units, while the other two (53rd and 54th) are “deputy-army level” units, which are half-level lower in PLA’s hierarchy. The 22nd Base (also “army level”) located in Baoji, Shaanxi Province is officially known as the “Training and Experimental Base”. Western intelligence suggested that this base may also serve as a warhead storage facility.
Each Base consists of a headquarters and a number of missile brigades. The organisation of a base headquarters mirrors that of the SAC headquarters, consisting of four departments. Other support elements may include a communications regiment, an electronic countermeasures regiment, an engineer battalion, a reconnaissance group, a survey/mapping group, a computer centre, a weather centre, repair factories, a guard company, missile/warhead storage units, and transfer stations. Additional engineering, air defence, and chemical defence units may be assigned as needed. Some bases also have a battalion-size specialist opposing force (OPFOR) unit for training and exercise.
The missile brigade is the principal operational unit that operates, protects, maintains and supports the missile troops. A missile brigade normally consists of a brigade headquarters, 4~6 launch battalions, a technical battalion, a repair battalion, and a number of support units. Each missile brigade likely includes a mobile command post, a central depot, a transfer point, and an assigned set of pre-surveyed launch sites, as well as a set of reserve launch sites. In peacetime, missile brigades reports to their Base headquarters. However, in time of war, nuclear missile brigades are likely report to the SAC National Command Centre in Beijing directly, while conventional missile brigades likely report to the war front command.
The launch battalion is the basic launch unit, responsible for the daily maintenance and operations of the missiles. A launch battalion is only equipped with a single type of missile. Each launch battalion possibly consists of a fixed or mobile launch control centre, with a number of launch companies. There are microwave and radio data and voice communications links between the launch battalion and the missile brigade and base command centres.
A nuclear missile launch company may be in charge of a single missile, either silo-based or mounted on a transporter-erector-launcher (TEL) vehicle. A conventional missile launch company may deploy 5~6 TEL vehicles and 5~6 missile transport vehicles. A mobile launch company may also include an electric-power generation vehicle, a surveying vehicle, a communications command vehicle.
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