|
PLA General Armament Department
The General Armament Department (GAD) is the leading organ responsible for the policymaking and supervision of weapon system design, development, production, procurement, maintenance, and the life-cycle management across all services in the PLA. It also directly manages all of PRC’s space and nuclear weapon programmes. The department was established in 1998 by merging the Commission of Science, Technology, and Industry for National Defence (COSTIND) with few other organisations in the General Staff Department and General Logistics Department. The GAD ranks the fourth among the four general headquarters in PLA’s protocol order.
The GAD is headed by the Department Head and Political Commissar, who are assisted by four deputy heads and a deputy political commissar. The current Department Head is Gen. Chang Wanquan (常万全), who ranks No. 8 in the CMC. The current political commissar is Gen. Chi Wanchun (迟万春).
Structure and Organisation
Headquarters Department (司令部) – Managing all administrative affairs within the GAD.
Political Department (政治部) – Managing all political affairs in the GAD, including cadre personnel, Party affair, security, discipline inspection, propaganda, and military-civilian relations.
Comprehensive Planning Department (综合计划部) – Planning and policymaking for the weapon development and procurement.
Service Branch and Arm Equipment Department (军兵种装备部) – Managing the weapon design, development and procurement for the Navy, Air Force, as well as the service arms in the ground forces – artillery, armour, air defence, army aviation, engineering, and chemical defence.
Army Equipment Development and Procurement Department (陆军装备科研订购部) – Managing the development and procurement of general weapon equipments for the Army.
General Equipment Support Department (通用装备保障部) – Managing the life-cycle of general equipment across all services.
Electronic & Information Infrastructure Department (电子信息基础部) – Managing all electronic and information technologies in the PLA.
Foreign Affairs Department (外事部) – Managing bilateral and multilateral co-operations and exchanges with foreign military and defence industry. This department is likely to be involved in PRC’s international arms trades (both import and export).
Vehicle, Vessel, and Military Representative Bureau (车船军事代表局) – Managing the procurement of military vehicles and vessels from civilian firms, as well as directing the military representative (军事代表) system in the defence industry.
Project 921 Office (921工程办公室) – Overseeing the PRC manned spaceflight programme “Project 921”.
As well as the internal departments, the GAD also directly controls all of PRC’s space, nuclear weapon, and conventional weapon test facilities.
- Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre (Base 20)
- Nuclear Test Base (Base 21)
- Maritime Space Tracking Ship Base (Base 23)
- Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre (Base 25)
- Xi'an Satellite Monitor and Control Centre (Base 26)
- Xichang Satellite Launch Centre (Base 27)
- China Aerodynamics R&D Center (Base 29)
- Baicheng Conventional Weapon Test Centre (Base 31)
- Huayin Conventional Weapon Test Centre (Base 32)
- Beijing Aerospace Command and Control Centre
- Academy of Chemical Defence
- PLA College of Equipment, Command, and Technology
- PLA College of Armoured Troops Engineering
- PLA College of Arms Equipment Engineering
Last update: 24 August 2008 |
