Rahul Bhonsle
May 19, 2016
PLA Western Theatre Command: Challenge of Operational Management
China’s military reforms have received much traction in various mediums. These give the perception of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) emerging as a capability driven, joint force that can effectively fight and win modern wars post 2020.
Assuming that China is a status quo power and deterrence is the objective, the first battle portrayal of the PLA as an effectual and competent military has been achieved. Since intentions of nations change, the PLA’s offensive potential to intervene if not win, “informationised local wars,” is also on display. While transformation at this scale can hardly be unobtrusive transparency has a message which is being conveyed not so subtly.
The political objective of the reforms is to place the PLA firmly under the Communist Party of China with the Central Military Commission as an instrument which will have direct control over the theatre commands. This is much like the American system wherein theatre commanders report directly to the Pentagon, while the service chiefs Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines are responsible for capacity building of their respective forces.
Under this rubric China has reorganised the theatre commands bringing down these from the erstwhile seven military regions to five theatres. On 1 February this year Chinese President Xi Jinping also the Chairman of the Central Military Commission conferred military flags to the five newly-established theater commanders of the PLA.
President Xi Jinping underlined to the theatre commanders as per a report by the official news agency Xinhua that - the principle of a newly implemented structure for the CMC to take charge of the overall military administration, while theatre commands focus on combat and the different military branches pursue their own development resolutely.
Xi emphasised that the - five theater commands are responsible for dealing with security threats in their respective strategic scopes, maintaining peace, containing and winning wars.
The newly-established commands should, “concentrate on fighting battles- study the mechanism of winning modern wars, grasp the law of employing military forces, speed up the development of a strategy for the theater commands and enhance the training of joint operations and command in order to win the initiative in future wars,” as reported by the Xinhua
Of the new theatre commands, merging of the Lanzhou and Chengdu Military Regions into the Western Theatre Command is of greatest interest to India. All ground and air forces opposite the border with India are now placed under the Western Theatre Command and thus the reorganisation of the same needs greater deliberation.
The Western Theater Commander General Zhao Zongqi and political commissar Lt General Zhu Fuxi received the standard from President Xi Jinping. Zhao Zongqi has been moved from the eastern Jinan MR while Zhu Fuxi continues from the Chengdu Military Region.
From an operational perspective a commander responsible for a theatre of operations has the responsibility of determining key lines of operations and flexibility in employment of joint forces to pursue the same with the required logistics at his disposal. To place all formations facing India under the Western Theatre thus may seem a logical move.
The understanding of the term, “local,” in Chinese official military literature needs some explanation here. Local essentially would imply the entire front or theatre and is not restricted to geographical pockets. Thus in a, “localised war,” with India the Western Theatre Command will be activated
In an operational context theatres are carved out of geographic contiguity which facilitates smooth command and control in the given area of responsibility. Force allocation is made thereafter based on appreciation of requirement by the force commander. Given the variation of dynamics of terrain and lines of communications theatre segregations emerge.
A theatre commander essentially coordinates a series of battles in a campaign in his area of responsibility and influences them by effective identification of centres of gravity, deploying adequate troops to hold or seize the same, maintaining adequate reserves and recreating the same once employed within the overall umbrella of logistics support.
Given these general norms, the Western Theater Commander (WTC) may find his command too unwieldy for effective control of all elements and prosecute a war or even the defence national and territorial sovereignty.
The Western Theater has to look after the erstwhile territory of the Lanzhou and Chengdu Military Regions spread over the 4,057-km Boundary cum Line of Actual Control (LAC) with India. There are varied territorial and operational segments in this area which are not contiguous for smooth management of forces in war by a single commander.
Apart from India from the West the WTC in the South looks after the border with Afghanistan, Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK), India, Nepal, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam. From the geographic perspective the WTC also has borders in the West with the Central Asian Republics and in the North with Russia and Mongolia. While many of these frontiers are benign the expanse remains vast.
In his theatre of responsibility are the two Ts – Turkmenistan or Xinjiang and Tibet in which as per Chinese literature active terrorism or armed dissent exists.
The Western Theatre Command will have the Xinjiang and the Southern Xinjiang Military Districts from the Lanzhou Military Region. The Tibet and the Yunnan operational Military Districts and the Sichuan and Guizhou Provincial Military Districts apart from the Chongqing Garrison to control which were part of the erstwhile Chengdu Military Region.
By a rough count of the formations the WTC includes four group armies of the PLA and numerous bomber and fighter divisions of the PLA Air Force in addition to a number of independent brigades in the military districts and sub districts that spans a long border with varied terrain profile. Then there are numerous border defence regiments – front line units during peace time and on the other side reserves that could be deployed from other theatres with extensive rehearsals having been carried out in the Stride series of exercises.
Rocket force units are another add-on which has to be factored in and integrated.
The Western Theatre operates on exterior strategic lines of communications, though the respective military districts could with development of rail and road links operate on interior lines. For an operational commander exterior lines pose additional challenges.
All in all General Zhao Zongqi would be facing a major command and control challenge as he takes up his new assignment over a vast territorial landscape with varied terrain visages
For all we know creation of the Western Theatre may be a temporary phase to facilitate control by the CMC over military regions which had been operating autonomously for some time now.
Suffice to say the profile of WTC if sustained during war will provide Indian military commanders ample opportunities to create sectoral operational advantages. More about the same later...
No comments:
Post a Comment