The PLA marines belong to Navy; the PLA Army has its own Amphibious troops, which are used to cross water and then fight on land. You're right that the Chinese marines are not exactly the same as the USMC.
China's Amphibious Assault IFV/Light tank ZBD 2000
- Thread starter tanlixiang28776
- Start date
The PLA marines belong to Navy; the PLA Army has its own Amphibious troops, which are used to cross water and then fight on land. You're right that the Chinese marines are not exactly the same as the USMC.
TerraN_EmpirE
Tyrant King
For the record the USMC is still structured deeply into the USN. USMC for example is reliant on the Navy for medical care and religious services. The US Army also operates a number of amphibious assets. What I am trying to point to is there model of battle. The PLA rather practically I believe is pointing the PLAMC to a model focused on island taking and throwing a full mechanized assault to over power weaker armed forces.
By contrast the US model seems more bridge then lead in with full mechanized having built up in the bridge.
With some simple tools, paint, and some hard paper or plastic plate, an armored vehicle can be repainted to any pattern (even something just come up in commander's mind the same morning) in one afternoon. For individual troops, it's way more complicated unless they already have another type of uniform in warehouse. Even they do the pattern of the new camouflage is limited to what the inventory has.
TerraN_EmpirE
Tyrant King
Really Kriss I call Bull.... To repaint ( as I have stated before though I think they use applique wraps) first is taping over the sensitive parts.
You need the equipment and the supplies then you need the paint to dry.
For a military vehicle especially a amphibious you need a primer layers that is waterproof, then you need to add the applique or the paints which again have to be waterproof.
You need to get it all to dry in properly to do all of that you need to spend the time your whole afternoon and equipment and supplies.
For uniforms typically any warehouse on base has access to the basic uniforms of their service.
You would likely see the troops lineup open the boxes and then set them up like a lunch grab.
The PLA has half a dozen patterns of uniforms in service. PLAAF/Airborne, PLAN/MC Littoral, PLA Universal, PLA Arid, PLA 2nd Art, Chinese Multicam maybe more.
they are tossed a sea bag. given name tapes, They move through the line grabbing 3 pairs of the pants in there size, Three Shirts in there size,a few Accessories like Covers and field coats maybe T shirts and under paints. they move to the sowing que attach the tapes then the troops then line up in a designated area and do a quick change. Everyone who has served goes through this first day of basic. all of this takes an hour for a company sized formation. as each element has moved through a quick restocking is done for maybe 10 minutes then the next formation moves through. It's a assembly line.
Many militaries issue alternative pattern sea bags too all their troops well before deployment in those cases it's just a matter of grabbing the sea bag and making the change.
solarz
Brigadier
Dusting off this old thread by posting this awesome photo:
(2500x1728)
What exactly is the purpose of blue camouflage? Are they supposed to hide in water or something?
TerraN_EmpirE
Tyrant King
The more and more I think about it the only thing that makes any sense is that the blue camo is to show it's a PLAMC vehicle. That it's a branding or vanity camo.
Agreed and I want to extend your point by presenting in another way.
China's amphibious force has two parts. The Navy marine brigades and the Army amphibious divisions. My understanding is that, the Navy marines will assult the beachhead from sea, establish landing ground. The army amphibious divisions, being heavier armed, will follow closely and continue deep into land.
USMC on the other hand does both jobs.
USMC = Chinese Marine + Army amphibious force.
In case of small island, anti-pirate, sea-lane protection, it is Marine's job only.
In case of big island and strategic assult, it is Marine and Army.
I have to say that USMC is very unique and the only one in the world. China's marine is more close to the rest of the world.
I think they are indeed meant to hide in water. I don't believe PLAMC is meant to go into the land. Most of their travel/assulting distance is in water. The only stretch of land they will be on is the beachhead. In this case, blue camo is better than greenish camo. Greenish camo is good in colder, northern and inland water, but worse than bluish camo in tropical water (it is really shining blue).
TerraN_EmpirE
Tyrant King
The PLA as a whole is a changing organization. A epicenter of that change is rooted in it's navy.
As the Navy changes so to does the Marine Corps.
I wrote that in my opinion the PLAMC vehicle families introduced in the last decade seem to show a mechanized formation at its roots. Amphibious Blitzkrieg.
Blitzkrieg translates as lightning war. Its a warfare model based upon movement and maneuver. It's not about landing and securing. Its landing and moving in against enemy forces.
The heavyweight forces can move in sure by they are intended for mopping up heavily defended trouble spots.
As the Navy changes so to does the Marine Corps.
I wrote that in my opinion the PLAMC vehicle families introduced in the last decade seem to show a mechanized formation at its roots. Amphibious Blitzkrieg.
Blitzkrieg translates as lightning war. Its a warfare model based upon movement and maneuver. It's not about landing and securing. Its landing and moving in against enemy forces.
The heavyweight forces can move in sure by they are intended for mopping up heavily defended trouble spots.
plawolf
Lieutenant General
As has already been explained, the PLAN marines will work closely with PLA amphibious units in major fights.
The marines specialises in beach assault. They will be the first wave, while the Army amphibious forces will follow close behind to mount the breakout and subsequent ground campaign.
The US marines is really a mini-military within the US military machine. Its the child of the perpetual peeing contest between the various arms of the US military, who are all forever trying to outdo each other for bragging rights and a bigger slice of the budget.
Its got its advantages as well as its weaknesses, and isn't necessarily the best way to structure and run a marines corps.
Its the most powerful marine corps in the world because it has the biggest budget and best technology. However, given the same budget and technology, it's entirely possible a different organisational and operational approach will yield better results, especially if properly co-ordinated with the other arms of the military rather than duplicating assets and effort to create your own mini-versions of the other arms because you can't or won't play nice with them.
I think the problem with your approach and analysis is that it has the underlying assumption that the Chinese marines should be exactly like the US marines.
Thus your analysis pretty much focuses on the differences between Chinese marines and US marines, and class all such differences as deficiencies.