PLA Ground Forces news, pics and videos

ACuriousPLAFan said:

That's one of the major reasons why I like Liu Xiaofei's commentary. Liu is really distinct from quite a lot of Chinese military commentators who only know how to blabber the same scripts about China's military and geopolitical superiority.

Was thinking that if China currently have 10+% of youngsters being unemployed, should the PLA implement selective, contract-based conscription among those unemployed youngsters instead? Offer them good salary, benefits and treatments on top of job opporunities.

Click to expand...

PLA is already a defacto volunteer army and has way more applicants than it needs. Consider the perverse incentive it creates when people who want to serve are getting rejected but the unemployed are getting accepted.

Furthermore, contract conscription would be extremely costly given the number of people we are talking about vs the current size of the PLA. That will significantly eat up the budget for procurement and R&D. It might also result in people viewing serving in the PLA as just a paycheck instead of defending their country. Look at places like India where that is the prevailing view of the army or pre-reform PLA for a hint of how that might impact quality of the armed forces.

Xi Jinping, chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), on Wednesday presented a certificate of order at a ceremony to promote Huang Ming, commander of the Central Theater Command of the People's Liberation Army, to the rank of general.

ACuriousPLAFan said:

That's one of the major reasons why I like Liu Xiaofei's commentary. Liu is really distinct from quite a lot of Chinese military commentators who only know how to blabber the same scripts about China's military and geopolitical superiority.

Was thinking that if China currently have 10+% of youngsters being unemployed, should the PLA implement selective, contract-based conscription among those unemployed youngsters instead? Offer them good salary, benefits and treatments on top of job opporunities.

Click to expand...

Funny enough. That exactly exacerbates the retention issue, and that was and is a problem for many other militaries, especially the US. You want to keep them, not throw them out after 2-3 years.

On a different note, based on what I have heard from US military vets, low pay increases for positions with high stress and big leadership responsibilities, lack of a work-life balance, inability to balance their civilian and military careers (this is for the US National Guard), and the unwillingness to be a leader are several of the major reasons why the US is having a retention issue. Interestingly enough, based on my limited use of Douyin, Chinese vets also said something similar in regards to the lack of work-life balance and the alluring prospect of higher civilian pay. I wouldn’t be surprised if the reasons behind China’s retention issue are similar to that of the US military’s retention problems that I outlined above.

LawLeadsToPeace said:

Funny enough. That exactly exacerbates the retention issue, and that was and is a problem for many other militaries, especially the US. You want to keep them, not throw them out after 2-3 years.

On a different note, based on what I have heard from US military vets, low pay increases for positions with high stress and big leadership responsibilities, lack of a work-life balance, inability to balance their civilian and military careers (this is for the US National Guard), and the unwillingness to be a leader are several of the major reasons why the US is having a retention issue. Interestingly enough, based on my limited use of Douyin, Chinese vets also said something similar in regards to the lack of work-life balance and the alluring prospect of higher civilian pay. I wouldn’t be surprised if the reasons behind China’s retention issue are similar to that of the US military’s retention problems that I outlined above.

Click to expand...

For the US you might want to add the army going woke and bad leadership there.

A potato said:

For the US you might want to add the army going woke and bad leadership there.

Click to expand...

As I said before, the reasons I outlined were several of the reasons why the US military retention rate is low. I won’t go into the others since those are off topic.

New year, new equipment for a certain brigade of the 72nd group army.

tonyget said:

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

Good point. PLA has lots of advanced equipment nowdays，but technical proficiently among average soldiers still leaves much to be desired. And PLA also experiencing difficulites in retaining talents

Click to expand...

Who is this guy? Is he credible, or is he yet another crackpot saliva-sprinkler?

tonyget said:

Drafting unemployed to military was never a good idea，Southern Song dynasty did exactly that，the result was an large overstaffed but low fighting strength army

Click to expand...

It's okey to put them into the Militia.

PLA enhances field fast military food rations support capability​

​

SourceEditorLi Jiayao Time2023-01-17 21:28:14



By Sun Xingwei and Liu Jianhui
BEIJING, Jan. 17 -- An army brigade of the PLA Eastern Theater Command included the self-heating personal field food rations support as a training subject in a recent tactical drill, in order to improve the troops’ food adaptability in field operations.
According to an official in the Military Supplies & Energy Bureau of the CMC’s Logistic Support Department, the PLA has stepped up efforts to enhance its field fast food rations support capability in recent years, with relevant policy refined, standards for portable supplies revised, and the military food rations of various types specified.
It is learned that the new types of field military food rations are categorized by energy level featuring a rich menu and multi-domain application. Field provision equipment units are applicable for various situations, no matter it is to support companies or platoons, cook staple food or non-staple food, and be used on plateau or plain. Except from adding an energy-saving module, the fridge set for field food rations has also become more integrated and more portable.
Personal food rations are reduced in size but augmented in energy compared with previous instant food, enabling the troops to better resist fatigue in extremely harsh environments. Reheating food in large quantities takes less time than processing fresh and raw ingredients. Ships are also able to preserve vegetables for much longer time by optimizing food combinations.
Next, the PLA will accelerate the iteration of military food rations and equipment, explore more ways to guarantee food supply for training on frigid plateau regions and for long-distance maritime or flight operations, and further improve the fast military food rations support system.

China gears up for 2023 military recruitment​

​

SourceEditorChen Zhuo Time2023-01-18 17:14:31

BEIJING, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- China targets high-caliber soldiers for building a world-class military, according to a teleconference on conscription held in Beijing on Wednesday.
China will conduct two rounds of military recruitment in 2023, during which the guiding principles of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China should be fully implemented, the meeting noted.
College students and graduates remain the focus of this year's work, and priority is given to students majoring in science and engineering, and those with skills needed for combat readiness.
Targeted-recruitment and pre-recruitment are encouraged, as well as enhanced information platform construction. Rules and regulations for clean enlistment shall be implemented strictly, said the meeting.
Recruitment for the first half of 2023 will last from Feb. 15 until March 31, while that for the second half of the year will run from Aug. 15 to Sept. 30, according to the conference.

tonyget said:

There is nothing wrong with fighting for money. The Wagner group has much better performance than regular Russian army in Ukraine，and mercenaries has been a major participant of military conflict throughout history.

Click to expand...

Wagner Group is primarily a private military company (PMC) group, but with veterans of the Donbass and Syrian wars filling up its ranks. Their close connection to Kremlin is what makes them actively present in the war in Ukraine today.

Speaking of which, China also has its own PMCs that provide security and protection services to Chinese businesses and citizens in regions like the Middle East and Africa, mainly with veterans and retired military personnel from the PLA to fill up its ranks. Technically speaking, at least some of the Chinese PMCs can be considered as unofficial/hidden branches from the PLA.

Though I have not heard of any Chinese PMCs that are directly participating in civil conflicts in those aforementioned regions (in contrast with the American and Russian PMCs), but I could be wrong.

However, should the time comes, China should call upon their own PMCs to contribute for the war effort. Meaning that these Chinese PMCs should swore absolute loyalty to China, the CPC and the Chinese government as the utmost priority.