"Modern PLA Mechanised platoon?" Topic

Hi

Can anyone help me in organising Chinese APC platoon for Force on Force. Period 1984-2013 (more interested in ultramodern) and APC is either Type 89 or Type 63.

I am wandering about dismounting squad size and composition.

Nick

10 man squad, two five man fire teams, each led by the squad leader or assistant.One SAW, RPG and m 203 type gernade launcher per fireteam Everyone else has rifles. See the new Osprey on the PLA

Sad to say, but the new Osprey is not something I'd plan my force around.

PLA mech squad in the APCs mentioned is nine men. NCO plus eight. Six Type-95 assault rifles, one machinegun, one RPG gunner. PF89 80mm LAW is issued on a situational basis. Happy to provide visual evidence.

Thank you so much! Very helpfull.

From what I've seen they are heavily issuing LAWs to each squad. Basically so that everyone except the Saw gunner and his assistant have one.

Found this in an earlier thread:

each Inf Coy has 3 rifle platoons plus 1 weapons platoon.
- The company HQ element has 22 men, which includes 6 snipers/sharpshooters (among the general public, the usage of those two terms in Chinese language is sometimes mingled).

-- Each platoon (40 men) consist of a command element (CO + radio op.), 3 rifle squads and a weapons squad.
--- Each rifle squad has 10 men, divided into two fire teams of 5, with the squad leader and assistant squad leader each leading one of the teams. Each team has 3 riflemen (QBZ95), 1 grenadier (QBZ95 with 35mm slung grenade launcher), and 1 squad support weapon (QBB95). The team leader is also the grenadier.
--- The weapons squad has 8 men with a MG team of 2 men (1 x QJY88 LMG), an automatic grenade launcher team of 3 men (1 x QLZ87 35mm AGL), and an AT team of 3 men (1 x PF98 AT rocket).

-- The weapons platoon (42 men) consists of a 2 men command element (CO + radio op.), 1 HMG squad, 2 mortar squads and 1 ATGM squad
--- the HMG squad has 2 QJZ89 HMGs with 10 men divided into two teams.
--- the mortar squads each has 2 PP93 60mm mortars with 10 men divided into two teams.
--- the ATGM squad has 2 HJ-9 "Red Arrow" ATGM system with 10 men divided into two teams.

Up one higher level, an infantry battalion has 3 infantry company, a weapons company and a 21 men scout platoon (I have no further details on this).
- the weapons company has 116 men, with a 15 men company HQ and staff element, 3 mortar platoons and one SAM platoon.
-- The mortar platoons each has 23 men, with a 2 men HQ element and 3 7-men squads each serving a PP87 82mm mortar.
-- The SAM platoon has 32 men with 6 QW2 shoulder launched SAM systems.

They must allocate a substantial amount of men to carry ammunition in the support platoons with numbers like that.

Here you can see the distribution of LAWs:
link

Again thanks for even more detailed answers!

Uesugi Kenshin has given you a foot infantry organisation. I was under the impression you were after mech infantry. Can you clarify?

An unclassified NATO briefing document states that the PLA mechanised infantry squad is organised as stated by collins355; however, what is slightly baffling is that both vehicles are listed as being capable of carrying 13 dismounts.

Jurgen

Im quite sure that those vehicles were designed around different type of troop deployment and squad size – as Im rather sure that chinese PLA platoon during mid 1970s was drasticly larger than its modern counterpart.

each Inf Coy has 3 rifle platoons plus 1 weapons platoon.
- The company HQ element has 22 men, which includes 6 snipers/sharpshooters (among the general public, the usage of those two terms in Chinese language is sometimes mingled).

That's OK, the terms are identical in Russian, too.

At a company level, I'd suspect that 3-4 of those are platoon Designated Marksmen, and the other two are actual snipers. That's the Soviet/Russian model.

link

September 1, 2012: Over the last decade China has been equipping its mechanized infantry units to a modern standard, in terms of equipment, weapons, and training. This is part of a four decade effort to modernize the Chinese Army. For example, it was only in the 1980s that China (at least on paper) motorized all of its infantry divisions. Before that, many infantry marched, or took the railroad, while some of their heavy equipment was still moved by horses. Now, many infantry units are getting a third generation of armored vehicles, or IFVs (Infantry Fighting Vehicles). This makes them mech (mechanized) infantry.

The current standard is for each infantry fighting vehicle to carry a nine man squad, armed with six Type 95 assault rifles, one machine-gun (gunner armed a pistol crew), and one RPG gunner (also with a pistol as a secondary weapon). Troops wear camouflage uniforms (a green pattern), helmets similar to those used by American troops, and protective vests (not the ones with the bullet proof ceramic plates, but the older ones that mainly protect against shell fragments and pistol bullets). The dismounted squad has two walkie-talkie radios, while the vehicle has a longer range radio and intercom system.

Non-mechanized (they move by truck) infantry uses a 12 man squad organization, with an extra RPG and light machine-gun. The mechanized infantry squad has to be smaller because you can't get twelve troops into the vehicles available to the mech infantry.

One of the more widely used IFVs is the Type 92, which was developed in the 1990s, and is similar to the U.S. Stryker or Canadian LAV. It is an 18 ton, 6x6 armored vehicle that is most frequently used to transport infantry. These vehicles carry a crew of three, plus nine infantry. Most vehicles are the APC (Armored Personnel Carrier) model and armed only with a 12.7mm machine-gun.

The older Type 86 vehicle is a 13 ton clone of the Russian BMP 1. This is a tracked (like a tank) vehicle armed with a 73mm cannon, or a 30mm autocannon. The three man crew includes the commander of the eight infantry carried in the back. All nine men of the infantry squad usually dismount, leaving the driver and gunner to operate the vehicle under the general supervision of the squad leader.

China has some other types of armored infantry vehicles, most of them based on Russian types. But the Type 86 and Type 92 are the most commonly used. China organized its first mechanized infantry brigades in the late 1950s, and now has about 30 of them. Some are experimental because China is always trying new things.