It just completed its first field deployment drill in minus ten degrees near its home port of Qingdao (
here). The 1st and 2nd PLAN Marine Brigades are home-ported in Zhanjiang, South Sea Fleet. Since the 5th Marine Briagde is in Qingdao, it is likely under the North Sea Fleet.
PLAN Marine Orbat Update, Dec 23rd 2017
If the great "Chinese Internet" is to be believed, a total of 5 new PLAN
Marine combat brigades will be commissioned to support PLA's “New
Historic Missions”. They are to supplement the existing 1st and 2nd
Marine Brigades. The new outfits are: 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th and Marine
SpOps Brigade.
The Fourth PLAN Marine Brigade
"We will have a bigger Navy and Marine Corps" Admiral Liu Xiaojiang
Speaking at the current National People’s Congress session on Sunday,
Admiral Liu Xiaojiang. the former Political Commissar of the PLAN
stressed that the PLAN will play an increasingly important role in
national defense - for the readers of this blog - with additional Army
transfers to the PLAN Marine's Order of battle (
中国海军上将证实：海军人员编制舰艇规模将扩大) .
Long expected, the third PLAN Marine Brigade is now here.
The commission of the third PLAN Marine Brigade should come as no
surprise since "with great power comes great Marines". The current
two-Marine Brigade ORBAT simply does not have the manpower to fulfill
all those new "historical missions" the PLA high command has planned for
them. The question is really about which PLA ground unit will be
transferred to the navy and how soon.
The first PLAN Marine Brigade commissioned on May 1980. 164th Motorized
Infantry Division, 41st Army Group Army transferred to the Chinese
Marine Corps as the 164th Marine Brigade on July 1998. This new Marine
Brigade is another army transfer, this time from the 77th "Yimeng/沂蒙"
Motorized Infantry Brigade, 26th Group Army, Jinan MR/ Northern Theater
Command.
The 77th is a proud PLA outfit, commissioned by the CMC on December 1945
and participated in some of the major campaigns during the Chinese
Civil War (The Battle of Luannan, the Battle of Laiwu, the Battle of
Menglianggu, the Battle of Kaifeng, the Battle of Huaihai, the Battle of
the Yangtze River, and the Battle of Shanghai). It also took part in
the Second, Fourth, and Fifth campaigns of the "War to Resist U.S.
Aggression and Aid Korea".
Yimeng Brigade's unit sleeve insignia can be seen from the picture above
ZTL09 8x8 Wheeled Light Tank to the PLAN Marine??
ZTL09 8x8 Wheeled Light Tanks sporting the now-famous "Blue Smurf" camo
were spotted in Sanya City, near the HQ of the PLAN Marine. Rumor has
it that they are now getting those wheeled new toys to increase their
mobility for MOOTW and non-amphibious operations. Time will tell.
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