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People's Liberation Navy - Doctrine Development

PLA Doctrinal Development

Because the PLA is a conservative organization, it takes time to enact major institutional, systemic, or operational changes. This also includes the internal resistance such changes often encounter. When the PLA does move toward making major doctrinal, administrative, or operational reforms, the evidence methodical process. Based on an understanding of the organization, roles, and missions of the PLA in general, it is apparent that most major reforms go through a thorough and sequential 10-step process as follows:

• Recognize there is a problem
• Conduct research and theoretical work to look for solutions
• Experiment with new concepts
• Make adjustments to theories and experiments based on results
• Establish limited prototypes or conduct larger exercises to validate adjustments
• Promulgate regulations or directives to codify changes
• Study the new procedures PLA- or servicewide
• Execute the new procedures
• Inspect "from the center" for compliance
• Declare "success" or identify "contradictions"

Merely getting to the point of a codification of what the new changes should be on any major issue requires a good deal of ad-hoc committee work and consensus building within the PLA "community" responsible for the particular change, reform, or adjustment to practice.

Not surprisingly, major reforms in the PLA also require a political imprimatur. Most directives, policies, and regulations are issued under the authority of the CMC. However, when potentially significant (and potentially dislocating) change is required or a completely new direction is taken, the reforms are further justified by the invocation of the ideological "correctness" of the policy. Ideological correctness is a function of invoking a body of military "theories," "thinking," or "thought" that is tied to the "original" military thinking of one of China's past (or present) leaders. This invocation of such high-level ideological justification is continually referred to even after the fact of the change in order to reinforce the seriousness of the need within the PLA to carry through with the intent of the change or reform.

As such, each doctrinal reform can take a different amount of time, depending on the scope of the changes. In some cases, however, the changes take place in conjunction with one of China's Five-Year Plans. They are identified forimplementation either at the end of one plan for the next plan, or at the beginning of the plan.

PLAN Doctrine

The Navy Military Studies Research Institute is the single most important center in the PLAN for the developmeny of national-level naval strategy, the development of navy operational- level (campaign-level) warfighting concepts, naval tactics, and research and studies that look to the future of naval warfare and the development of foreign naval issues. Established in August 1985, the PLAN refers to it in English as the "Navy Research Institute" (NRI).

Tactics, Combat Methods, and Training Concept Development

The PLAN follows a basic seven-step process in developing new tactics, combat methods, and training concepts, which can take several years to complete. Although the PLAN has a Naval Tactics Department in NRI, it often tasks specific operational units as test points to develop certain tactics and combat methods and to test new concepts. For example, the PLAN identi- fied several different units as test points for the new OMTE up to two years before it was finally published. The eight steps are as follows:

• Study the theory. This can be done by bringing in specialists from PLAN and civilian institutions. In addition, the project participants at the unit usually visit PLAN academies and research institutes, as well as the civilian production facilities for the equipment being studied.
• Begin developing the concepts on paper and receive theoretical evaluation approval from higher headquarters for them.
• Begin using the specific equipment or weapon system to develop and revise the concepts.
• Test the concepts at a PLAN test facility.
• Receive a technical evaluation and approval from higher headquarters.
• PLAN Headquarters authorizes them for use throughout the force.
• Demonstrate the tactics, combat methods, or training concepts to VIPs and the rest of the force.
• Units begin to implement the changes.