Second Artillery Corps - History

Initially army was composed of three services: land, sea, and air, and an independent service of the Second Artillery. The Second Artillery Corps was founded on July 1, 1966, and was approved by Chairman Mao Zedong. Premier Zhou Enlai personally named it. As the youngest arm of our army, it has traveled for more than half a century. The Second Artillery Force retired and handed over the more difficult mission to the newly established Rocket Force.

In 1955, when Qian Xuesen, later known as the "Father of Chinese Missiles", broke through the obstacles of the US government and resolutely returned to the motherland, Mao Zedong personally met this famous scientist with a high reputation and made the development of Chinese rockets. And major decisions in the missile industry. Then, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China established the Aviation Industry Committee of the Ministry of National Defense with Nie Rongzhen as the director, and began the establishment of China's two-bomb development organization and the design and actual development of missiles.

In July 1955, the Central Military Commission appointed Chen Xilian, the artillery commander of the People's Liberation Army, to the highest military institution in the army, the Nanjing Military Academy, for further study. After graduating in July 1957, Chen Xilian was appointed president of the Artillery Academy. In October of the following year, Chen Xilian and political commissar Qiu Chuangcheng proposed to the Central Military Commission the proposal to build a school for our army ’s missile force. Mao Zedong quickly adopted the proposal and instructed the formation of the Changxindian Artillery Teaching Brigade on December 9 of that year, followed by the establishment of the Wuwei Artillery School and the Xi’an Artillery Special Technical School in 1959, so that our ground missile force had stable talents. Training Base.

Changxindian Artillery Teaching Brigade, Wuwei Artillery School and Xi’an Artillery Special Technical School have trained a large number of professional and technical talents for China ’s missile and space industry. They served as the ground-to-surface missile forces, missile combat bases and missile engineering schools that were subsequently formed. Important positions have played an important role, and many people have taken up leadership positions at or above the division level. Among them, only Changxindian Artillery Teaching Brigade's first group of students, at least 5 people later became senior leaders of the Second Artillery Corps and senior generals of our army. Such as Lieutenant General Li Xuge, former commander of the Second Artillery Corps, Major General Kang Shihua, former deputy chief of staff of the Second Artillery Command, and Lieutenant General Gao Tongsheng, former deputy political commissar of the General Equipment Department. They witness both Chinese start-up period rocket forces, but also the strategic missile forces to create China's first generation of the industry.

In April 1959, the Central Military Commission issued "Several Regulations on the Leadership and Management of Special Weapons", which clarified the leadership and management system of special weapons (missile nuclear weapons) troops, the tasks of each unit, and the training of cadres. The management of the ground-to-ground force system requires the establishment of business institutions that are compatible with the special weapons management tasks.

According to the spirit of this document, the Artillery Corps of the Military Commission initially drafted a plan to establish an artillery technical department. On July 11, approved by Mao Zedong, the Ministry of National Defense issued an order to formally establish the Artillery Technical Department. The ministry is headed by Zhong Hui, Huang Dengbao and Du Jianhua are deputy ministers. It has military-level authority and has 12 departments and 217 personnel.

After that, the Artillery Technical Department continued to deploy and recruit cadres from the Teaching Brigade, Military Engineering College, and local colleges and universities of the Fifth Academy of the Ministry of National Defense. By 1960, the staffing of each unit was basically fully equipped.

Without any experience to learn from, the Artillery Technical Department, under the direct leadership of the Central Military Commission, has done a lot of groundbreaking work: drafted a development plan for the surface-to-surface missile force, organized the creation of missile schools, and trained a large number of majors Talents; led and formed the first batch of missile combat troops of our army, organized the survey and designation of the first batch of missile combat bases and project construction, participated in the completion of the demonstration, acceptance and storage of domestic X-type missile products; and participated in a variety of The development, testing, and organization of new types of surface-to-surface missiles have laid a solid foundation for the creation of the Second Artillery Corps as a unit.

It is on this premise that the formation of the leading organization of the China Strategic Missile Force was completed, and it was officially put on the agenda of the Party Central Committee and the Central Military Commission. Under Mao Zedong's care and guidance, Zhou Enlai was specifically responsible for directly organizing the formation of the second artillery leading organ.

On June 6, 1965, Zhang Aiping, then deputy chief of general staff, made a proposal to the Central Military Commission for the formation of a leading organization for the missile force. On July 21, Mao Zedong approved the artillery party committee, agreed with Zhang Aiping's "Report on the Formation of the Leading Organization of the Missile Force", and established the leading organization of the missile force, and requested the artillery to seize the time to propose adjustments and formulate new preparation plans.

At the critical moment when artillery organs were planned and established, on February 28, 1966, in accordance with the spirit of the Politburo meeting, the 407th meeting of the Central Secretariat made a decision: to withdraw the Chinese People's Public Security Force and reorganize it into the Chinese People's Liberation Army.

On March 14, Wu Kehua, the then artillery commander, submitted a written report to the Military Commission and Headquarters on the formation of the leading organization of the missile force, recommending that the leading organization of the public security force and the artillery department in charge of the missile that have been decided to be cancelled be merged to form a special The leading organ of the missile force.

In May, Acting Chief of the General Staff Yang Chengwu announced the order issued by Mao Zedong to revoke the Chinese People ’s Public Security Force and reorganize it into the Chinese People ’s Liberation Army at the enlarged meeting of the Party Committee of the Public Security Forces. The idea of ??reorganizing "leading organs of public security forces" into "leading organs of missile forces".

Under this circumstance, although Zhou Enlai managed everything well, he always thought about what kind of name was given to this army. After repeated consideration, Zhou En said: "It is better to call it the Second Artillery Force, which is different from the US Strategic Air Force and the Soviet Union's Strategic Rocket Army. It is similar to the Rocket Force and confidential."

On June 6, 1966, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Central Military Commission formally made a decision: on the basis of the original leadership organ of the Chinese People's Public Security Force, it merged with the existing artillery units and personnel to manage the missile force and reorganized it as the second artillery leadership organ of the People's Liberation Army. At the same time, it was pointed out that this decision will be implemented as of July 1. Since then, July 1, 1966 has become the anniversary of the founding of the Second Artillery Corps of the Chinese People's Liberation Army.

Since the 1980s, there have been He Jinheng (1982-1985), Li Xuge (1985-1992), Yang Guoliang (1992-2003), Jing Zhiyuan (2003-2012), Wei Fenghe (2012-2017) He served as the commander of the Second Artillery (Rocket Army).

He Jinheng joined the army in 1938. He worked early in artillery. As one of the first generation of strategic missile forces, he served as chief of the second artillery staff, deputy commander, and commander.

Li Xuge took part in the revolutionary work in June 1943. In 1982, he was transferred to the Deputy Commander of the Second Artillery Corps from the War Department of the General Staff. In July 1985, he was appointed commander. In September 1988, he was awarded the rank of lieutenant general.

Yang Guoliang graduated from Beijing Aviation Academy with a major in missile design and was the first commander trained by the strategic missile force. He was promoted to the rank of general in March 1998 and was the first general of the Second Artillery Commander.

Jing Zhiyuan was the commander of the Second Artillery Base and chief of staff of the Second Artillery Base. He was directly promoted to the commander in early 2003. He entered the Central Military Commission in September 2004 and was promoted to the rank of general.

Wei Fenghe, the current member of the Central Military Commission, was born in March 1954. He is the youngest member of the Central Military Commission to date. He served as Chief of the Second Artillery Staff, Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the People ’s Liberation Army. Member of the Central Military Commission and promoted to the rank of general. After the military reform, he became the first commander of the Rocket Army.