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PLA Rocket Force Headquarters

On December 31, 2015, the People's Liberation Army Rocket Force was formally established. Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, chairman of the country, and chairman of the Central Military Commission, conferred the military flag and gave a speech. He pointed out that the establishment of the Rocket Force is a major decision made by the Party Central Committee and the Central Military Commission with a view to realizing the dream of a strong military in China.

On April 18, 2017, Xi Jinping , General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee , State President , and Chairman of the Central Military Commission, received the chief officers of the newly adjusted 84 military units in the Bayi Building in Beijing, and issued instructions to each unit; members of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, Xu Qiliang, Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission, read out the Central Military Commission ’s order and decision issued by Chairman Xi Jinping regarding the adjustment of the formation of military arms and units and the military-level units of the provincial military district system.

The People's Liberation Army Rocket Force is the core force of China's strategic deterrence. It is mainly responsible for containing other countries' use of nuclear weapons against China, carrying out nuclear counterattacks, and conventional missile precision strikes. It consists of nuclear missile forces, conventional missile forces, and combat support forces. The People's Liberation Army Rocket Force administers missile bases, training bases, professional support forces, colleges, and scientific research institutions. It is currently equipped with Dongfeng series ballistic missiles and long sword cruise missiles.

The People's Liberation Army Rocket Force maintains a moderate alert state at all times, and builds a system of elemental integration, complete functions, and a sensitive and efficient combat duty system in accordance with the principles of combination of peace and war, unremitting standing, and ability to fight at any time.

In accordance with the principle of being capable and effective, the People's Liberation Army Rocket Force has accelerated the transformation of informatization, relied on scientific and technological progress to promote independent innovation of weapons and equipment, used mature technologies to focus on and selectively improve existing equipment, and improved the safety, reliability, and effectiveness of missile weapons. It has mproved the strength system that has both nuclear and routine capabilities, enhance rapid response, effective penetration, precision strikes, comprehensive damage and survival protection capabilities, and strategic deterrence and nuclear counterattacks, and conventional precision strike capabilities have steadily improved.

The Second Artillery Leadership Organization was located in Qinghe, Beijing. It has a headquarters, political department, logistics department, and equipment department. The basic organizational level under it is bases, brigades, and battalions. There are also engineering forces, logistics support forces, research institutes, 4 educational institutions. There is also a preparatory underground command post located in Taibai, Shaanxi Province. There are three known second artillery test and training bases, namely Wuwei in Gansu, Shuangcheng and Wuzhai in Shanxi.

Second Artillery Corps typical conventional missile brigade includes 1 motorized command post, 1 warehouse, 1 a shipping station, several pre-launch site and through the investigation of a number of preparatory launch site. Brigade subordinates have 3-4 launch battalions, and each battalion has 3-4 launch companies. Depending on the missile model, each company may have 3-4 platoons. Each company or platoon deploys at least one launch vehicle, one power supply vehicle, one mapping vehicle, one communications command vehicle and one missile transport vehicle. The entire missile brigade is equipped with approximately 27-64 missile launch vehicles. Different missile brigades have different arrangements according to the performance of the missiles. Basically, each missile brigade has a 3-3 system, a 3-3-3 system, or a 4-4 system. 3-3 system has 9 missile launchers, 3-3-3 system has 27 launchers, 4-4 system has 16 launchers.