China To Form Smaller Divisions Of Ground Forces

China has considered reorganizing over half of its army’s 1.55 million ground troops in a bid to make the forces more rapid.

Some of the existing 18 Army Corps, each of which consists of 30,000-100,000 troops, will be turned into 25 to 30 smaller divisions, the South China Morning Post reported.

"This is a main trend in modern warfare. Even the Russian army has tried to learn from the US army by reducing the size of their troops, making land forces become more nimble and quick-response," a retired senior colonel said.

The Soviet model of organizing army corps currently intact with the People’s Liberation Army does not suit to the demands of modern warfare, the retired colonel added.

The reports have been released amid a President Xi Jinping’s campaign to modernize the Chinese army launched by earlier this year.

A 2015 Chinese defense white paper has stressed the need to build smaller, multifunctional and modular units within the army to make it more nimble.