The PLA’s Progress toward World-Class Ground Force Capabilities

Executive Summary

MAIN ARGUMENT

Over the past decade, the PLA has increasingly recognized the need to harness emergent technologies and develop a ground force capable of contributing to the joint force in future campaigns by leveraging capabilities in multiple domains. This operational concept has been coined “all-domain operations.” The PLA’s ability to realize “world-class” status in the land domain is indivisible from its ability to conduct all-domain operations. To this end, the PLA has acquired new weapon systems and developed technologies that will equip its ground forces with all-domain capabilities, while using real-world deployments, unique organizational constructs, and training exercises to better prepare these forces for future conflicts in complex all-domain operational environments. Given these trends, PLA ground forces are very likely to develop all-domain operational capabilities by 2049 and thus achieve world-class status.

POLICY IMPLICATIONS

• The PLA is building ground forces that emphasize contributing offensive and defensive actions across all domains. If these forces can integrate artificial intelligence and quantum technologies into modern all-domain weapon systems, they will be capable of rapidly supporting integrated joint operations in the Indo-Pacific.
• As the PLA continues to adapt and deploy active ground forces to complex littoral and mountainous regions, its units will maintain advantages against peer adversaries in those complex environments.
• The PLA’s ground forces are rapidly fielding world-class weapons; intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance systems; and mobility platforms designed to gain an operational advantage over adversaries during amphibious and mountain operations.

Joshua Arostegui is the Chair of China Studies and Research Director of the China Landpower Studies Center at the U.S. Army War College Strategic Studies Institute.

Jake Vartanian is a Military Forces Analyst in the China Landpower Studies Center at the U.S. Army War College Strategic Studies Institute.