China to Reorganize Over Half of Ground Forces to Form Smaller Divisions

China plans to reorganize over half of its army’s 1.55-million ground troops in a bid to make the forces more agile.

BEIJING (Sputnik) – According to the South China Morning Post, 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.

"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 told the paper.

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

The reports come amid a campaign to modernize the Chinese army launched by President Xi Jinping 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.