Our friend Martin Andrew, an Aussie who compiles a monthly newsletter on Chinese military developments, had an interesting tidbit in his latest post about the PLAN's Marine forces.
Andrew analyzes open source Chinese military papers and articles from publications in English and Chinese and he tells us that China's Marines are made up of two brigades, each with three battalions. They also have an artillery support battalion and used to have an armored battalion but that was recently scrapped since the development of the new ZBD 05 amphibious fighting vehicle (their answer to the EFV).
But these marine battalions are supported by special operations forces who do the old-school SEAL mission of beach recon for amphibious assault. But check out the pic of the SinoSEAL. We're digging the K-Bar in his mouth and the trigger discipline of his compadre.
How soon will these guys be sporting a MultiCam knockoff?
