Second Artillery Corps

Broad area of activity

Chinese territory

Notable history

Raised on 1 July 1966 and given a deliberately obscure name — "Second Artillery" said nothing about what it held — the corps was China's land-based nuclear and, later, conventional missile organisation for forty-nine years. Its standing was a branch rather than a service, which meant it did not sit at the same institutional level as the army, navy and air force. On 31 December 2015, in the same round of reforms that created the theatre commands and the Strategic Support Force, it was redesignated the PLA Rocket Force and raised to full service status. That elevation is the fact this record exists to carry: it is the clearest single indicator of where the PLA reforms placed missile forces in the hierarchy, and it is routinely used as such in published assessment.

Strengths

Not applicable to a superseded organisation; the record exists to date a change of institutional standing, not to assess a capability.

Limitations

Sources published before 2016 describe this organisation, not the Rocket Force, and the two are not interchangeable for claims about standing, subordination or remit. Vigil publishes no inventories, no bases, no deployments, no ranges and no employment concepts for either the historical branch or its successor.

Lineage & institutional history

Formed 1966-07-01Reorganised 2015-12-31

Successors: PLA Rocket Force

A branch under the Central Military Commission with the standing of a service arm rather than a service, from its establishment in July 1966 until it was redesignated the PLA Rocket Force on 31 December 2015.

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