2. Strategic Support Force
PLA Strategic Support Force (PLASSF) was created in December 2015 as a part of China’s military organisational reform. It is a theatre level force and an independent service arm under control of CMC, but not a full service branch like PLARF. It is responsible for PLA’s electronic, space, psychological and electronic warfare missions. The force is led by an officer of Lt General rank. One former PLA officer and professor at PLARF’s Equipment Research Laboratory stated that it is an independent military service, rather than a “military branch”. He stated that it has/will have 3 force types, cyber force of hackers focusing on attack and defence, EW force jamming and disrupting enemy radar & comms and space force focusing on recon and comm satellites.
Some of the tasks performed by older departments have been consolidated in to this branch. For example, space related tasks performed by General Supply Department (GSD) and General Armament Department (GAD) and now the responsibility of Space Systems Department (SSD). It is a bit curious to see that PLAAF and PLARF have not been entrusted with this responsibility. It may have been inspired by USA’s Rocket Force organisation, but it is just my personal speculation at this point. The whole process of reorganisation is still going on and things may become clearer in time.
One thing is quite obvious that the Chinese have not created new organisations from scratch but reused the existing human resources and bureaucracy in new command structures. Current organisational structure seems to be on a “bases” structure. These bases existed before 2015 too and have been transferred to SSF with most of previous assets as it is. Their MUCDs range from 32001 to 32099.
 PLA SSF Badge |  SSF Arm patch |
As of now, SSF seems to have following departments:
- Network Systems Department: It is tasked with various aspects of information warfare which includes technical espionage, electronic intelligence electronic warfare and psychological warfare. Its assets include signals intelligence bureaus, technical reconnaissance bases (perhaps in joint operations with theatre command) and research institutes.
It has 3 sub-departments:
i. Technical Reconnaissance Bureau: It supposedly has 1st, 2nd and 3rd Bureau.
ii.ECM Bureau: It is responsible for electronic warfare missions with three departments, Air Defence ECM Brigade (Beidaihe), ECM Brigade (Langfang) and ECM Satellite Station (Beijing)
iii. Research Institutes: There are 4 research institutes, 54th, 56th, 57th and 58th,
- Space Systems Department: It is responsible for all military space operations including surveillance, space warfare, telemetry, tracking & control. It also operates some tracking, telemetry and command stations overseas in Argentina, Pakistan and Namibia. SSD’s other assets include support ships such as Yuan Wang that track ICBM and satellite launches.
SSD and NSD function under a common HQ of Staff Department and may have a few common assets. Apart from that, they work independently of each other for most part. Strategic intelligence gathering and space weaponry & recon may have some mission overlap due to their shared use of satellites. Keeping separate satellites for both departments which have the same larger purpose will be quite a waste of resources.
Organisational Structure
So far it seems that SSF has following organisational structure:
- Four departments, namely Staff, Equipment, Political Work and Logistics.
- Common command for NSD and SSD with some operational overlap.
- NSD and SSD have their own administrative HQs & infrastructure for their respective specialised mission sets.
- Under direct control of CMC.
Space Centres
Most of Chinese commercial space related projects were under command of China Satellite Launch and Tracking General (CLTC). Presumably, all of its assets were transferred to SSD after reorganisation. In addition to bases listed below, China also operates a fleet of 6 Yuan Wang tracking ships.
| Space Centre | MUCD | LAT | LONG | PURPOSE |
| Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre/Base 20 | 63600 | 40°59’10.57″N | 100°12’56.60″E | Human flight |
| Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre/Base 25 | 63710 | 38°50’48.91″N | 111°36’34.20″E | Remote sensing, meteorological & comms |
| Xichang Satellite Launch Centre/Base 27 | 63790 | 28°14’44.14″N | 102° 1’48.59″E | Broadcast, comms and meteorological |
| Wenchang Satellite Launch Centre | 19°36’54.73″N | 110°57’3.57″E | Broadcast, comms and meteorological | |
| Beijing Aerospace Flight Control Centre | Satellite monitoring, telemetry & tracking | |||
| Xi’an Satellite Control Centre /Base 26 | 63750 | Training, satellite monitoring, telemetry & tracking | ||
| China Satellite Maritime Tracking and Control Department/ Base 23 | 63680 | Testing and Training Base | ||
| Satellite Communications Main Station | 61096 | |||
| Satellite Positioning Main Station/Base 35 | ||||
| Aerospace Reconnaissance Bureau | 61646 | |||
| Changchun tracking station | Tracking station | |||
| Guiyang tracking station | Tracking station | |||
| Khashi tracking station | Tracking station | |||
| Minxi tracking station | Tracking station | |||
| Nanning tracking station | Tracking station | |||
| Weinan tracking station | Tracking station | |||
| Xiamen tracking station | Tracking station | |||
| Yilan tracking station | Tracking station | |||
| Yuan Wang tracking ship | 6 tracking ships | |||
| Dongfeng Station | ||||
| Hetian | ||||
| Jiamusi / Jia linhai Station | ||||
| Lushan station | ||||
| Nanhai Station | ||||
| Qingdao Station | ||||
| Tianshan station | ||||
| Zhanyi Station |
TABLE: Space Launch & Control Assets under SSD
| Space Centre | MUCD | LAT | LONG | PURPOSE |
| Argentina – Neuquén Station | Tracking station | |||
| Australia – Dongara | Tracking station | |||
| Chile – Santiago Station | Tracking station | |||
| Kenya – Malindi Station | Tracking station | |||
| Kiribati – South Tarawa Island | Tracking station | |||
| Namibia – Swakopmund | Tracking station | |||
| Pakistan – Karachi + Lahore Stations | Tracking station | |||
| Sweden – Kiruna | Tracking station |
TABLE: Chinese Overseas Tracking Stations
| Name | MUCD | LAT | LONG | PURPOSE |
| Aerospace Engineering University | Primary education & training institution for space command, training and mgmt | |||
| China Astronauts Group | Managing Chinese astronauts | |||
| Beijing Institute of Tracking and Communication Technology | R&D on space C4ISR | |||
| Aerodynamics Research and Development Centre | 63820 | Aerodynamics R&D | ||
| Aerospace Research Development Centre | ||||
| Engineering Design Institute | ||||
| China Nuclear Test Base/29th Base | 63650 | Nuclear science, radiation and directed energy weapons |
Yuan Wang tracking ship