Editing People's Liberation Army Navy (section)

====PLAN Coastal Defense Force====
{{Main|People's Liberation Army Navy Coastal Defense Force}}
The PLAN Coastal Defence Force is a land-based branch of the PLAN in charge of [[coastal defence and fortification|coastal defence]],{{citation needed|date=February 2023}} with a strength of around 25,000 personnel. Also known as the coastal defense troops, they serve to defend China's coastal and [[littoral]] areas from invasion via [[landing operation|amphibious landing]]s or [[Airstrike|air attacks]].

Between the 1950s and 1960s, the Coastal Defense Force was primarily assigned to repel any [[Kuomintang]] attempts to infiltrate, invade and harass the Chinese coastline.  After the [[Sino-Soviet split]] and the abandonment of [[Project National Glory|KMT's plans to recapture the Mainland]], the Coastal Defense Force was focused on defending China's coast from a possible [[Soviet]] sea-borne invasion throughout the 1960s to 1980s.

With the [[fall of the Soviet Union]], the threat of an amphibious invasion of China has diminished and therefore the branch is often considered to no longer be a vital component of the PLAN, especially as the surface warships of the PLAN continue to improve in terms of anti-ship and air-defence capabilities and the PLAN's [[power projection]] begins to extend beyond the [[first island chain]].

Today the primary weapons of the coastal defense troops are the [[YJ-62]], [[YJ-18]], [[YJ-12]], and [[C-602]] anti-ship missiles, plus [[Surface-to-air missile|SAM]] and [[Short range air defense|SHORAD]] batteries.