On this day, 27 years ago, on April 3, 1998 (March 7, 1998, the People's Liberation Army established the General Armament Department. On April 3, 1998, the Central Military Commission decided to establish the General Armament Department of the People's Liberation Army, which will be fully responsible for the centralized and unified leadership of the entire army's weapons and equipment construction and promote national defense and military modernization. On January 8, 1999, when Jiang Zemin, General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee, President of the State, and Chairman of the Central Military Commission, met with representatives attending the first enlarged meeting of the Party Committee of the General Armament Department, he said that my country's national defense science and technology and weapons and equipment construction has gone through more than 40 years of glorious history. In the past, under such difficult conditions, we created "two bombs and one satellite", laying an important foundation for ensuring national security and improving my country's international status. Now that our economic strength, scientific and technological level and industrial foundation have been greatly developed, and the equipment management system has been basically straightened out. Compared with the past, conditions have been greatly improved. We should have the confidence to create new and greater results. The high-tech development of military weapons and equipment is an important trend in military development in today's world. my country's national defense and military modernization are facing rare opportunities and severe challenges. The development of national defense science and technology and weapons and equipment is an important indicator of national defense strength and is extremely important to a country and a military. Chairman Jiang emphasized that we must fight based on existing equipment and build the confidence to defeat enemies with superior equipment with inferior equipment. At the same time, we must also strengthen the construction of weapons and equipment, strive to improve the high-tech content of weapons and equipment and enhance the material and technological foundation for coping with future high-tech wars. We are determined to establish the General Armament Department, adjust and reform the weapons and equipment management system, and strengthen centralized and unified leadership in weapons and equipment construction. This is to meet the challenges of world military transformation and accelerate the pace of modernization of our military's weapons and equipment. Chairman Jiang hopes that the General Armament Department will conscientiously implement the military strategic principles for the new era, adhere to the modernization of weapons and equipment as the center, focus on the development of new weapons and equipment with one hand, and manage existing weapons and equipment with the other, so as to create a new situation in the construction of our military's weapons and equipment as soon as possible. It is necessary to concentrate our efforts to do big things, quickly gather necessary human, financial and material resources, and form unified command, unified dispatch, division of labor and cooperation, and work together to improve our army's combat capabilities under high-tech conditions. The first director of the General Armament Department was General Cao Gangchuan and Political Commissar Li Jinai.