One of our translators just found an article from the 24 July 2017 Kongjun Bao about an Eastern Theater Command Air Force air brigade that has a Staff Department instead of a Headquarters Department.
So it looks like the change has gone down to at least the division and brigade levels now, which means there are also most likely Political Work Departments instead of Political Departments. The next level is to see if regiments have also changed to Staff Departments and Political Work Divisions (处).
This article examined an Eastern Theater Command Air Force air brigade’s efforts in improving training organization capabilities independently (独立组训能力) under the PLAAF's new "base-brigade" (基地—旅) command structure. Tan Shengfang (谭胜芳), a staff officer (参谋) from the brigade’s Staff Department’s Operations and Training Office (旅参谋部作训科),
For a copy of this article, or more information, please contact the CASI Director of Research, Ken Allen at kenneth.w.allen.civ@gc.ndu.edu