Article Posted on : - Aug 21, 2014

Air combat drill: A Xinhua photo

BEIJING (PTI): Chinese naval and air forces will hold their first joint air combat drill with "opposition forces" pitting their personnel through realistic battle scenarios instead of scripted formats to improve war readiness amid China's maritime rows with its neighbours.

The drill would involve a naval aviation unit from the navy's East Sea Fleet and a star fighter jet unit from the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force, the military's PLA Daily official mouthpiece said.

The troops would conduct one-on-one confrontations and the forces would include the country's third-generation fighter jets, the most widely used model on the mainland, Hong Kong- based South China Morning Post reported on Wednesday.

The exercise aimed to break down barriers between the various wings of the PLA and would pave the way for more regular mixed-forces drills, it quoted PLA Daily as saying.

This is first time that PLA forces are exercising in realistic scenarios with "opposition forces".

Military observers said the PLA troops were training keeping each of the border scenarios in mind.

"China's military drills used to have a script - preplanned scenarios between the 'red army' and its pseudo opponent 'blue army'. And of course the 'red army' always wins," Macau-based military analyst Antony Wong Dong told the Post.

"Such air combat drills are very common in the United States, but China has been behind," he said.

The shift to combat drills echoes the directives of President Xi Jinping who has said repeatedly that the country's military exercises must operate more like real battles.

"Chinese pilots have not been in a real battle for decades. They have very long flying hours - the major criterion of their performance review, but fighting skills are their weakness," retired major general Xu Guangyu said.

"It will be too late to practise when the tensions escalate," he said.

Wong said the fighter jet unit taking part in the drill was likely from the Nanjing command, and the exercises were very likely to be carried out over the East China Sea.

"There's no doubt the drill is a warning to Japan, and even the US," he said.

In late July, massive delays hit key airports in the east of the country when the PLA carried out military drills in waters off the southeast coast.