Aircraft of an aviation unit of the Nanjing Military Area
Command on combat readiness duty during the Spring Festival
Photo by
Ben Daochun
The fighters doing the loops and rolls at 10,000m over the sea suddenly
swooped down in high-speed dive to less than 100m before they skimmed above the
sea waves. This is a spectacular scene the reporters saw recently at an exercise
staged over the sea by a fighter regiment of the air force of the Nanjing
Military Area Command.
In future air battles over the sea, the air fleet on long-range raid
mission is easy to be picked up by "enemy" radars. In view of this fact, this
regiment has, in its training, prioritized "stealth" drill of its fighter planes
and pilots under complex electromagnetic environment, and on the basis of
skillfully grasping ultra low-altitude flying technique, the pilots were also
required to study and drill on penetration tactics so as to gradually build up
the ultra low-altitude, long-duration and long-range penetration capability of
its fighter formations.
With this objective in mind, this regiment has intensified the ultra
low-altitude flying training since the kick-off of the annual training program
this year. So far it has organized confrontational exercises in partnership with
radar troops, and also organized emergency ferrying flight, maximum range flight
and maximum combat radius flight in strange air spaces in raining and foggy days
or other changeable weather conditions. In this way it has effectively boosted
the long-range trans-regional mobile operational capability of its troops.
By Si Yanwen and Wang Shijun
(Feb 25, PLA Daily)