On the 14th this month, the Chinese and Indian naval forces conducted a
joint search and rescue exercise at the East China Sea waters near Shanghai.
This was the first joint exercise held by the Chinese and Indian navies in
non-traditional security field.
In this exercise, the two parties conducted change of fleet formation,
switch of commanding relations, light and flag signals, high-frequency
communications, search and rescue of the ship in distress with helicopter,
fire-fighting and rapid evacuation of the wounded by helicopters, etc. The
commander-in-chief of the Chinese side is Rear Admiral Zhang Deshun, chief of
staff of the East China Sea Fleet, while commander-in-chief of the Indian side
is Rear Admiral R. P. Suthan, commander of the Indian Navy's Eastern Fleet. Four
naval ships and two helicopters and nearly a thousand officers and men from the
two sides were involved in the exercise.
At 15:50, the search and rescue exercise officially began. As soon as the
Chinese and Indian warships received the SOS signal from the "merchant ship" in
distress (mocked by the No. 882 warship of the Chinese navy), both the Chinese
and Indian warships sent helicopters to conduct air search of the ship in
distress. The No. 521 warship of the Chinese navy and D53 and P63 warships of
the Indian navy conducted search on the waters with the help of radar. When the
ship in distress was found, the three warships immediately moved forward at full
speed and occupied favorable positions for fire-fighting operation. At 17:05,
the fire was put out. Then, a helicopter on the D53 warship took off and flew to
the ship in distress to lift up the wounded and carried them to its mother ship.
Next, helicopter from the No. 521 warship successfully landed on the deck of the
ship in distress and carried the wounded to its mother ship.
The Indian naval fleet arrived in Shanghai for a friendly visit on November
10th and left Shanghai on 14th after the successful exercise.
By Wen Haiyan and Wu Hanyue
(November 17, PLA Daily)