PLA learn how to fight battles in military exercise

Foreign military students, and foreign military observers to watch "forward-2009A" exercise, exercise at night.

　　These military exercises serve as an explanation of the direction and new ideas of the military training reform of the PLA.

　　China’s 2009 military exercise high degree of openness is unprecedented. The Chinese army’s attitude towards the military exercises from undeclared shift gradually to take the initiative to publish.

　　In retrospection of the things related to the Chinese armed forces in 2009, the high-frequency military exercises are a conspicuous highlight. Up to the present, authoritative media in China have given public coverage of a total of 18 large-sized actual-force military exercises participated in by the Chinese troops in 2009.

　　One of the most important reasons for the appearances of so many military exercises in 2009 is that, behind the military exercises, an exploration of organizing trainings under actual-war conditions according to the new Outline of Military Training and Evaluation is going on in the whole armed forces from the general headquarters/departments of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) down to battalions and companies, the basic combat unit of the PLA.

　　Regularized military exercise contributes to entrenchment of battle effectiveness

　　Is there any way to test the battle effectiveness and the level of military training of the troops in time of peace? It’s obvious the military exercise is the best choice. Maybe the year of 2009 has become an important year in the process of military exercise regularization of the PLA.

　　Most of the military exercises held in 2009 were designed to be “confrontational”, “test-oriented” and “research-oriented”.

　　“Both the performances of our weapons and combat capabilities of the troops can be tested through exercises,” said a responsible person with the Military Training and Arms Department of the General Staff Headquarters (GSH) of the PLA.

　　Under the proposition of the GSH, regularization of military exercise has become a common view in the PLA. The simulated combat facilities developed by the Shijiazhuang Army Command College of the PLA were distributed and equipped to the combined tactical training base of each military area command and the on-spot exercise assessment system also witnessed times of upgrading. All military area commands also set up a professional “Blue Army” as the “whetstone”.

　　In the “Victory 2009” actual-troop confrontation exercise, the “Red Army” and the “Blue Army” were acted respectively by an armored brigade and an infantry brigade. “I don’t think any of the brigade commanders wants to admit failure,” said a responsible officer with the Military Training and Arms Department of the Nanjing Military Area Command (MAC) of the PLA.

　　In “Firepower 2009” live-shell research-oriented exercise of artillery aerial defense force, 7 basic battling methods and 17 basic fighting methods of the artillery aerial defense force were tested in practice.

　　In the “Stride 2009” trans-MAC series military exercise which lasted for several months, more than 50,000 servicemen from 4 main divisions under 4 MACs and air force and army aviation units underwent the test of long-distance maneuver, complicated electromagnetic environment and all-domain combat ability in an all-round way.

　　In fact, such series of military exercises as the “Queshan” and “Iron Fist” exercises held by the Jinan MAC for several consecutive years have become an important way of the Jinan MAC to test the battle effectiveness of the troops.

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