Fighter jets attached to an aviation brigade with the air force under the Chinese PLA Eastern Theater Command taxi on the runway in line to get ready for a long-distance flight training exercise on August 9, 2024. (Photo: eng.chinamil.com.cn)
It has become routine for aviation forces from the army, navy and air force of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Eastern Theater Command to share airfields in trainings, with a Chinese military expert saying on Tuesday that such resource sharing and joint logistics support is vital to combat capability in cross-service joint operations.
The PLA Eastern Theater Command has pooled its resources for combat exercises and built "joint training domains," enabling aviation forces of its army, navy and air force to routinely share airfields in drills, the PLA Daily reported on Tuesday in a frontpage story.
Dozens of military airfields of the theater command are open to all units of different services, and hundreds of training grounds have achieved information sharing and open co-utilization, according to the report.
The PLA Daily named a few examples of airfield sharing.
In a recent joint exercise at an undisclosed air force base, multiple types of military aircraft from the army, navy and air force received coordination orders, took off, landed and received maintenance at the same airfield.
In another cross-service joint exercise, warships of the navy acted as mobile maritime airfields and coordinated with an army aviation fleet in a mission. An army pilot completed replenishment on a vessel, allowing for multiple waves of simulated strikes in a short period at high efficiency.
Shortly after an army airfield was newly built, a vessel-based aircraft unit from the navy and a drone unit from another army branch were deployed to the location for simultaneous training.
Within the theater's operational airspace, pilots now have more flexibility in choosing their takeoff and landing points, allowing them to carry out missions with greater ease and composure, the PLA Daily said.
Airfield sharing required upgrades in support capabilities. At an air force base, nearly 70 percent of troops are now capable of carrying out maintenance for multiple types of aircraft, and more than 10 types of equipment were customized so they can support more types of aircraft, according to the report.
"Since the implementation of the joint sharing mechanism for combat training resources, the spatial distances and institutional barriers between the various military services have gradually diminished. The contribution rate of these combat training resources to combat preparedness has been continuously increasing," the PLA Daily quoted a pilot as saying.
Song Zhongping, a Chinese military expert, told the Global Times on Tuesday that different military services and branches used to have differences in command systems, coordination mechanisms and support equipment. Achieving joint operations is key in addressing these issues.
In addition to training exercises, airfields are often among top targets to be attacked in real combat, so it is also important that different military services and branches can share airfields in case their own airfields are damaged, Song said.
Song stressed joint logistics support as a key aspect of combat. It means that different military services should be able to provide logistics support for each other, and that true joint operations should feature resource sharing and joint logistics support, so as to generate core combat and support capabilities.