By Li Yun and Xu Xiaolong
PEACE ARK, July 11 -- Chinese naval hospital ship Peace Ark, which is on the Harmonious Mission 2023, conducted anti-terrorism and anti-piracy drills in the Pacific Ocean on July 10, 2023.
The Peace Ark is China's first institutionalized ocean-going hospital ship independently designed and built by China. Captain Deng Qiang introduced that, unlike the naval combat ships, hospital ships do not have their own weapon platforms and often perform long-distance missions alone, so anti-terrorism and anti-piracy are very important training subjects for them.
During the exercise, the firepower team, the ammunition handling team, and the air strike team worked closely and effectively tested the actual combat strength of the hospital ship in anti-terrorism and anti-piracy operations.
The Peace Ark set sail from a military dock in Zhoushan, east China's Zhejiang Province, on July 3 to conduct Harmonious Mission 2023 in Kiribati, Tonga, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and Timor Leste. During the voyage, it has successively conducted training tasks such as sea and air rescue, outpatient medical services, surgical preparation and process simulation, and special training on emergency treatment capabilities.