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China-Russia drills entering third stage
By Sun Shangwu (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-08-22 05:58
In the second stage of the drill, which ends today, commanders made a decision to quickly deploy strategic forces in battle areas in order to deal with a common threat, according to Zhang, noting that the two armies will launch the third stage of the joint combat practice tomorrow.
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| Paratroopsers descend from transporter during the drills in Shandong on August 20, 2005. [newsphoto] |
The headquarters of the joint military manoeuvre, located in the commanding office of the PLA Navy's North Sea Fleet, is equipped with big maps, lines of computers, a large electronic display and a sand table showing the battlefield situation.
Chinese troops, including land forces, navy fleets, marine corps, air forces and airborne troops, started to move to the drill sites in late June and began their individual practices in mid-July.
Russian troops arrived in Shandong Peninsula and its nearby waters on August 9. These included soldiers and officers of the 76th Airborne Division, the 55th Marine Corps Division, air forces and the Pacific Fleet.
The Russian military hardware includes Il-76 military freighters, Il-78 aerial refuelling tanker aircraft, A-50 early warning radar aircraft, the strategic missile carrier Tu-95MS, the long-range bomber Tu-22M3, a frontline Su-24M2 bomber, an air defence interceptor Su-27SM, a large anti-submarine vessel, the Marshal Shaposhnikov, a destroyer, a large landing ship, a rescue towboat, a logistic support vessel and parachute combat cars.
Although PLA officers have not revealed the types of Chinese weapons involved, they said the hardware will be "advanced."
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