By Geoffrey Grider
FROM THE SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST: The People’s Liberation Army has mobilized aircraft from different theatre commands to take part in an “island encirclement patrol” near Taiwan, which experts said could signal a new strategy to prepare for regional military conflicts. The aircraft drills coincided with joint sea and air training conducted by the PLA’s Shandong aircraft carrier in the western Pacific Ocean since early this week. According to earlier reports it involved a total of 42 naval ships from the Eastern and Southern Theatre Commands.
A post on the Eastern Theatre Command’s WeChat account said its pilots and ground crews were taking part in long-distance, cross-theatre exercises to practice landing and taking off from unfamiliar airports.
Without saying when the drills took place, the post said the pilots had spent more than 10 hours conducting non-stop flights.
Pictures on the social media platform showed fighter jets such as the J-10, J-16 and Su-30 flying at night and during the day, while drills covered operations such as repairs, refueling, weapon replacement and emergency response.
Zhou Chenming, a researcher from the Beijing-based Yuan Wang military science and technology think tank, said the fighter jets involved in the drill would also take part in Beijing’s regular ‘island encirclement patrol’ near Taiwan.
“Like the island encirclement patrol, cross-theatre drills have become routine, taking place in the Taiwan Strait and western Pacific, which is part of combat-readiness training to prepare for the outbreak of a Taiwan contingency,” Zhou said.
Zhou said mobilizing different forces from its theatre commands would put the PLA at an advantage when dealing with potential challenges from joint US-Japan forces.
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