PLA continues military drills around Taiwan

A soldier looks through binoculars during combat exercises and training of the Navy of the Eastern Theater Command of the Chinese People's Liberation Army in the waters around Taiwan Island on Aug 5, 2022. LIN JIAN XINHUA NANJING The Eastern Theater Command of the Chinese People's Liberation Army continued its joint combat training exercises as scheduled on Sunday in the waters and airspace around the Taiwan Island.

On Sunday, the focus was on testing the capabilities of using joint fires to strike land targets and long-range air targets.

The air force under theater command deployed multiple types of warplanes, including early warning aircraft, bombers, fighter-bombers and fighter jets, to conduct drills on such combat missions as joint reconnaissance, airspace control operation, strikes on ground targets, air support and cover.

Air strike forces, together with long-range multiple launch rocket systems and conventional missile troops, conducted drills of joint precision strikes on targets, supported by naval and air combat systems.

Multiple bomber formations flew over the Taiwan Strait from north to south and south to north, while several fighter jets conducted joint drills with destroyers and frigates.

Zhang Zhi, an air force officer at the PLA Eastern Theater Command, said the operation had tested the tactics of systems warfare under information-based conditions, and improved the capabilities to destroy crucial island targets with precision strikes.