BEIJING, Mar. 12 -- Recently, a naval aviation brigade under the PLA Eastern Theater Command organized a force-on-force combat drill in complicated meteorological conditions.

Upon receiving the command from the tower, the aircraft took off in echelon formation.

In this drill, the start-stop time of the air battle was independently decided by the pilots according to their on-site judgment without specific time limitation, which is different from the previous drills.

The lead aircraft started the air battle upon receiving the mock enemy’s location from the wing aircraft, and tried to seek the fire opportunity through various tactical maneuvers. After stalemating for a short while, the pilot of the lead aircraft seized the chance to lock the mock enemy in the clouds and decisively fired.

After the air battle drill, pilots reviewed the command and coordination of the battle, exploring optimized tactics, in a bid to improve their all-weather combat capabilities.